Twitter, the microblogging sensation that is all the rage – at least among marketers and social media aficionados – requires a considerable economy of phrasing. Fitting a useful thought into 140 characters, including a URL, can be tough sometimes. And if you want your tweet to be retweeted – spread by your followers – than you’re better off making it even shorter, like maybe 120 characters.
To that end, here are a few tips on how to tighten your tweets:
- Cut unnecessary words – fillers, redundancies and words that don’t add anything, for example. If you put an opinion in Twitter, you don’t need to say “I think” – we assume that’s why you tweeted it unless you’re attributing it to someone else.
- Choose shorter words over longer – “about” instead of “approximately,” for example.
- Eliminate unnecessary punctuation. Do you really need those quote marks to emphasize something? Probably not. Do you need the extra “:” that Twitter adds in retweets? Again, probably not.
- Use contractions (ex. “didn’t” for “did not”) and acronyms, though judiciously. Don’t sacrifice clarity for conciseness.
- Make use of symbols – %, &, etc. – liberally.
- Substitute punctuation for conjunctions. For example, a comma in place of an “and.”
- Incorporate hashtags as part of the tweet, instead of putting it on the end. For example, “#PR pros will find this useful …”
- Revise, revise, revise. It’s amazing how often, just as I think I’ve boiled a thought down to its essence, one more revision allows me to tighten it even more. Focus on your core thought or message.
That’s it. Follow these guidelines consistently and you’ll end up with shorter tweets that are more retweetable. If you have more ideas about how to shorten the length of your tweets, please add mention them in the comments.
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In no particular order, I'm a writer, MBA, ex-journalist, blogger, geek, strategic communications pro, father, struggling novelist 
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Do you think by keeping your tweet short you encourage other’s to ReTweet?
I know if I see a Tweet that is 140 characters already, I am less likely to hit the RT button and spend the time trying to shorten it. Maybe it’s just me but all I want to do is hit RT and send.