It’s only a small change, but Twitter’s new ‘add a comment’ feature could revolutionise your business’s use of the micro blogging platform to build relationships with its potential clients.
Previously, businesses have struggled with the limitations that Twitter puts on characters, especially when retweeting, and have instead turned to Facebook or LinkedIn to post their opinions.
But those eagle eyed social media users amongst us may have noticed that the platform has rolled out a new feature – ‘add a comment’ which allows you to add a comment to the content you are retweeting.
Before this feature, users had to manually retweet – having to fit both the original tweet (or their heavily modified version) and their comment into the original 140 character limit. This new feature allows users to embed the original tweet and add a comment of up to 116 characters.
How to use the ‘add a comment’ feature in Twitter
Twitter has made it as easy as possible for you to engage with this new feature; simply click the retweet button as you would have previously, and a window will pop up that enables you to either auto retweet (without comment) or add a comment. Type your comment, giving your followers a bit more of an idea of why you thought it worthy of retweeting, and press post – it’s that simple.
Whilst an auto retweet would automatically include any links that were embedded in the original poster’s tweet, a retweet with comment does not. However, once your follower clicks on the box within your retweet, they will be taken back to the original tweet, allowing them to click through on any links, hashtags or usernames included.
Another key (and really useful) change is that you can retweet a tweet as many times as you like, with a variety of comments – meaning that you can engage with different people at different times of day.
Why is this new Twitter feature so good?
Firstly, you don’t lose any characters from either tweet. Previously marketers had to think about what would be lost from their tweet when it was retweeted, and deliberately shortened their content. Now you can use the full 140 characters with no worries about the message being lost.
You can also retweet other people’s content, and have 116 characters to add your own voice to theirs. This removes the possibility of followers scrolling through their feed and wondering what the relevance of your retweet is.
Finally, responding directly to tweets allows you to form better relationships – which is really what using social media for business should be about. Use your 116 characters wisely, add a personal touch, and value the relationship rather than their need for your service in your tweets.
What’s missing?
As this was a recent update, Hootsuite and other management tools have not yet caught up. This means that those who use a social media management tool to post will not be able to add comments to their retweet; the feature can only be accessed through Twitter itself.
Although this means that tweets are extra personal for the time being, we anticipate that updates including this feature will flood in soon enough.
To find out more about using Twitter and social media to boost your business presence online, call The Ideal Marketing Company today on 01858 374 170. We also run a series of social media seminars, with the next coming up on the 18th June.
