Getting Your Title Right For Twitter

Some things make a lot of sense. Announcing your blog entries on Twitter, for instance, is a great idea - so much so, in fact, that if you have a blog and _don't_have a Twitter account to announce to, you're surely missing out on a huge potential audience. Rustle up plenty of followers interested in your niche, run your post address through a URL shortener, and tweet away. Posterous, of course, does all this without you having to lift a finger. Peachy.
 
However, don't expect wonders from this straight out of the box. Take a look at the tweets you send out. The Posterous default is your blog title, followed by the shortened URL. If your blog title is too long for this to fit in a 140-character tweet, it'll get truncated.
 
So, keep your title short. Punchy. Make sure it sells the post, on its own.
 
Take another look. Shortened URL's are notoriously untrustworthy, and your potential audience knows that. Some shortening services, and TweetDeck, allow you to preview the destination, and make sure you're not about to be scammed or clickjacked - but you'll only get this far if your followers have already decided your link is worth checking. Kill two birds with one stone. Prefix your tweet with 'blog post:' or something similar. It'll tell your readers what to expect from the link. (On Posterous, look under Advanced Settings in your Twitter autopost destination).
 
This costs you characters, so keep your title short.
 
Finally, retweets. These are the lifeblood of using Twitter to promote your blog. You want your followers to tell _their_ followers about your post, and you'll pick up new readers and followers as well. If one of the Twitter big guns retweets your blog announcement, you've got it made in the shade. If you need convincing, try http://twinfluence.com - you'll see their key stat is '2nd-order followers'. These people are just a retweet away. That's a big number.
 
Of course, adding RT and your Twitter name is going to take more characters, too. So, keep your title short. Some posters even add 'please RT' - costs even more - also, be warned. Begging for RT's is considered bad manners by many. Use sparingly.
 
Oh, did I mention - keep your title short?

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