Twitter may just be one of our favorite social media tools, but sometimes you realize doing the same old thing isn’t working as good as it once was.
So we’ve found that once in awhile it’s important to test your methods to ensure that you are still reaching and resonating with your followers (hopefully you’ve gained new ones). Once you’ve tested a variety of items you can easily optimize your strategy to maximize your results.
So let’s get started! We always go with an A/B testing method so that you are only changing a small item between your tweets. This way you can be sure to tell if that change made a difference without trying to guess between a variety of changes.
Messaging Content:
Messaging is one of the most important parts of your tweet so the first thing we’ll test is the actual content of your messaging. You can test a few options:
- Actual headline from a post
- Question related to the content
- Stats from the post
- A quote from the content
Make sure you try these different options with the same post. After testing you may find that one or two of these options will outperform the others.
Length:
Another important aspect is the message length. Statistics show that shorter messages actually tend to perform better, mostly because of people’s attention spans scrolling through their stream. So to start experimenting take the same content and try different lengths with the messages including only two works or 10. Then try 25 characters or 125 characters. You will find that your audience may react better to different length messages.
Hashtags:
There are a variety of reasons why we always use hashtags but each audience is different so testing the following options can help you understand how hashtags may help:
- No hashtag vs one hashtag vs multiple hashtags
- Hashtag placement, end of tweet or within the tweet
- Industry hashtags used by current leaders
- Brand hashtags, test the performance of brand hashtags and if they are gaining any reach. If not, consider changing them or backing on existing tags.
Link Placement:
If you’re like us, it’s just habit and good form to place your link at the end of your tweet. But have you ever tried to move it to the middle? Or even the beginning? Try testing these three versions:
8 Ways to Optimize Twitter Content Through Testing [LINK]
[LINK] <-8 Ways to Optimize Twitter Content Through Testing
Optimize Twitter Content: [LINK] Try these 8 tests
Although it might not look right, you may just be surprised with what you learn through these tests.
Text vs Media:
Back in the day you didn’t even have this option but now it’s rare to see a tweet without some sort of media included. In general, we’ve been told over and over how images are sure to drive greater engagement. However, your following might react differently to media than other audiences so make sure you test. So try text only messages and test them with different types of content. Then go back and add an image and repeat the process and see what you find.
Media Type:
Not only has Twitter grown to include images in tweets but now you have quite a few media options to engage your audience. Choose one piece of messaging and create one of each of the following media assets: image, GIF, Video and Vine Video. Run all types of media to see which drives the most engage with your audience.
Time of Day:
Your audience may be more active during the work day or evening but the only way to find out is to test. So try sending the same tweet at various times including on the hour, at the 15 and/or the 45. From this see when engagement is at its peak to understand when your following is most active on Twitter For anyone with global audiences remember to test across a variety of time zones.
Number per Day:
How many times do you currently tweet? Have you thought about adjusting that number and the intervals between tweets? Some audiences may engage more if they only see a few tweets a day, while other audiences may need be bombarded with tweets to engage. Test different intervals and numbers of tweets per day to see if your audience may only want to see 4 tweets or 20!
That’s a wrap, now get testing and let us know your results!
