Thanks to the easy embed option Twitter has added, you can now have more fun with interactive and social content on your website.

By copying and pasting just one line, you can post tweets right into your site. Your readers can retweet, reply, or favorite the tweet to join in on the conversation.

And you thought adding social icon buttons to your website was the cat’s meow.

Here’s what an embedded tweet looks like:

The Perfect Blog Post: This infographic gives a very succinct description of how to organize your blog posts. Th… http://t.co/6CEMsprN

— Web Savvy Marketers (@websavvymktrs) July 19, 2012

As you hover over the link, you will find that it’s live. You can also click on the author’s name to view their Twitter profile, or click the follow button to begin following them on Twitter. (Be sure and follow Carolyn, by the way, for some super-savvy fun.)

Give Your Readers Some Tweeting Fun

Adding tweets makes for more interesting and entertaining content, increasing the likelihood readers will stick around and play. As for photos, the tweets that have photos uploaded to pic.twitter.com are the only ones that will show up in an embedded tweet. (Note to self: Good idea to start uploading photos to Twitter’s own service for future ease of sharing.)

Let me make this as easy for you as it wasn’t for me, which is why I’m your trial-and-error blogger (not lawyer, thank God).

7 Steps to Embed a Tweet

1.  Be sure you are on your PC or Mac (i.e., don’t attempt this on your iPad.) Once you find a Tweet you want to embed, click on expand at the bottom left.

2.  Click on details on the bottom right.

3.  Now you will see Embed this Tweet on the bottom right. Click on it.

4.  Before copying the information in the dialogue box, click on the link tab in the top right. Now copy the link in the box.

5.  Paste the link where you want it, on its own line – no images inserted next to it, right into your visual (not HTML) screen in your website editor. (By editor, I mean the page where you work from.)

6.  If your pasted link tries to behave like a link – you will know this because it will be underlined – then highlight it and click on the unlink button at the top of your editing box.  (Your embedded tweet won’t appear as a reproduced tweet on the website editor screen.)

7.  Save and preview to see your successfully embedded tweet.

More Tweets to Come

Watch this blog for more Tweeting ideas, fun uses, and helpful links.

In the meantime, tweet and be happy.

Photo credit: ProductiveDreams

To tweet or not to tweet?

Now that you have mastered the art of embedded tweets, here are six basic strategies to follow:

1.  Mention often

By using the @ symbol before the twitter name, you are mentioning an individual or company in your tweet. Include mentions often when you link to someone’s content or attempt to spark a conversation.

Bonus: You can easily tweet-back to your tweetheart this way, should the need arise.

2.  Use those hashtags (these are not your average number signs)

This will allow you to go beyond your own following. When you add a hashtag to a tweet, your updates will be seen by anyone who is following that particular hashtag, not only your twitter followers.

Twitter describes hashtags as “themes” for your tweets. Now your tweet will be searched by other users who are interested in the same topic, as well as linked to all other tweets containing the same hashtag.

Think of it – your tweet could be seen by millions of twitter users!

The twitterverse wants your links and pics

3.  Include links

Tweets that have links have a higher retweet value. Be sure that your links work – test them to ensure they are not broken. Extend the valuable content of your tweet with links to industry support, experts’ advice, and professionals’ feedback.

4.  Use pictures

They’re worth a thousand words, which you can certainly use when your tweet limit is 140 characters. With a twitter image sharing service such as Twitpic, you can easily support your image attachments. (Twitter doesn’t yet have a built-in method.)

Check out what some Twitpic users are up to, such as @Astro_Clay, U.S. astronaut and adventuritter, and see the world tweeted from afar. Or help your readers stay abreast of the summer Olympic games via those who have front row street-seats:

Just leapt out of our seats to watch the torch go past down the road. #southwark pic.twitter.com/ChnMJTsf

— The Writer (@TheWriter) July 26, 2012

5.  Get the timing right

The early-bird tweeter gets the worm every time, so tweet during the day, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Speaking of timing, watch how the Olympian contestants tend to split the second:

This is so fun. Races across time! RT@Slate
How badly would Usain Bolt destroy the best sprinter of 1896? WATCH: http://t.co/U3LQM05b

— Caragh M. O'Brien (@CaraghMOBrien) July 26, 2012

6.  Track your progress

Fine-tune your tweeting strategy through a free service like Hootsuite. You can also get the free app through iTunes, making managing and measuring your social media updates even simpler. If you think the Twitter bird is cute, wait until you check out Hootsuite’s owl.

Stay in tweet-touch

Under no circumstances, however, should you be Twegosearching. Definitely not all day, every day, every five minutes…

Finally, be web-savvy and follow Twitter Tip Tuesday to further your twittastic abilities.

 
Flickr photo credit: Mrsdkrebs

7 Tips to Writing a Quick Article

There will be days when you don’t have an excessive amount of time to write a blog post. There will be occasions when you don’t want to spend that kind of time.

When duty calls you elsewhere, and you are unable to spend hours polishing up a single, elegant post, or to create a lengthy 2,000-word document, these tips will help you serve up a meaty post for your readers to chew on.

Compromising quality is not on the menu, however. Writing quickly doesn’t mean you do not write well. So roll up those shirt sleeves and let’s dig in.

1. Keep a list of ideas.

Don’t let that bit of inspiration die: jot your idea down in a small notebook or electronic file (my son uses his iTouch). Finding something interesting and relevant takes up much of a blog creator’s time. With an idea list, your new post awaits your writing in your back pocket.

2. Let your ideas sit.

Don’t try to force the creative process. That supporting information for your brilliant idea needs time to ruminate. When you let the topic sit and stew for a few days, its inherent brilliance will develop and the supporting information will gradually occur to you.

3. Edit before you start.

Your ideas will tend to accumulate like bunnies, so be prepared to cut and slash them. That includes eliminating any supporting ideas that don’t fit in with your main topics. Remember, you are writing a blog post, not a short novel. Some of those ideas you can always use for later posts, so don’t despair. We know how difficult it is to let go of them.

4. Use bullet points.

Organize your blog with text-simplifying bullet points or numbered points, like with 6 Uses for Effective Tweeting. Not only do you not have to worry about creating transitions from one idea to the next, your readers actually like lists. Lists are easier for the eye to follow.

5. Keep it short.

Try to keep your article under 500 words. This will help you to complete the assignment in under an hour, and it will keep your reader’s attention. Short blogs are not short on quality content; they simply deliver the critical information quickly. Save the longer articles for those that require more depth and information.

6. Come back later.

When an idea isn’t working, put it aside and work on something else for a short while. When inspiration hits, you can return to the original post. There’s nothing wrong with switching back and forth between writing articles. Employ this time-saving strategy to suit your thought processes.

7. Never save a good idea.

By this I mean don’t save time later, save time now. Write the posts that you know will come easiest. As Stephen King would say, the boys in the basement are talking to you (i.e., your muse, as in “the hard-working guys with Camels rolled up in the sleeves of their shirts.” ABC Good Morning America, 23 Sept. 1998).

Important note: Don’t forget to proofread your document before publishing. Otherwise, your piece might end up looking like something out of a pirate memo.

These seven simple steps will have you on your way to writing quick and dirty blog posts in a fraction of the time. Share your favorite blog writing tips in the comments!