Twitter Tips for Businesses
Here are some great tips to make your press release Twitter friendly.
BC Business on LinkedIn
I received this information via the BC Business group on LinkedIn. If you are on LinkedIn and you are a business owner in BC, you should definitely join this group- it is a resource of helpful information and there are also some great group discussions. Moreover, if you work from home like me, online conversations in forums- and on Twitter, Facebook or Skype- all act as substitutes for the ‘water cooler’ discussions I experienced in previous workplace environments. This article was shared by Susan Muller of pr-online.com.
A PRNewswire/Crowd Factory study that found Twitter drives more traffic to press releases than Facebook. So how do you make your press release more Twitter friendly?
-“It starts with the headline,” says Sarah Skerik, PRNewswire’s VP of social media. “The press releases that got the most shares and views were those that had headlines that were in the range of 120 characters, which makes them the perfect tweetable link.”
“You need to leave re-tweet space to remove any barriers for audiences,” said Tom Becktold, SVP of marketing at Business Wire. “A lot of people want to add a little comment so leave 20 or 30 characters.”
Still, Skerik cautions against making a headline too short. “You want to give people enough information about what the press release is about,” she said.
“Tweet facts and stats,” said PitchEngine founder Jason Kintzler. Moreover, depending on the client, the headline can be fun or “tongue-in-cheek” said Kintzler, who doesn’t recommend simply tweeting a headline, but does recommend tailoring the voice and approach of the release to the audience, which is more than just journalists.
“Numbers make ideas real,” Skerik adds. “If you have data within a press release, call it out in the headline.”
Make sub-stories tweetable. “You might be talking about a new product, its efficiency gains,” other other features, Skerik adds. “It’s well worth highlighting those areas in bullet points. That makes the press release scanable. When you create that bullet, hopefully it’s in tweetable length, which makes it possible for people to like something, grab it, and tweet it.”
As Kintzler says, “One press release or pitch can be a few tweets.”
”Hashtag properly,” says Becktold. A step further, make sure keywords and search terms are in the release so it can be found he says.
“If I knew my audience was active on Twitter, I would make sure that quote is tweet-able, and include the brand’s or person’s Twitter handle,” says Skerik.
“Twitter is about trading information,” she says. “Tweeting a link to a news item is pretty much stock and trade.”
Moreover, “Facebook still feels a little less for business than Twitter,” adds Kintzler. “Twitter feels like a news source.”
In other words, consider the social media platform and create your strategy — and your press release — accordingly.
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Source: PR Newswire
