Twitter: The Art of 140 Characters

The biggest test of any word wizard is to condense lengthy advertising rhetoric into a neat bite-size little tweet while still delivering the overall message. Twitter is a marketing platform that can allow you to reach followers almost immediately.  This can be wonderful if the purpose of Twitter marketing is instant updates on special events or announcing “flash-sales”.  However, the average frequency of these types of scenarios pales in comparison to the number of tweets you must use to engage followers and entice new ones.  So here are the looming questions, “What should I say when it’s not big news and how can I keep it short AND interesting?”  Not to fear, I have suggestions and — duh-duh-da-duh — EXAMPLES!

One type of tweet that can keep your followers interested would be a tweet about your industry or an industry-related topic. It doesn’t have to be “new” information; it just has to be relevant to you.  Let’s say you own a flower shop, you are not always going to have exciting new flowers or a sale to promote, so to keep interest with your followers you tweet:

@flowershop1 – “Fashion week trends have set the mood for hot flowers of the season – stop by #1 Flower Shop today for exotics in oranges, reds and greens!”

This brings current information that would interest people aside from the happy horticulturists that are already visiting your shop.  Here’s another approach you can take to grab some potential customers that are nearby without having to discount merchandise and sale away your profits:

@furniture4U – “Rain’s on the way, stop by quick to see our comfy chairs and TV stands to make tonight’s storm a fun night in rather than a dreary night out.”

Giving potential customers the weather report might make more pay attention to your tweet (at least read it) and encourage them to check out what you have to offer.  Above all else, keep your information current. No one will un-follow you quicker than if you’re talking about something that has been talked about and tweeted about for months already. The best idea is to just have fun and enjoy what you are saying, because hopefully potential customers will too.