Twitter is such a popular social media platform nowadays that the author’s 8-part program has a special framework dedicated to Twitter threads. Think of a Twitter thread as a long form of tweets; it’s a sequence of the tweets written by the same user. It is meant to be read consecutively because it conveys one idea in multiple tweets.
A successful thread has several components. The first one is a lead-in tweet. It is your introduction to the thread; it is the piece of your text that will introduce you to your audience. As with headlines, your lead-in tweet should answer three questions: Who is it for? What is your article about? Why should others read it?
Most popular and viral Twitter threads tend to focus on one of the three:
- Frameworks
- Actionable takeaways
It is hard to tell stories in a way that captivates others. So, stories can be considered the most difficult content format on Twitter. The lead-in tweet of storytelling threads provides information on the beginning and end of the story. But to find out the middle, the bulk of the story the reader should read the thread itself.
Frameworks are also a popular content form with Twitter users. They are not original typically but are curated from the great frameworks of successful people. Examples:
- David Ogilvy’s framework for making great ads
- Warren Buffet’s frameworks for being a value investor
- Annie Duke’s framework for thinking in bets under uncertainty
The last content format Bush and Cole mention is a list of actionable takeaways.
For example:
- 9 copywriting tips to increase your sales
- 5 ways to avoid the mistakes every beginning trader makes
- 8 secrets for writing viral Twitter threads
Formatting is very important for creating great Twitter threads. Always use bullets when you list some items, such as actionable pieces of advice because bullets make your writing more skimmable, thus more readable. Also, consider 1/3/1 writing rhythm. The first sentence is your lead-in tweet; the three sentences in the bulk of text can be compressed into a list, and the last sentence is a conclusion summarizing your thread.
The end part of the thread could contain CTA (call to action) and TL;DR. CTA is for directing readers to more of your content. Here, you can paste a link to your best threads or articles on other social publishing platforms. TL;DR is what wraps up your thread; it’s a “super-compressed version” of the thread. Take everything you wrote and try to compress it into several bullets. It will introduce your thread through TL;DR conveying a message that “it is what I wanted to write in a nutshell”.
