subject: Creating Content for Twitter [print this page] You're probably groaning right now at the thought of having to create more content. The great news is that in Twitter land, content is only 140 characters long. And you don't want to overdo it. Such as with blogging or website building, content is king on Twitter. If people like your content, they will follow you and tell others about you. If they don't, you'll be sitting on your own Twitter Island all by yourself.
Fortunately, Twitter makes providing content really easy. You don't even have to write all of it yourself. You can simply read through the content provided by the people you're following and retweet to your followers the great content they have written. Or, as you're reading through your RSS feed for the day, you can tweet about the news, interesting blog posts or controversies that are brewing in the blogging world. If you have an opinion is sure to say something, share your thoughts and ideas...
So you're wondering what kind of content should you be sharing?
Information. If you know something, share it. It might be a bit of trivia of interest to people in your industry or your customers. Or it might be a piece of relevant news.
Advice. As a business owner, you should know what your customers struggle with. Let's us me as an example I know that many people struggle with implementing their own social media strategy. Plus, many need help with creating their own business fan page. So sharing these tidbits helps my audience. So, provide insight for your customers and they'll love you forever.
Answers. Similar to advice, answers are a more direct way of helping people. Watch out for people asking questions about your field of expertise, product, or service. Provide the answers and they'll remember you particularly if you just saved them from hours of searching or paying someone hundreds of dollars for the 5 minute fix you provided.
Updates. Again, I think it's a good idea to have your blog posts tweeted as updates to your Twitter stream. There are plug-in that will allow you to automatically tweet the headline and a shortened link to your blog post. Of course, this assumes that your blog posts are original content and useful to others. If you're tweeting spam, you're followers are going to jump ship.
Contests. Running a Twitter-only contest is a great idea. You can blend the contest with an effort to gather opinions from your followers. For example, if you need to know whether or not your customers will pay for a physical version of your digital products, send out a tweet and include an offer to give away a free copy of one of your products to those who reply.
Personal tidbits. While it's a good idea to give your profile some personality, you have to be careful with this one. Talking about a song you're listening to, or something cool you learned today is fine. Telling us about your indigestion is not! Honestly, we don't care what you ate for lunch either.
Now that you have some ideas for content, you can plan out some of the elements. For example, if you're getting ready to launch a product, announce that you're taking beta testers, run a contest to give away a copy or two, and give out a few bits of information about the product to whet your customers' appetites. Throw in a sprinkling of personal fun (professionally speaking) and you'll have a winning combination.
