Twitter Copywriting is Copywriting Lite™

Who remembers the 80/20 rule of copywriting? That's right, class -- it's that 80% of your copywriting efforts should be put into writing a headline with the other 20% put into actually writing the copy. This is the key to understanding Twitter Copywriting.

Twitter, with its restriction on the number of characters you can write -- really no more than two short sentences, makes itself an excellent training ground for copywriters. Essentially, everything you write in Twitter is a headline.

Twitter Copywriting as Copywriter Training

If you want to see how good a copywriter you are, see how much of your website traffic comes from Twitter. If it's not a lot, you're doing something wrong.

Your Tweets should be as effective as your headlines. If you are failing to bring in traffic from Twitter, then you are failing to emotionally or cognitively interest your followers. A lack of traffic via Twitter is an indication that you're losing against odds in your favor.

Realize why the odds are in your favor: Your followers are not random samples from the population -- they are more likely to be a demographic interested in what you do. If you cannot interest your followers with your headlines, how do you expect to interest the general market?

Twitter Copywriting Tips

The following are methods to increase your Twitter copywriting skills:

1. Imagine you are writing copy headline EVERY TIME you tweet.
2. Realize that many Twitter users are mobile users. Don't link to a sales page that is not designed for mobile users.
3. Understand Twitter demographics. Female users tend to use Twitter for social reasons; male users tend to use Twitter to keep up-to-date with the world.
4. Don't just tweet once. A person's Twitter page runs through so many tweets a day that you will likely miss out on many of your followers. Shoot for a total of 4 tweets per sales message, spacing them out sufficiently.
5. The majority of tweets do not get retweeted, and this is usually regardless of the tweet's quality; big media dominates Twitter, and that is unlikely to be changing soon. So, ASK for retweets to get more exposure. Otherwise, you are just waiting for lady luck.
6. Use Twitter to reach foreign audiences. Some countries are Twitter lovers -- Japan, for instance. Others don't even touch Twitter (e.g., Taiwan).
7. Twitter is a REQUISITE if you are doing any sort of online B2B marketing. Bookmark this post if you are a B2B copywriter of any sort.

So, that's pretty much the 411 on Twitter Copywriting, folks.