Why Tweets on Your Library Twitter Account Need Context

As libraries, we tweet about so many different things: books, craft programs, website features, author events, maker workshops, and much more.

In fact, my library’s twitter account uses the description, “Library, Literary & Local stuff” to warn folks about the breadth of our tweets.

But while our followers expect tweets about a wide variety of subjects, they still need help orienting to our subject matter, and they need it on a tweet-by-tweet basis.The more context you give in a tweet, the easier it is for your followers to understand if and why your tweet is interesting to them. And whether they want to retweet you.

Here are three guidelines that I use:

1. Don’t use a lot of hashtags. They’re hard to scan, and more than one is especially hard to scan. If possible, put them at the end of your tweet. (I try not to use any unless I’m tweeting about an event or topic that has an established hashtag).

2. Use images to illustrate the concept behind your tweet. Because a picture is indeed worth a thousand words (even a silly one).

3. Know who you’re talking to in each tweet. If a program is just for middle schoolers, you’re writing to adults who take care of middle schoolers. If your program is for ages 18+, you’re not writing to families. If your program is a YA book festival, you’re writing to YA readers. You don’t have to explicitly specify the audience in each case, but make it easy for your readers to identify the target audience.