I’ve been experimenting with TweetStorms on Twitter and it seems like a particularly effective way to get more engagement.

What is a TweetStorm?

A TweetStorm is a sequence of tweets where each following tweet is a reply to the previous tweet.

Should you number them?

Sometimes you’ll see the tweets as numbered e.g.

• 1 /10 start of my tweet storm
• 2 next in my tweet storm
• third in my tweet storm 3/ 10
• (4 / 10) my fourth tweet
• etc.

But clearly you would need a consistent numbering approach throughout.

I tend not to number them. But it could be worth experimenting, depending on how you write the tweets.

If you number them then people are more likely to notice that they are part of a sequence and click to see the entire thread.

But… numbering them requires a little more effort.

The built in Twitter tool to create a TweetStorm, does not number them.

The Built in Twitter Tool

When you create a Tweet you can see a (+) button which offers you to “Add another tweet”

Clicking this allows you to add a tweet which will be posted as a reply to the previous tweet allowing you to create a tweetStorm

The editor will show you if your tweet is too long so you can edit it down.

The Tweets are not posted until you press the (Tweet All) button

When you click (Tweet All) all of your Tweets will be sent in sequence.

You might want to do it manually with each tweet as a reply to the previous if spreading the tweets across your followers timeline helps you.

It is worth experimenting with different approaches.

How I write a TweetStorm

I write all my TweetStorm posts offline, and then copy and paste from an editor into the Twitter editor.

Why? Because:

• if I want to add numbers to each tweet then I know in advance how many there are
• I have multiple chances to catch spelling errors i.e. when I write, and when I paste
• I can plan out my hashtags in advance
• I can copy paste the text and reuse as an Instagram, Facebook or Blog post
• If my browser crashes then I have record of my tweetstorm and can simply start again

e.g. Here’s one I created earlier:

• twitter.com/talotics/status/1093842031548530688

I wrote it out as text first to review. And I even took the time to add numbers to make this an incredibly professional example for you.

Which video transcription services do you use to create subtitles and transcriptions? I mainly use Rev, Trint, Otter.ai and YouTube #Transcriptions #VideoMarketing (1 / 6)

Rev.com is human powered transcription and captioning service, has a great online editor for ’tidying up’, I tend to submit so that it is processed overnight and ready for me the next day. You have to decide if you want an srt or transcription in advance. (2 / 6) @rev #digitalmarketing

Trint.com is an automated transcription service, with a great editor that can show you the video as you tidy the text. Easy to generate .srt and transcription from the same file. (3 / 6) @trinthq #onlinemarketing

Otter.ai is an automated transcription service, with a good editor, but works from the audio only. Generating an .srt and transcription from same file requires formatting for srt then fixing transcription after exporting. (but it is very cheap) @otter_ai (4 / 6) #videomarketing

YouTube will automatically create srt captions, but the editor is pretty horrible and frequently doesn’t work so I can’t rely on it. (5 / 6) #Youtubetips

I have longer reviews of the transcription services I use on my blog where I describe Rev.com, Trint.com, Otter.ai and youtube in more detail https://www.talotics.com/post/tactics/videos/video-transcriptions/ (6 / 6) #digitalmarketing

Some of those lines were too long for Twitter so I edited them in the editor and then copy and pasted back into my text file so I have a record of what I wrote.

e.g.

Rev.com is human powered transcription and captioning service, has a great online editor for ’tidying up’, I tend to submit so that it is processed overnight and ready for me the next day. You have to decide if you want an srt or transcription in advance. (2 / 6) @rev #digitalmarketing

Became

Rev.com is human powered transcription and captioning service, has a great online editor for ’tidying up’, I submit so it is processed overnight and ready for me the next day. Decide if you want an srt or transcription in advance. (2 / 6) @rev #digitalmarketing

Benefits of a TweetStorm?

• Each Tweet in the TweetStorm can have different hashtags, increasing the chances that your tweet will be seen by more people, and parts of your TweetStorm will be retweeted to different audiences. They might then click through and read the whole Thread.
• You can use multiple images to promote your message since each tweet can have a different image.
• You don’t have to ‘cram’ all your message into a single tweet.
• Easier to repurpose into longer from social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.
• You can use it to create a blog post, or summarise a blog post, as a TweetStorm. Again increasing your content repurposing.
• Increased engagement.
• You can add to them, which ‘resurrects’ an older TweetStorm. And allows you to promote at different times, e.g. create the TweetStorm in your local time, then add to it later when you secondary markets come online.

Do TweetStorms Generate More Engagement?

I have no statistics for you but…

I started creating these because I noticed TweetStorms for other people in my consultancy niche were seeing high engagement, and longer engagement so they would appear, and re-appear in my feed with no additional promotion from the person creating them.

I think they generate more engagement.

And by adding to a Tweet Storm later, you can extend your promotional activities throughout the day to different timezones.

Are there any tools to help with TweetStorms?

Twitter build in web client has the “Add to Tweet” button, and since I write my text offline and repurpose from that text, that tends to be all I use.

You could collate the Tweets into a ‘Twitter moment’ and then repurpose via the Twitter Moment Embed code.

There are tools to help create TweetStorms, they seem to come and go so any list you find on the internet may be out of date.I found this last time I searched:

• http://www.writerack.com/

Take care that your TweetStorm doesn’t become too wordy.

Things to consider

I try to write each Tweet in the TweetStorm as a self contained paragraph which works as a valid tweet in its own right. Other people like to have them follow on from each other so they only make sense when read together.

Numbering is harder, takes more time to prepare, and you have to remember to keep adding numbers when you add new tweets. But it might cause people to read the full thread.

Since your Tweets will show up in a someones timeline in reverse order, try to write them so that each Tweet offers self contained value and can stand alone. This is slightly more work but should allow Tweets to offer a re-engagement possibility for potentially a different target group on each Tweet in the Storm.

TweetStorms are harder to automate so they do require more work on your part. But… that human touch might make the difference to your marketing.

Should you try them?

I think they are worth experimenting, and make sure you also add additional tweets between storms so that you are not just seen as spamming people.