Writing On Twitter

Few things will expose bad writing quicker than having to communicate information or an idea clearly in a limited amount of space. With its 140 character limit on all postings (or “tweets” as they are referred to) Twitter often demonstrates this all too effectively. From abbreviation-laden tweets that make no sense, to tweets that fail to persuade followers to click through on a link, examples are everywhere in the Twitter “conversation”.

Whether at work or at home, we have all been on the receiving end of emails containing sloppy grammar, poor spelling, fractured syntax, and which are often a chore to make sense of. Twitter messages are no different (though they are at least mercifully short though that can sometimes be a mixed blessing too). Some people follow thousands of other people on Twitter, filling their home pages with, (in some extreme cases), hundreds of tweets a minute. Obviously, people will skip over tweets that are sloppy, trivial and incoherent because they simply don’t have time to waste.

Like all forms of writing, the process of constructing a good Twitter message takes careful thought, time and analysis. While there is no such thing as a “perfect” tweet, (since such judgments are very subjective and dependent upon the intended audience) there are some basic guidelines that everyone can follow.

Firstly, avoid abbreviations if at all possible, and only use them when absolutely necessary. For one thing there are so many abbreviations you really can’t always assume people will know what they are. Long-time heavy Twitter users are probably the worst offenders in this regard.  This is partly due to the fact that the majority of these people still tend to be from a technical background. However, as its user base becomes more and more diversified as  has been the case of late, a lot of these people may not be up on all the Twitter-specific jargon. Relying on this type of language and you run the risk of in effect blocking off a large segment of the community from appreciating fully (or at all) what you have to say.

Secondly and as importantly, try to take your time. Since Twitter allows you to publish information instantly, the open field to tweet a message sits in your web-browser or in an app on your desktop looking like what a piece of cheese must look like to a mouse. With only 140 characters allowed it might seem natural to some to just tweet way without giving it much thought. However, much like you’d proofread an important e-mail message before hitting “send” to everyone in the company, you should also consider pausing before you share a tweet with the world. And shared it will be.  Don’t just assume that only your immediate followers will see your tweets, as a tweet can be picked up publicly by Google or Twitter’s search tool. On the other hand, if you take some extra time you will most likely put more thought into it, which in turn makes it more likely to be appreciated.

Due to the exceptional brevity of tweets, a rushed writing job combined with lack of context can create a lot of misunderstandings. If you take the time to not only construct the tweet, but also consider how your audience will receive it, you can save yourself a lot of grief.