Twitter for Fitpros – Embrace it by Rachel

Since I’ve been writing a lot about Twitter this year LOADS of you have joined and are tweeting away with great success. Twitter is a amazing way to gain contacts, network, and strengthen your personal brand. But sometime the 140 characters can seem a bit short. So here are some ideas to get your message across LOUD AND CLEAR in 140 characters or less 🙂

I always seem to get a warm-fuzzy feeling when I use up all 140 characters in a concise descriptive tweet….(Proper saddo!)

Here are some tips for making the most of those few characters you get to use. I still have to get to grips with grammar as I do like a bit of text speak ( my weak point, I’m sure you have noticed and someone commented on yesterdays Blog!

1) Use shorthand codes. BRB, LOL, RT, TY, etc. S. Acronyms and abbreviations for commonly used words and phrases. Check out my list below of popular abbreviations .

2) Be clear and concise. Make sure you are not being redundant. Remove any words that might be irrelevant to what you are trying to convey. Be succinct.

3) Use URL shortening. This one is pretty obvious and is even built in to Twitter. However, there are some URL shortening services that can save you a few more characters than TinyURL. I use IS.GD and another popular one is XR.COM which even allows you to customize the URL or Bit Ly http://bit.ly/a/sign_up

4) Use special symbol characters. You may not know it, but Twitter accepts more than just normal characters. You can actually create hearts, stars, smilies and other symbols that can represent words or ideas in just 1 character. TheNextWeb has created a great tool called TwitterKeys which allows you to have all these symbols at your fingertips.

5) Use labels. Labelling your tweet has some cool benefits. A label is like a tag at the beginning of your tweet. Your followers will know exactly what you are sharing right away and they may even increase your chances of being re-tweeted. Here are some examples… (Reading:, Stumbling:, Digging:, etc.)

6) Be simple. This is a writing tip…simple words work better than big ones. Write ‘get’ instead of ‘procure.’ Write ‘use’ rather than ‘utilise.’ Use the longer words only if your meaning is so precise there is no simpler word to use.”

RT = Retweet.

PRT =/ Please Retweet.

OH = Overheard.

DM = Direct Message.

@ : Reply to [username].

BTW : By The Way

FTW = For The Win.

FTL = For The Loss.

IRL = In Real Life.

FTF = Face to Face.

IMHO = In My Honest Opinion.

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary.

BR = Best Regards.

b/c = because.

JV = Joint Venture.

LMK = Let Me Know.

Please follow me on Twitter and I’ll follow you back http://twitter.com/RachelHolmes