If your business produces excellent blog content, this post will show you how to repurpose your content and build a social media presence on Twitter by focusing on Twitter threads. You won’t need to add new work to your content team because virtual assistants can handle this entire process. This post will cover how to find and hire the right virtual assistants, and it covers guidelines on how they should turn your existing content into a Twitter content calendar.
Why focus on Twitter threads?
Twitter threads are the ideal format for repurposing long-form blog content. They allow you to express more nuance than you can fit into a single 280-character tweet, and they get more impressions and engagement than regular tweets with links.
A study by Buffer shows that a tweet with links receives fewer impressions than the same content published as a Twitter thread. The opening tweet of a thread got 54% more engagement than sharing a link to the blog post on Twitter.
Repurposing content on Twitter also encourages far more interaction with your audience than a comment section at the end of a blog post. And it’s not like you have to pick one or the other.
Not all posts make good Twitter threads.
Twitter is a short-form social media platform, meaning people value immediacy. The twitter thread format is excellent for posts that focus on:
Lists of resources
Bullet recommendations
Actionable tips
How-to information
Step-by-step walkthroughs
The more actionable the information is, the better it will do. An opinion piece is harder to turn into a Twitter thread because you have to break down each main argument and then fit them into a single tweet. It can be done, threads are great for telling stories, summarising primary research, and sharing important news with the world, but I recommend starting with more structured, actionable content to get a feel for the format first.
How to format a Twitter thread
Here are five essential etiquette to follow when turning a blog post into a thread.
A strong first tweet
The opening tweet in a Twitter thread is disproportionately important. Its job is to stop people from scrolling past your tweet on their Twitter feed.
An opening tweet must answer two questions for your reader:
What is this Twitter thread about?
What will they get out of reading it?
For example, Alex Garcia is writing about the value of Twitter threads and promises to help you write viral Twitter threads. This gives a reader enough information to decide if it’s something they want to spend time reading.
Below, Alex Lieberman is writing about Amazon's web services and how they make so much money. This thread will be very different from Alex Garcia’s, but that’s clear in the opening tweet. If this is a topic I’m interested in, then I understand that investing the next 30–45 seconds will leave me with an understanding of the AWS story & lessons I can take from it.
Finally, we have another example of a great opening tweet from Amanda Natividad. Again, this thread will be completely different from the first two. But I know that I’m getting into a story on how to do PR, and I’m going to get a clear framework for how to think about PR by the end of it.
Each of these opening tweets was clear about where the thread was going to go and why it was worth reading. Answering these two questions for a reader can turn a rubbish opening tweet into something decent, but it doesn’t guarantee success. A compelling opening tweet shares a strong opinion about something your readers care about. The more original or controversial the opinion, the better, but the key is to articulate important topics and problems that your readers care about.
One idea per thread
When it comes to writing a Twitter thread, you can’t just copy a blog post into a Twitter thread whole hog. A thread is a distillation of the most important information. A good thread focuses on a single idea. If your post explores multiple ideas, hone in on the most actionable section and/or write multiple threads.
The ideal length
8-12 tweets are the ideal length for a thread. There are no rules here, but the general expectation is that you can deliver your piece in about ten tweets. Your content has to work hard to keep someone’s attention for longer.
One thought per tweet
The only thing worse than a rambly 56-part thread is if an unfinished sentence runs over into the following tweet. Always edit your ideas so that each tweet contains a single thought. People spend a lot of time distilling the essence of what they're saying so they can pack a thought into 280 characters. Twitter respects brevity.
Avoid ugly walls of text
Finally, it’s important to pay attention to the aesthetics of your tweets. The goal is not to cram as much information as possible into every tweet. Short sentences and line breaks help preserve whitespace and prevent tweets from looking like an intimidating wall of text. When you have lots to convey, you can always use numbers, bullet points, or emojis to structure the text so that it’s easier to digest.
These constraints will help you pay attention to some of the most important aspects of translating long-form content to Twitter. They are not rules, they are closer to expected etiquette on the platform and useful to keep in mind when formatting your threads.
A strong first tweet
One idea per thread
8-12 tweets for the ideal length
One thought per tweet
Avoid ugly walls of text
How to write and schedule your Twitter Threads
If you start writing a tweet on Twitter’s native web app, you can add additional tweets to it by clicking on the plus button in the bottom right corner of the tweet composer (highlighted in yellow below).
If you're planning to convert lots of blog posts into Twitter threads, then Twitter’s UI is sufficient for Twitter threads. You can use a character counting tool to break posts up into 280-character chunks and organize everything in a Google Doc before publishing them on Twitter.
If you prefer to copy the whole blog post into an editor and then break it into tweet-sized chunks you can also use a Twitter thread maker.
Our favorite Twitter thread maker is Chirr App. Their free tier lets you write up to 10 tweets and one image per thread. You have an editor where you can split text and format everything on the left and preview of what it will look like on Twitter on the right. They even have a free chrome extension that makes it easy to import blog posts directly into the editor.
If you plan to produce a lot of Twitter threads, the $4/month plan remove the 10-tweet limit and lets you save drafts of your threads. The pro and team plans also let you schedule threads and give you analytics to see how you’re Twitter content is performing.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant to do all this for you
By hiring a virtual assistant, you can find someone who will enjoy repurposing your content for Twitter at a fraction of the cost of doing it in-house. You only pay for the time and tasks you need, and no extra office space or equipment is needed.
If you haven’t outsourced work to a virtual assistant before, then converting existing content into Twitter threads doesn’t have to be the extent of their responsibilities. You can begin relieving your content team of easily repeatable tasks like publishing checklist procedures or research or interview outreach. Even if you’re content team could take on these extra responsibilities, it is usually cheaper to outsource them. A more efficient content team is then free to focus on do more of what they do best.
How much does virtual assistance cost?
In the U.S., you can expect to find pricing between $30-50/hour for qualified virtual assistance.
You can find individual contractors for this kind of work, or you can hire an agency that vets and trains applicants for you. You can also explore hiring overseas. Virtual assistants who need more upfront guidance and onboarding are generally cheaper. If you’re planning to compare and contrast different options, then here are 10 important questions to ask a virtual assistant company before hiring them.
At Virtual Assist USA, we have the largest team of all US-based Virtual Assistants in the country. We've been around since 2008, and we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. All our Virtual Assistants are our employees, not contractors,
Virtual Assist USA offers three pricing packages on a monthly basis ranging from 15 hours a month to 50 hours a month. You will be assigned a dedicated Virtual Assistant with a trained back-up to cover illness or vacations. There are no long term contracts or cancellation penalties, and any unused hours rollover to the next month
We’re the First & Only virtual assistant Solution that is HIPAA Compliant, we are certified Google partners. In 2017 we were named the top Back Office Provider by Clutch and we’ve been ranked on the Technology List 500, and in 2021 we were recognized as one of Top Virtual Assistant Companies by SuperbCompanies.
Steps to hiring a virtual assistant
If you’re considering hiring a virtual assistant to repurpose your existing content as Twitter threads, then the first step is to fill out our onboarding questionnaire to match you with the right virtual assistant. Once the questionnaire is completed, we will get back to you within a few hours with onboarding information.
After the necessary contracts have been signed and payment has been made, you will be assigned a dedicated virtual assistant. You can communicate with your virtual assistant team via phone, e-mail, or text message, it’s entirely up to you.
It usually takes a few weeks for a virtual assistant to familiarise themselves with your business. It’s important to overcommunicate during this initial period and provide proper instructions and operating procedures for the work you want them to do.
If your only goal is repurpose your blog content for Twitter then this post will serve as a clear set of instructions on how to repurpose and format your blog content as Twitter threads.
If you're looking for ways to get more out of your blog content, consider repurposing it as Twitter threads with the help of a virtual assistant. Turning your blog posts down Twitter threads allows you to reach a wider audience and get more engagement. Plus, with a virtual assistant to help manage your Twitter content, you can free up your content team’s time to focus on producing even better content.