11 ways you can tweet better

Thursday, 19 December 2013

Imitation is not only the highest form of flattery: it makes sense if you want to get the most out of your Tweets.

Here — in no particular order — are some innovative strategies used in 2013 that you can employ to grow your follower base, increase engagement and provide useful and interesting information.

1. Use a hashtag to drive the conversation

Fans all over the world took to Twitter to say #ThankYouSachin, honoring cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) as he finished his storied 24-year career. Read more…

NFL Fandom launched its first hashtag battle prior to an October 17 game, encouraging fans to choose a winner by tweeting #SeahawksTNF or #CardinalsTNF. Read more…

2. Organize a live event using Twitter

For the launch of the rocket MAVEN to Mars, NASA brought together a group of highly engaged and active fans who served as beat reporters at Kennedy Space Center. They built buzz before the launch and were among those who reported it live on Twitter. Read more…

3. Tweet the past as if it were the present

For established news organizations with extensive archives of photos and news pages, an anniversary is a good reason give new life to original content. That’s what @Newsweek did when it live-tweeted the entire Kennedy presidency from his election to assassination. Read more…

And using that innovation as inspiration, @Army_Navy_Game live-tweeted the historic 1963 Army-Navy football match complete with play-by-play, videos and photos on its 50th anniversary. Read more…


4. Have a celebrity take over your account

For their first-ever account takeover, the @Ravens recruited one of their most famous fans, 22-time Olympic medalist @MichaelPhelps, to live-tweet a game against the @Vikings. Read more…

Vin Scully took over @Dodgers for a “tweetcast” during the Dodgers-Yankees series in June, bringing fans his voice despite the fact that he didn’t travel with the team to New York. Read more…

5. Join the conversation where it takes place

Finding out where the conversation on Twitter is taking place is an important part of tweeting better. In this example, instead of just asking for questions in a live Q&A session, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan took part in a pre-existing debate with a group of education experts and received record-breaking personal mentions. Read more…

6. You ask the questions

As smooth as he is on the court, @rogerfederer may be even smoother on Twitter. The tennis superstar held a Twitter Q&A and enjoyed it so much that he did it again, but this time he asked the questions and let his fans answer. Read more…

7. Live-tweet a breaking news event

When Asiana Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport (@flySFO) on July 6, the National Transportation Safety Board (@NTSB) explained its investigation process as it unfolded via Tweets. Read more…

As news of the Washington Navy Yard shooting began to spread on September 16, the @USNavy kept the facts straight on Twitter during a fast-moving situation. Read more…

8. Team up with the co-stars and use hashtags to drive fans to a TV show

Scandal’s network-run account (@ScandalABC) undertook an aggressive strategy to amass and rally fans on Twitter using specific hashtags to drive them to the live airing. Read more…

The cast and crew @Nashville_ABC decided to make an event of their live-tweeted October 23 episode: they rented a bus, toured the city of Nashville, met fans, and of course, tweeted often. Read more…

9. Use Vine videos

We embarked on an analysis of Twitter strategies for a select group of @MLB baseball teams. While every method of live-tweeting resulted in more Retweets, Tweets containing Vine videos received the most Retweets, mentions and favorites. Read more…

10. Use a custom timeline to curate the best content

Custom timelines let you curate a selection of Tweets chosen by you, to connect your followers with the best Twitter conversation around any subject. And some of our most innovative users have already started to build them — such as The Voice host @CarsonDaly, who curated his own timeline of the top Tweets about the show’s dramatic #VoiceSave live Twitter vote. Read more…

11. Voting and displaying on air

ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) had fans vote for the #PlayoftheYear. @ESPNCFB tweeted the instructions and list of hashtags and showed them on air. Read more…

The talent on @NBAonTNT did a 100-meter race. Beforehand, however, they polled fans as to who would win — and come last.

Looking for more best practice examples? Check out our website: media.twitter.com.