The social web has created a niche in which users share updates with the collective web throughout their day to day routine. These updates include a wide range of content, including everything from personal commentary and humor to business promotion and marketing links.

To business owners, this niche of the web can be a valuable form of marketing when interested in sharing content, resources, and other valuable material designed to drive traffic to a particular website, blog, or social profile.

While the content is always the primal factor of driving traffic, I’d like to explore a few ways to structure your updates in order to encourage re-tweets, more sharing, and more linking from your readers.

Twitter update styles:

• Earlier: 34 things to blog about - http://bit.ly/P5bpQ
• NEWS:  Your post here - exmaple.com
• What should I blog about when I don’t know what to blog about?
• 34 things to blog about - http://bit.ly/P5bpQ
• http://bit.ly/P5bpQ - 34 things to blog about

When - Include the time something posted

For those interested in reminding their following of a new post, or informing later Twitter visitors of the post, consider including the time at which your post was published.

This can apply to pretty much everything, so use your imagination. People are naturally inquisitive, so including this bit of information will add an extra detail as well as let them know that they weren’t a part of something earlier. This might be a good way to subtly let your followers know that they can receive updates via email feed.

Category - Break your tweet down

If you’re writing about quite a few topics, or even sub-topics within a larger topic, consider breaking down and including a type of header with your tweet. This might not work for every post, but it will certainly make it easier for your readers to figure out what you’re tweeting about.

This can add a level of depth to your tweets as you start including more and more re-occurring topics. For example, by including “NEWS” or “MOVIE REVIEW” your followers will know where they can get a dependable source of “ENTER YOUR CATEGORY HERE” on Twitter.

The key here is to continue using the categories you chose - it’s a form of branding your profile, name, or company so use it wisely. This said, be sure to experiment with what works and what doesn’t.

Question - Don’t just talk at your readers, talk to them!

Be careful not to slip into the promo-bot mode, in which you tweet your news, articles, comments, and other content at your followers. The key on Twitter is to tweet with each other - interact as if you’re in the same room. “Hey check out this link over here;” “Watch this video if you’re into SEO;” “Visit my site for more info on the show;”

Consider asking your followers questions. It’s the same idea behind asking your readers questions at the end of your blog posts - you want comments. Twitter isn’t any different - ask your followers questions and you shall receive tweets.

Title - Link

This is probably one of the most common structure for tweets published. Keep it simple with a compelling title and the shortened link. Enough said.

Overall, experiment with different forms of Tweet structure to find what works best for you and your following on twitter.

Remember, the same structures also apply to the majority of the web.

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