140 characters does not give you much room for error, so it is vital that whenever you tweet on behalf of your business you consider the following points beforehand.

What is the goal for your tweet?

What you are hoping to achieve with your tweet will determine the makeup of it.

Let’s start with a direct response tweet.

If you are trying to drive users to your website then you should simplify your tweet as much as possible. Avoid the use of @mentions or hashtags, which could drive them away from the ultimate goal of clicking on your link. In this case, consider structuring your tweet with a compelling offer with a sense of urgency to act on your strong call-to-action.

However, if you are looking to increase your brand awareness, hashtags can help to put your tweets in front of new people who are following that particular topic. If you use hashtags correctly, you will be adding to conversations happening elsewhere on Twitter.

As a rule of thumb, try to stick to just 1-2 hashtags per tweet. This will increase engagement by 21% on average compared with not using hashtags. However, if you go on to use more than two, you run the risk of actually decreasing your engagement rate.

If your tweet is to highlight your latest blog, it has been found that formatting your tweet as a headline by capitalising the first letter of each word increases click-through rates. Not only should the headline style provide a compelling piece of copy that should make the reader want to read on, but this formatting may also help your tweet stand out in a user’s timeline.

Know the difference between tone and voice

As a brand you will have a particular tone of voice that you will communicate through all of your marketing. However, when communicating via Twitter you will want to make sure that even if you are a very formal company that you come across professional, but still approachable. By aiming for a more conversational tone on all of your social media platforms will allow your audience to feel you are communicating with them, not talking at them.

Once you have established your brand voice, this should stay consistent throughout all of your tweets. However the tone of your message can vary depending on the context of the tweet. For example, if you are dealing with a complaint, you will may want to opt for a more sympathetic and understanding tone to help deal with the situation at hand.

Impact of Multimedia

By using images and videos in your tweets you will instantly help your tweet to stand out from the crowded timeline. By using visually appealing content, even if the user does not read the copy of your text, they may be drawn in by your multimedia content. One study found that by including an image within your tweet you will increase your click-through rates by 18%, likes by 89% and gain 150% more retweets.

Twitter has seen how important images are to its users and you are now able to upload an image without it using any of your characters, so there’s no excuse to not include multimedia in your Twitter strategy.

Whether your business has recently joined Twitter or you have been tweeting for years, it is vital that you bear in mind the tips above when composing your tweets to make sure that your time is not wasted.