How We Achieved 2X Engagement using Twitter Threads (With Best Practices)
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a powerful social media suite for agencies, SMBs, and multi-location brands.
As a first-hand user and lover of Twitter threads, we are claiming this is one of the best features the platform has come up with. Along with millions of other users who actively use Twitter, we all know just how convenient threads have made the platform. So brands leveraging these pros is an expected move to cut it in the marketing game.
Social media platforms are always trying to come up with new ways for their users to express themselves. So why should Twitter be any different? The website used to allow a very short character limit for each tweet, i.e., 140 characters. In 2017, it upped its limit to 280 characters.?
But even this is pretty less most of the time for users to deliver their messages in a comprehensive and meaningful way. So Twitter had to find a way around it. And they did it unexpectedly soon.?
Lo and behold, the Twitter thread was born!
What are Twitter Threads?
Twitter launched the "Thread" functionality right after it had increased its tweet's character limit. It allowed Twitterati to bypass the annoying limitations of the platform. As a collection of tweets comprising related content, they could now deliver a longer message. Every tweet in a thread is from the same user.
A long thread, or as they like to call it, a 'tweetstorm' can create a long-form narrative that is easy to read and grasp. You might wonder, how are threads any different from a single tweet done once at a time. Well, there is a difference.?
Let’s shed some light on it.?
Tweet Thread or Multiple Tweets?
It's difficult to articulate an entire story and stay within limits. And when you try to deliver the whole plot by splitting it into multiple tweets, the discontinuation leads to the loss of context in the reader's mind.?
But with threads, the sequence remains intact. Hence the context is never lost on the reader. The bigger picture we want to portray is easily understood in simultaneous bits. Thus, we get more engagement from them. And being from the social media marketing industry, that's one of the biggest things we could be after.?
Twitter Thread: How It Boosted Our Brand
Anyone among us knows what a cutthroat space social media market can be. People use whatever strengths they can gather up to promote their brands. On top of that, Twitter marketing is a tough nut to crack.?
We are always searching for newer content ideas to try on Twitter as we have a larger audience on the platform. Using threads was always on our bucket list as we were intrigued as to how our followers would react to it.?
Needless to say, it gave us some surprising results.?
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Recently, we posted a thread of tweets about crossposting. And we got almost double the number of impressions and engagements that we usually do on individual tweets and retweets!
As miraculous as these numbers are, there’s some fun science behind this and we have seemed to decipher it. So bear with us!
The average shelf life of a regular tweet is 18 minutes. This means your tweet will likely disappear after that time from the users' feeds. So if you tweet out a thread of 5 tweets instead of a single one, the engagement gained from it will be 5 times the life of one tweet.?
Basically, the logic behind a thread is to keep the tweets for a longer time in the feeds of the audience. Also, they draw up a coherent storyline, but each tweet in a thread can be read as a standalone one and people still get its context.?
Another pro of using Twitter threads is a piece of information that might seem complicated and often boring can be framed into threads in smaller bits or into steps.?
If you take a look at the Twitter thread given below, the solo digital marketer has created a step-wise guide for beginners to start their digital marketing journey. But in a long-form article, she has presented it as a far more readable list of points that is likely to be read by the audience. Many such listicles are nowadays framed and presented on Twitter into threads.
Next, we have taken a thread in which, a commercial agency has listed social media marketing tools. The thread comes across as promotional, authentic, and informative. This is the beauty of this feature. People find these more believable than tweets with links, hence these threads end up getting more engagement than usual.?
Check this thread here: https://twitter.com/Yoco_ZA/status/1413090256811855872
Along with being believable, threads are an easy instrument to create hype among people. They are being used as teasers for upcoming events or for promoting new product features. Get them to click out of curiosity and get them involved with your content. This is how we and many more are using threads for.?
Also, announcing giveaways and winners to contests warrants a little suspense. So using threads to draw some crowd in is a whip-smart move you can make in this situation.?
Best Twitter Thread Practices to Keep in Mind
Till now, we have seen couple of successful examples of Twitter threads that double down the engagement. Apart from this, here are a few of the best practices regarding Twitter threads that you should keep in mind before starting your first thread.
Expert Tip: Threads are very versatile in nature. Experiment with different types of content.?
Conclusion
As a social media marketing company, we have been following trends that come and go from social platforms. And from pure observation of other brands and then our own experience, we can say that Twitter threads are here to stay. The way users have harnessed them and sky-rocketed their engagement is not something that is just a passing trend.?
When it comes to branding exercises, Twitter is brimming with threads. It's up to you as a mastermind of your brand, how and for what would YOU use Twitter threads? We would be happy to know from you!