Originally published on SocialTimes.com on February 29, 2016 By Lauren Dugan
If you manage a Twitter account, you understand the pressure. Having to come up with interesting, witty, creative tweets day in and day out … it can lead to some serious writer’s block and frustration when you simply draw a blank.
Maybe you’ve tried exploring what the competition tweets (great!), or creating lists and retweeting from those (even better!). But even that will only take you so far – and these methods don’t allow for much original content coming from you or your brand.
So why not create a Twitter library that you can turn to when the creative well runs dry?
A Twitter library is a great way to brainstorm and store a huge list of tweets that you can copy and paste into Twitter when nothing else comes to you. It can also be used more strategically, as a repository of brand/original tweets that you integrate into a larger editorial calendar.
What goes into the library?
The ideal Twitter library is a list of tweets that you can send at any time, whether because you have nothing else to tweet or because they are part of a planned schedule.
You can include any tweets you want in your library, but it’s best if they are branded, thought leadership, or otherwise unique. It’s not a good idea to include retweets or somebody else’s archived blog posts in your library, as that content won’t be fresh when you actually tweet it. Instead, include things like:
- Images with industry-related quotes from influencers
- Tips and tricks
- Links to your brand’s blog posts
- Questions for your followers (as long as you only tweet these when you’ll actually be around to respond)
Interesting industry observations or original thought
There are plenty more examples of types of tweets that you could include in your library, but keep in mind that a Twitter library works best when 3 criteria are met. The content should:
- be “Evergreen”. Tweets should not tied to any specific date/time/promotion/holiday.
- be complete. Include all relevant links, images, hashtags and other features so you don’t have to search these out when pulling content.
- be a living document. Each item should be easy to add, delete, edit and mark as tweeted.
How should you fill up your library?
Let’s say you just wrote a blog post. You could go ahead and tweet it out, using the blog post’s title, URL and image. And that’s great! But why not take an extra 10 minutes and add a big batch of tweets to your library?
Set a timer and brainstorm as many different headlines/tweets that you could use to promote your blog post. Write these in a list, with a separate line for each tweet (or, put them directly into your library). Since you just published the post, you’ll be in the zone and these tweets will come easier than if you try to come up with them on the fly.
You can use this method to add tweets to your library at any time. Or, you can keep a notepad handy (whether a physical one or virtual), and jot down tweet ideas throughout your day. Just make sure you add them to your library on a regular basis so you don’t lose them!
How should you structure the library?
In its simplest form, a Twitter library can be a spreadsheet that includes columns for the tweet, and where to find the mulitmedia (if any) associated with it. You can then highlight the tweets you send as you go.
Of course, your library can be much more robust, and you can create a document that you share with your entire team. This document could include direct links to multimedia, who came up with the tweet, when the tweet should be sent, etc.
Lauren Dugan
twitter@lauren_dugan emaildugan.lauren@gmail.com
Lauren is a marketing strategist, helping businesses tell their story and build relationships with their customers. She is also the former founding editor of AllTwitter, and has been writing about social media since 2009.