You're by now quite possibly the proud owner of a nice shiny Twitter account. You're certainly not alone, Twitter is the fastest growing social media site in the world enjoying whopping 1,448% growth year-on-year, from 1.2 million unique users in May 2008 to 18.2 million in May 2009. The press and commentary it generates is enough to make the most unabashed publicity seeker blush, so rarely is it out of the media eye. News monitoring service VMS estimates that during June this year Twitter's mentions in the media were worth $48 million.
You may even have used your account - yes, the churn rate is huge, Nielsen report that more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month. If you've been slow on the uptake or unimpressed to start with though, do stick with it.
Used wisely your patience will be rewarded over time and you'll be list building and evolving this particular social media thread before you know it. Twitter also offers you excellent opportunities to hone your writing skills, (of course if you're lacking the time/inclination or know how you should seriously consider using the services of a professional copywriter, a pro copywriter not only assist with your overall social media marketing techniques and strategy but lend valuable consistency and quality to your campaign).
Here's how Twitter can improve your marketing copywriting: brevity
Any decent
copywriter will spend inordinate amounts of time cutting out unnecessary verbiage, distilling meaning and especially devising the best, most eye-catching headlines and sub-headings. There's a well-known quote attributed to Mark Twain, 'I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.' Why all the effort? Why do copywriters go to the lengths they do to edit copy, use power words instead of flowery ornate language? Because time is short and you only have a limited window in which to present your message and to make your point.
It's your headline that will entice people into reading the body of your text. It's this first all-important introduction to your message that will win or lose 80% of your readers. That Twitter affords you only 140 characters to say what you want to say, forces you to be concise. It's a truly worthy pursuit. In fact, if you start flirting too closely with the 140-character limit you will leave no room for retweets and miss out on further distribution. It's better to keep the character count down as low as possible.
The lack of opportunity to overcomplicate also offer copywriters a great chance to incorporate more appropriate, focused language - to extend the range of vocabulary they might employ in order to be as precise as possible. You simply have to admire Stephen Fry, the character and charm of his messages evident by the fact he's gained a following of nearly 700k.
Less truly is more when it comes to Twitter. It's a truism that any skilled, professional copywriter will already be more than familiar with and happy to apply to your social media marketing.
