Posted by Twitter engagement can often seem like a struggle for marketers—the platform is widely used for personal and professional reasons, and breaking through the noise can be a challenge.
But using visuals on Twitter should be a part of your social media strategy because it brings in more views and engagement.
We share five visual strategy tips that will improve your Twitter engagement in 2020.
1. Increase Twitter Engagement by Sizing Your Visuals
One of the biggest mistakes marketers make when creating visuals for social media is not sizing the image for the platform.
Incorrectly sized visuals will look distorted on the platform—they can become pixellated and lose the impact of your post entirely.
Additionally, if they are sized wrong, the crop will shift the focus of your image and your message, as you can see from this meme.
That is why you need to adhere to Twitter’s guidelines when sizing images—currently, it is 1200px by 675px.
Create a Twitter image template so you can resize images within the template. You can also use the template when designing new images so you don’t need to constantly resize.
Using this template will ensure that your Twitter images preview correctly—users will then know what you are trying to convey and will feel compelled to engage with your tweet.
2. Repurpose Content to Boost Twitter Engagement
Repurposing content is a great way to create more posts—and an essential part of improving your visual communication strategy—without having to collate or design content from scratch.
Look at the blog posts or infographics you have already created—are there headlines and snippets that you could repurpose as social media posts?
Go through your chosen blog post and pick out the best nuggets of content to create visuals for—track them in a separate document to reuse them in the future.
At Venngage, we examined one of our top-performing blogs and distilled it into shareable Twitter posts, like this one.
Simple images like this are easy to create and view—a heading followed by short and sharp text holds the reader’s attention long enough to warrant engagement.
If you’re repurposing blog posts, it is best to avoid adding too much information in your visual—nobody wants to read that much on a social platform.
Attract the user with a concise visual, then encourage them to click through to the blog in the text of the post.
3. Improve Twitter Engagement by Creating Visual Threads
Twitter threads have made storytelling on the platform easier—you can reply to your tweet to build a story and boost engagement. And using visuals makes this process more effective.
When you repurpose a blog post, create a thread of content points to build the story—as we did in this Twitter thread.
With a great pitch deck you can:
✅Prove the value of your business
✅Simplify your ideas & processes
✅Differentiate your business from its competitors
✅Tell the story behind your companyReady to create one?
👇Below we have outline a few of our favorite #design tips!👇 pic.twitter.com/pFNhbjWhGH
— Venngage (@Venngage) August 25, 2020
Each header and subsection can be repurposed as a visual response in the thread—don’t create too many posts because you want users to read the original blog.
For consistency, design a template so your visual Twitter thread looks uniform, as Moz does with their presentation series.
Creating a template also makes it easy to swap out elements, instead of redesigning visuals every time you need them.
You can also repurpose longer visuals like infographics into engaging Twitter threads—break the graphic into small segments and share those as a thread on Twitter.
But, again, don’t share the entire infographic in the thread—include three or four points before redirecting users to the original post.
4. Tag People to Boost Twitter Engagement
Quotes bring attention to Twitter content—use quotes from experts, or snippets from a longer piece of quotable content, on Twitter to back up your message.
This is also a great strategy for nonprofits on Twitter—testimonials from people you have helped make for relatable content. It also acts as social proof to showcase the work you are doing.
You can increase engagement for these quote posts by creating accompanying visuals—don’t share the quote as a text post, use a visual with a photo of the person quoted.
Ask them for a high-res image and include it in a template designed for quotes—you can reuse the template for different quotes.
When you share the quote on Twitter, remember to tag the person you are quoting. This will give them the impetus to retweet your post and boost engagement.
5. Create GIFs to Increase Engagement on Twitter
Everyone loves GIFs on the internet—they can be educational and entertaining. More importantly, they are instantly engaging on Twitter.
There are a few methods for sharing GIFs on Twitter. You can add GIPHY visuals to your posts through the platform—Twitter allows you to import these GIFs through its native app.
You can also create GIFs using online tools. Instead of creating a thread or making multiple posts about a topic, you can design a GIF to tell the same story.
When you download your visuals for the GIF, download them as PNGs. This file type retains its resolution during the GIF conversion process.
You then have to use a tool to convert the multiple images into a GIF—remember to adjust the speed so that users can read the text on your visuals.
Templates are helpful when designing GIFs—you can center your messaging and draw the eye to the relevant parts of the visual.
Key Takeaways: Be Consistent to Improve Twitter Engagement
Visuals create engagement on Twitter—though it is a text-heavy platform, a strong image can draw the eye and rise above the noise.
To recap, here are the ways you can use visuals to boost engagement on the platform:
- Size your Twitter visuals according to the platform’s specifications
- Repurpose existing content instead of designing posts from scratch
- Build stories by creating visual Twitter threads
- Create visuals with expert quotes and tag the people quoted
- Design GIFs with repurposed content or content that can be threaded
With these tips, you can create a more comprehensive visual strategy for Twitter that will bring in more views and followers.
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