Twitter 101

This may seem basic but it’s the basics that I’m seeing brands get wrong so I figure let’s go back to Twitter school and learn the basics.

How many characters in a tweet?

This may seem obvious but here goes… 140 characters.

I advise keeping your character limit down to 100 – 120. As this will allow users to RT your content and add there own spin about your tweet.

It’s a fine art, but the more practise you get, you’ll find it quite refreshing to write less.

What’s a @mention?

This happens when someone in your community @mentions you in their tweet.

This can be done two (2) ways:

1. @mention then tweet copy
2. tweet copy then @mention

The difference between the two is simple. If there’s no tweet copy before the @mention then only users that follow both you and the tweeter will see the post. If there’s tweet copy before the @mention then it’s a public tweet and everyone following the tweeter will see this.

Regardless of which of the two options are used above, you as the brand have been directly mentioned and this needs to be acknowledged by you. You will need to respond with a @reply, RT or if it doesn’t warrant one of those ‘favouriting’ the tweet should be used (this is like liking a post on Facebook).

A mistake I see a lot is when brands want to @mention a celeb or another brand but they @mention them with no tweet copy before the @mention. Be mindful of this and make sure you put tweet copy before the @mention so everyone that follows you see’s the tweet.

What’s a @reply?

Like @mentions, @replies work in the same way. If there are characters before the @reply then everyone who is following you will see the tweet.

So if you want your tweet to be a conversation between the two of you, we suggest using no characters before the @reply. However if you want everyone to see your conversation, be sure to put characters before your tweet.

Example: Only People following SportsGirl and @madz316 will see this tweet.

Example: Everyone following SportsGirl will see this tweet.

What’s a RT?

This stands for retweet and is used by brands and users to share content. Much like Facebook, this is one of the most valued actions a user can take when you post content.

The aim of all of your tweets should be to get as many RT’s as possible.

What’s a DM?

This stands for Direct Message, like Facebook it’s a private message between you and the user. The kicker here is you can only DM a user if you follow them and they follow you.

This is typically used when resolving an sensitive issue (negative feedback, complaints etc).

…