Here are 7 common techniques to help you make an eye-catching tweet for your next blog post or to share a helpful article with others.

These techniques are drawn from positive examples set by top social media and personal branding resources such as Mashable, Dan Schawbel, and Social Media Examiner.

I also considered which article tweets from other career professionals I tend to notice first.  And for that matter, when do my tweets most often get re-tweeted?

For a more scientific study on re-tweets, I recommend this article by Dan Zarrella.

Of course, the primary reason someone would share your article isn’t simply because of a catchy headline.  It is due to the strength and simplicity of your content.

Twitter is just one conduit for the dissemination of your article.

At a minimum, give your audience the means to spread your message across Facebook, LinkedIn, and direct email as well.

That being said, the old adage “headlines sell newspapers” still holds true online.

I hope these techniques help spread the word about your articles!

1. It’s All In The Numbers

Just like this blog post title, people often like articles that are quick and actionable.

Here is a sample list of recent business articles from Mashable:

Here’s another sample list from Social Media Examiner (note the number of posts starting with a number):

2. Lead With a Question

Open questions create curiousity.  They lead people to discover the answer or to share their opinion about the topic:

3. Tell It Like It Is

Both Mashable and Dan Schawbel often follow this technique (as does Chris Perry who runs the site CareerRockeeter).

This simply involves prefixing (or ending) your tweet with what the article is all about.

From Mashable:

From Dan Schawbel:

From Chris Perry:

Here are some other common tweet prefixes they use:

ADVICE, ARTICLE, BREAKING, CHART, EVENT, HUMOR, INTERESTING, JOB SEARCH, PICS, POLL, PROMO, REPORT, RESOURCE, QUESTION, TIPS, TRUE

4. Authorship Tweets

These are my favorite type of tweets because they clearly identify who the author is, and they are likely to catch my eye if it is someone I recognize and value:

5. People Like Shiny New Things

When it is the latest breaking news, you are likely to hear it first on Twitter.  That being said, people like information that is brand new.

If you have written or discovered something hot off the press, let people know:

6. Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to group topics together or to promote real-time activity at an event.  If you are sharing career advice or job opportunities, here is a list of 100+ Career Hashtags on Twitter for your reference.  Note:  If you use hashtags, I recommend not using the hashtags in the article title itself.  The actual article title can be difficult to read with #hashtags in it.

Here’s a good example from Chris Perry that simply places the hashtag at the end of the tweet:

7. Leave Them Asking For More

I discovered these tweets are a great way to add a comment on someone else’s tweet.  The key is to read the article and then add a comment that leaves your followers asking for more.

Here are two examples:

What other suggestions do you have?  What tweets catch your eye?

Thanks for sharing!

About the Author

Brent Peterson, PMP, MS, MBA, is the founder of Interview Angel Inc, a company that offers a comprehensive guide and toolkit for job seekers to use in interviews.

The purpose of Interview Angel is to take the fear out of job interviews.  Customer testimonials for the Interview Angel product are posted online for additional reference.

Brent’s first customer was a father who purchased the Interview Angel toolkit as a graduation gift for his daughter.  Since then, clients have included government workforce centers, business school programs, a corporation going through a merger, and Goodwill Industries.

 

Tags:
Categories: Uncategorized