This post originally appeared on the iStrategy blog where I contribute regularly articles about leveraging social media and technology for small businesses. Subscribe to their blog for more great articles. 

Can you imagine that just a few years ago Twitter didn’t exist (I won’t “exist” too)? Today the phrase “follow us” or “follow me” is commonly used everywhere – on the news, radio, on ads and more. And let’s not forget #hashtags that appear on TV shows like X-Factor so that viewers can easily follow the conversations.

Today Twitter is not only used by individuals but is also adopted by brands and businesses to both promote their business on this network and also to be a part of a wider conversation (as McDonald’s did recently).

Buddy Media recently analysed over 320 Twitter handles of the world’s biggest brands to determine what works and what doesn’t; here are some of the key insights from it.

5 Strategies for Using Twitter Effectively

1. Keep Tweets Short

According to their insights, tweets that contained less than 100 characters received 17% higher engagement compared to tweets that were longer. <tweet this>

2. Use one or two hashtags

The study also found that many brands are underutilising hashtags – only 24% of brands’ tweets constains hashtags. Brands that uses hashtags received two times more engagement than those without them. However, the engagement levels drop if brands use more than three hashtags. Remember: Less is MORE!

Brands and businesses should limit usage to one or two hashtags per tweet.

3.  Use Images in your Tweets

A picture is not only worth a thousand words; it also counts for replies, retweets and views on twitter. According to the Buddy Media research, tweets that contained pictures or links to images received twice the engagement.

4. Add a call to action

You might think this is common sense, but asking users to retweet really does work on Twitter. In fact, according to Buddy Media, tweets that contains the word “RT” or “Retweet” receive 12x higher retweet shares compared to those that don’t include a call to action.

5.  Spell out the word “Retweet”

This is something new for me: according to their data, by spelling the word “RETWEET” the average retweet rate is 23 times higher. <tweet this>

That is not all the data found. Buddy Media has also included a cheat sheet that you can print out to put in front of your desk to help you tweet effectively in the future. I recommend you read their research for a deeper understanding about how to get the most out of Twitter for your brand.

There are some great insights and tips here. I believe that we shouldn’t leave out one of the most important element in social media – INTERACTION – as that is one of the most important elements in making a brand or business successful on twitter.

INTERACTION is one of the most important elements in making a brand or business successful on twitter. <tweet this>

What do you think? love to hear your thoughts.

photo by  by Mr & Mrs Apteryx australis