The document provides guidelines for using Twitter effectively, including using it to signpost to other content, provide timely updates, and regularly engage in conversation. It recommends tweeting daily about topics followers care about, using hashtags to join conversations, and including links to drive traffic. The document also suggests creating a content calendar to plan topics and align Twitter activity with other channels and business goals.

1. TwittereEngagement Recommendations

2. 2
Twitter
engagement
recommendations
@SomaziWW

3. 3 TWITTER
Recommendations
Use Twitter for:
• Signposting to richer content elsewhere
• Timely news updates
• Regular conversation and engagement through multiple daily
tweets
@SomaziWW

4. 4 TWITTER
GUIDELINES AND PRINCIPLES
1. Don’t overcomplicate it – be honest, transparent and human
2. Tweet about things your followers care about – what is affecting them? What is
newsworthy? What do they need to know about, quickly?
3. Use Twitter to signpost to the website or blogs, where the detail is.
4. Seize the moment- engage with followers in a timely way – leverage journalists and
staff in the field to provide real-time, engaging content.
5. Be strategic – link to and follow other people in the service, industry and field.
6. Be supportive – follow and retweet other users, link to news stories from partners
and they might reciprocate.
7. Optimise your profile – make sure it contains relevant keywords and a link (Twitter
List) to all company’s websites.
@SomaziWW

5. 5 TWITTER
GUIDELINES AND PRINCIPLES
8. Personalise your page – use imagery and photos to bring the page to life
9. Follow a content calendar – regular tweeting every day. Adjust timings depending on
location of the followers.
10. Use hashtags - join in relevant Twitter conversations and trending topics by using
#hashtags.
11. Theme your conversations - consider focusing on one topic for a day or a week. Use
a #hashtag within your tweets – e.g. #govdigistat.
12. Ask questions - Use Twitter to conduct research, to glean ideas, to thank staff/
departments and to ask questions of your followers.
13. Include links to relevant web content - tweets containing a URL are three times more
likely to be retweeted.
@SomaziWW

6. 6 TWITTER
GUIDELINES AND PRINCIPLES
14. Measure your links’ popularity - Use free URL shorteners like bit.ly whenever
including a link.
15. Have one regular, daily tweet - Consider sharing a “Photo of the Day” or “News
Item of the Day.” It gives you a chance to link back to your website or blog.
16. Be courteous - Respond to people when they mention you. Reply when people
ask questions. Remember this is about two-way conversation.
17. Be succinct. Leave enough characters at the end of your tweet to enable people
to manually retweet it.
18. Rephrase it, then tweet again. It’s OK to use the same tweet more than once, as
long as it’s reworded and spread out.
@SomaziWW

7. 7
Creating a Twitter
content calender
@SomaziWW

8. 8 WEEK view: example content calendar
12 - 18
12 Monday 13 Tuesday 14 Wednesday 15 Thursday 16 Friday 17 Saturday 18 Sunday
Twitter Event Opinion Topic Policy Release Nr of Tweets Personal Personal /
Retweets
Blog X X
Sharing Video x X X
content
Infographics X X
Images x x x
@SomaziWW

9. 9 Conclusions
• Make sure your Twitter activity is aligned with the goals of your
business
• Plan the topics ahead using a content calendar, and make sure
your activities are compatible with other channels, such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and blog posts
• Add value to the Twitter community, share interesting resources
and news, communicate with others rather than being purely
promotional
@SomaziWW

10. 10 THE SOMAZI EFFECT
Authors
This presentation is a part of the SoMazi Social Ewa
Media Resources series. For more presentations, @Ewajoan
reports and learning materials, go to
http://www.somazi.com/resources/ .
SoMazi has offices in London, New York, Bergamo
and Geneva. We’d love to hear from you. Marlies
@MsSpijker
E-mail: contactus@somazi.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomaziWW
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/SomaziWW
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/Somazi
Clementina
@CGZatSomazi