[su_heading style=”default” size=”13″ align=”left” margin=”20″]When it comes to promoting your brand there are few tools out there better than Twitter. However, like an overcrowded room with too many voices, it can prove rather difficult to make sure you’re followers are hearing you loud and clear. [/su_heading]
Gradually, as Twitter began to get more and more crowded, certain users started to realise that in order make sure their content was being seen, they needed to start repeating their tweets.
This idea of the repeat tweet has proved to be quite divisive however, here at TravelMedia.ie, we think the logic behind this method speaks for itself.
Why should you repeat?
Have you ever sat down and watched a news station for over an hour? If you have, you will have noticed that the same stories are constantly repeated over and over again, only occasionally being interrupted by breaking news. 
This is because these stations are well aware that the majority of their viewers do not watch their programme all day and that different viewers tune in at different times. By looping the big stories and headlines, these news stations are making sure they give all of their viewers the best chance of seeing their content. This logic can also be applied to Twitter.
It is a given that not all of your followers will be online at the same time. Almost everyone will have different audiences in different time zones who will be awake and on Twitter at different times. By sending out your most important tweets on multiple occasions, you are giving yourself the best chance of reaching the most amounts of people and are not forgetting about those who happen to be offline at the time of your post.
Similarly, if you are using Twitter correctly you should be getting new followers every single day so repeating old tweets gives these new followers the opportunity to see what they have been missing.
[su_quote style=”default”]By sending out your most important tweets multiple times, you are giving yourself the best chance of reaching the most amounts of people[/su_quote]
Here in TravelMedia.ie, we have been carrying out a number of experiments and have found that by repeating tweets, we have seen our traffic to those particular tweeted links increase, a clear sign that this method works.
How much is too much?
There are of course risks to this strategy. There are quite a few people who really dislike seeing the same content repeated and will unfollow you for it so it is best to try and find a balance between making sure your content is seen, and not seeming like a spammer.
It is also important to take into account Twitter’s rules on duplicate tweets. Twitter defines spam as “multiple duplicate updates on one account” but it does not provide an exact period of time for how long a tweet is considered to be a duplicate for.
Generally, Twitter will not allow you to post the same tweet within a 24 hour period and this is a good rule to stick by. However, if the message you are trying to communicate is important, simply changing the text of the tweet will allow you post it again.
Changing the text around will also make the tweet seem fresh and new to the few followers who may have seen it already.
Additionally, by writing a tweet multiple different ways, you are in effect split testing what language and phrasing better promotes a tweet, helping you to learn which tweets work best.
Ok I’m convinced, how do I do it?
In case you’re worried about having enough time to copy and paste old tweets over and over again, don’t. There are plenty of management tools out there willing to do the hard work for you.
The majority of these tools allow you to set certain tweets to repeat at specific days and times meaning you only ever have to write a tweet once – very handy.
[su_quote style=”default”]There are plenty of management tools out there willing to do the hard work for you.[/su_quote]
Many of these tools also allow you to build up a reservoir of draft tweets. Drafts allow you to write your tweets and then save them to be used on future occasions. Again, this is another great time saver.
Although management tools are fantastic and do the majority of the work for you, there are still one or two things that you need to be aware of.
It is important to make sure that any tweets you schedule are “evergreen”. This means making sure that your tweets will still be relevant on all subsequent occasions that you have set them to post. There is nothing more annoying to a customer than seeing a tweet advertising a sale only to click the link and realise the sale ended yesterday.
It is also important that you continue to post new information and interact with your followers. An account based on entirely recycled tweets becomes obvious and irritating after a while.
Our thoughts
Just like in real life, you should not be afraid to say something twice on Twitter. In an increasingly busy environment, it makes sense to shout a little louder in order to have your voice heard. Yes, there may be some people who preferred you a little more subdued but sometimes it’s worth upsetting a few to reach the many.
If you are interested in learning more about how to make the most of your Twitter profile, then please contact a member of the TravelMedia.ie team