Blogging Basics – Tweet With Style
Style Matters
Style matters when you tweet – making it look good can be a game changer!
Most bloggers want their posts to stand out and become a shining example of whatever topic they are writing about. If a blogger wants their message heard, amplification is the name of the game. When I began blogging I immediately began reading everything I could find on what amplification is and how it works.
Amplification:
A statement, idea or narrative expanded beyond your website.
The basic idea of using various amplification techniques is to help get your message into the “sight” of more people.
Twitter is one of my favorite amplification tools but a tweet does not do any good if no one ever reads it. Any blogger knows that there is never-ending stream of tweets. Learning to use twitter effectively is one of the blogging basics.
Tweet, Tweets and More Tweets
1. Hash Tags – When I post a tweet, I generally will use hash tags (#). A hash tag is one way that helps to categorize a tweet and helps others when they are doing a search on twitter.
(a.) Best practice is to have no more that two hash tags per post (I occasionally will use 3 but they will be at the end of the post not in the post)
(b.) A blogger needs to think about the key idea or what the post is about when deciding on the words they want to use with the hash tags.
Example of tweets using hash tags:
Blogging Basics – Tweet With Style via @dadblunder #twitter #blogging
or
Stereotypes – Good or Bad? via @dadblunder #tolerance #stereotype
Note: Not everyone likes hash tags but it is the easiest way to manage and categorize tweets (when not over used by an individual)
2. Length - If a blogger wants their tweets amplified they need to think about the length of their tweets. The maximum length for any tweet is 140 characters. The best practice is to keep your tweets around 120 characters, which will leave plenty of room for others to retweet and still leave a short comment on it.
3. Title – The title of your blog post is probably the single most important thing a blogger will tweet. A title should be “catchy” and have some key words in it. (I am not discussing SEO and keywords in this post)
4. Sharing – Many times a blogger will want to share something they have read on another blog. Whenever I share something for anyone I add a short message to show its relevance to others. I will write a message like this; <<message>> or <message>. The message I add shows others that I have read the post (and that I am not using just automated tweets).
Examples of tweets with short message:
<<Speed matters>> Dragon Dictation – The fastest way to post on Facebook and Twitter via @churchillls
or
Diamonds In Your Own Back Yard – via @gingerconsult <Connecting local is a must>
5. Twitter Apps - Any post that a blogger writes becomes time sensitive. Most of the traffic that any blog will receive for a new post is in the first 48 hours (after the post goes live). TweetCaster, Tweetdeck and HootSuite are three of the best applications available for Android and I-Phone that allow users to use their phones to tweet and stay on top of their post anywhere they go.
As bloggers we can amplify our posts in many ways. Learning about all the various ways we can amplify our posts can help make our posts stand out and have others to read it.
Learn to Amplify
1. Sharing - Sharing is where we offer other people different ways to share our post from your site. (I use the “Share This” plug-in on my site).
2. Triberr - Join triberr and have others amplify your work through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Triberr is a blog amplification platform that can help any blogger.
3. Guest Post - Many blogs offer others the chance to guest post. Some guest post opportunities will allow link backs to your site or an article (possibly the article you want amplified).
4. Commenting - Many sites allow you leave a comment and a link back to a particular post or article. The link back becomes even more effective if you are commenting on a post that is related to the article you want to link back. (see Blogging Basics – The Benefits of Value Commenting)
I began the blogging basics series to help others think about ways they might use their blogs and social media to the full advantage. It is easy to forget little details when we are in a hurry to finish a post. If we take the extra time in all the “small” details it will help any post live up to its full potential.
Twitter is my favorite source of amplification. What do you do to amplify your posts? Do you have a favorite platform that you prefer; i.e, Twitter, Google +, Facebook? Do you have any helpful hints about twitter? Please tell me in the comments!!
You can read the last post from my blogging series here Blogging Basics – Is A Photo Important? If you like this post you can follow me on twitter @dadblunders.
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Tags: blog amplification techniques, effective ways to use twitter
13 Comments
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wow, nice articles, i will share it with friends, thanks!
Gabriel,
Thank you! My goal is to try and help others in anyway I can. It is information that not everyone knows and I thought it might be pertinent to help out a few people.
Aaron Brinker
Good info!
Sandy,
Thank you! I might be a “dad blogger” or a “parenting blogger” but that doesn’t stop from trying to share information that I know other people can use. I actually have a lot of parenting bloggers that enjoy this feature on my blog. It is my goal to try and help others as much as possible.
Aaron Brinker
I am not good with Twitter… in fact, I have a lot of learning to do. I always stuff with hashtags. Thanks for the great information.
Stacy,
When I first started with twitter I did the same thing (honestly I think most people do) I wanted to learn how to amplify my posts and I learned it isn’t the practice to stuff your tweets with hashtags. If you continue to use too many hashtags twitter “can” penalize you in their search function.
Aaron Brinker
Twitter is my absolute FAVORITE social media platform. Having said that, it’s been several weeks (yes, WEEK!!!) since I’ve chatted there regularly. I seem to have lost my stride over the holidays and haven’t yet bounced back into a normal rhythm. Even when I used Twitter, however, I never got the hang of hashtags. I tend to avoid them since I don’t understand them very well, lolz! Great info here, Aaron!
Andi-Roo,
i know you haven’t been on twitter NEAR as much as you have in the past!!! I have made a couple of funny passing tweets about you being nice and you didn’t even comment….I was waiting for the Andi-Roo wrath (I hear it’s a lot like the wrath of God but nicer because no lightening is involved)!
Hashtags are one of my favorite things on twitter!!! I love hashtags because they categorize things for me. They help to discover other parenting bloggers and ideas. I have used twitter to do hashtag searches, (also TweetCaster, Tweetdeck and HootSuite)!! If you need help learning about hashtags I would be more than happy to work with you friend! You are actually missing on a golden opportunity by not using them! many people use them to find pertinent stories that they would like to read. If our articles have at least one or two hashtags they will come right up in the searches on Twitter.
Aaron Brinker
Thanks a lot for giving my post as an example. That was a real surprise. A nice one though.
. You know I learnt most of the stuff I know about blogging from you. Remember the first message you sent me explaining how to use Twitter? Twitter is now my favourite platform. You introduced me to Triberr, CommentLuv and all the blogging goodies out there. So what can I say? I learnt from the best. 
Churchill,
I was more than happy to share it! I try to help out others in anyway I can. I just wish I had more time to be able to do more (I am still a stay-at-home dad though and fatherhood still comes first)!
I do remember my first e-mail to you and it looks like it is paying off for you! It is just a slow “building” type of process. I know it myself….nothing worthwhile happens over night!
Aaron Brinker aka DadBlunders
How can I get the buttons you have at the side or on the bottom of this post? Thanks for the information.
Al,
I use the “Share This” plug-in on my site. It has an option to add it on the side bar so it scrolls with you as people are moving down the post. I like it because it isn’t overly obtrusive. It makes for a nice plug-in.
Aaron Brinker aka DadBlunders
Jason,
Don’t you love when a comment get stuck in the “spam” system. Normally, it sends me a notification but for some reason it didn’t send me a notification on either of your replies being send to the span filter. I have no idea why they were but hopefully it is taken care of for future reference.
I try to write a post once a week containing something about “blogging basics.” I know when I began I read everything I could find (I still do actually). It could be difficult to find a basic article that was easy to understand for someone that had never blogged before. My hope is I can simplify it enough to help others NOT make some of the mistakes i have made in the past.
Aaron Brinker aka DadBlunders