As an early Christmas present from the Metrix team, here are a few top tips to help you and your business optimise the content of your tweets so you can engage more effectively with your followers.

1. Put your own stamp on it
If you are sharing an article that you have found interesting, try coming up with your own creative title. This way, if the article is popular, your tweet won’t be the same as the tweets from everyone else who has tweeted the same article.

2. Tweet like you are writing a headline
Your tweets should be straight to the point. Imagine your tweet is a newspaper headline and your goal is to get a person to read the story. Make your tweet catchy and easy to read, while still grabbing the reader’s attention.

3. Be Engaging
You shouldn’t just focus on just growing the number of followers you have, concentrate on getting your followers to interact and discuss what you tweet. Ask your followers questions to get them taking and giving ideas, and also respond to their questions.

4. MT
If you’re just planning to RT (retweet) and have enough room in your 140 characters limit to do so then go ahead. However, if the 140 character limit is causing you problems and you need to modify any of the original message to make it fit, preface it as MT (modified tweet.) Remember, if you are adding your own copy before the RT, then there is no need to adjust it to an MT.

5. Leave room
If you want your tweets read and retweeted, keep them under 120 characters. This leaves room for a comment at the beginning or the automatic “RT @********” .