Publishers often use Twitter to share their content, usually with a tweet or two to get the message out about a new article. Unless your tweets are retweeted, though, you’re only really accessing your existing followers on Twitter. The best way to get your content to new people is through others’ sharing your content. It can start a chain reaction that can result in your content going viral. At the very least, it brings new potential leads to your website.
Integrating Twitter calls to action that make it easy for visitors on your website to share gives you access to their social networks and brings in more new viewers.
Calls to action are when you ask your readers to do something. It might be contacting your business, coming to your store, or even just tweeting something. Why should you ask for tweets?
- Readers don’t always follow on Twitter and might never see a tweet about a new article.
- Tweets have a very short life. If reader misses a tweet, it’s gone without a retweet.
- Cornerstone content that attracts new readers deserves to be tweeted more than once. Content can still be valuable days, months, or even years after you first publish it and tweet it.
- Readers won’t typically pull out quotes from articles, even if they do tweet about it. This forces you to rely on their clout with others, instead of using the merits of your article to show why it’s valuable.
Asking for tweets is more than saying “Hey, would you tweet this?” No one is going to do something hard for you that involves many steps but they might do something that only requires a click or two. The tools reviewed below are a good starting point to integrating Twitter-based calls to action in your content.
ClicktoTweet.com
This tool takes text you put into the generator and turns it into a twitter message. On the website, craft the tweet you want your readers to share in the box and click “Generate Link!” Be sure to use a link shortener for any URLs to save on space.
When your readers click the link, it opens a Twitter status window that contains your text. You can use the ClicktoTweet link like any regular link so this opens up the possibilities to really innovative ways to incorporate Twitter into your website.
For instance, you can make pull quotes into a tweet, like this example from the text above:
The best way to get your content to new people is through others sharing your content. (Click to Tweet)
In this example, we tagged ourselves (@hadeninteractiv) so we know when people share it and included a link back to this article.
You could also ClicktoTweet in creative ways, like after a customer completes a purchase or joins a seminar. Since the link text is completely customizable and you can create any Twitter message you want your readers to tweet, you can get really creative.
The Click-to-Tweet plugin available for WordPress is a similar tool but shouldn’t be confused with the ClicktoTweet website—they’re actually made by different people. The plugin creates a Twitter box that allows readers to tweet from your article. Since it’s branded with the blue Twitter bird, it’s a bit easier for people to understand what the box does. But since it’s a box, it’s much less versatile that the ClicktoTweet website.
Pay with a Tweet
We tested out the Pay with a Tweet platform with our test website, MyFreshPlans.com, on a downloadable ebook about data analysis and climate change. The idea behind Pay with a Tweet is that you’re giving something in exchange for a tweet. You can set up a pay button and use the code they provide to add a button that opens an applet to download the file. In the applet, readers can share on whatever social networks you’ve chosen, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. After users share the URL, they get your file right in the applet window. The downside is advertising on the side of the applet that might confuse some readers.
If you have whitepapers on your website to attract customers, this is a good way to force them to promote your business even before they sign up for services. Keep in mind that some people just don’t want to tweet about something they haven’t read yet. Pay with a Tweet can be limiting if you haven’t yet created a relationship with the reader.
No matter what your approach to integrating Twitter with your content, reaching new people through strong Twitter-based calls to action can help you capture new visitors.
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