Copywriting for Twitter

A good marketing buddy of mine asked: “Do you use copywriting on Twitter and all the other microblogs? Would that be microwriting?”

The answer is a sound “Yes” – But not in the way that copywriting is commonly perceived by old-school internet marketers.

Twitter has a strict limit of just 140 characters and that requires you to be concise… there’s no room for fluff or hype! So the real question should be: How do you use copywriting in a way that works for microblogs?

Understanding twitter and web 2.0
First I’d look at the reasons you’re using Twitter in the first place. If you’re using for “interruption marketing” (to spam your offers all over the Twittersphere), then you may as well stop reading right now, as this won’t be of interest to you. However, if you’ve discovered, as have many smart marketers, that Web 2.0 is nothing if not about relationship, and Twitter facilitates this as few applications can.

While there have been many other apps come along to try and horn in on some of the action that Twitter has found, they seem to be falling by the wayside as we speak. Pownce closed down recently, and Google announced that they will be closing down Jaiku. The only other true microblog service to speak of would be Indenti.ca. So forgive me if I focus on Twitter solely for the moment.

Microwriting 101
Learning to write in a sort of web-shorthand can be a challenge for those of us born to be verbose. Cramming all of my thoughts on a subject sometimes requires multiple postings, chunks of a virtual conversation, so to speak. But this type of writing can lend itself to opening up yourself to allow others a glimpse at your personality, which is ultimately what they will follow. This type of writing obviously can be very informal, but the goal here is to get across your ideas in a few words as possible, and spark reciprocal conversation.

When you speak on a subject that interests you, do so with the passion you have for it. People follow people who have opinions, and are not averse to sharing them.

This doesn’t have to go as far as link-baiting, and it doesn’t have to be solely about you business. One of the more famous Tweets happened just last week, and demonstrates the power that Twitter can wield as a tool in the hands of millions. When that US Airways plane was forced to ditch in the Hudson River, an alert Twitterer uploaded a picture with the caption “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.” Crazy, indeed!

What you will find, after a while, is that along with sparking many interesting conversations and debate, you will also begin building a groundswell of trust and familiarity with your followers, and this will lead them to want to know more about what you do and how you do it. Now you’ve transformed that follower into a potential customer, all without having to cram a salesletter down their throat!

Use Twitter to announce what you’re doing, share your trials and tribulations, seek answers or just about anything else you can imagine. The one thing you DON’T want to do is try and sell anything off Twitter. Work around it; the sales will come, when you’ve put in the time to build relationships.

Ohh… and please don’t forget to follow me on twitter!