Tweet for Emotional Response
Last month I shared the news that the CIA joined Twitter and shared its first tweet. On Monday, the CIA celebrated their first month of having a Twitter presence by answering the 5 top questions they’ve received. Some were funny. Some made you wonder if the “I” stands for something other than Intelligence.
Regardless, the tweets evoked an emotional response.
When it comes to social media, we strive for engagement. If your post can evoke an emotional response–surprise, joy, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust–it will be more likely to get a “favorite” or “retweet” or “like”.
For booksellers, I recommend concentrating on surprise and joy. Use fear only if there’s a sense of urgency, like when you’re down to your last few author event tickets. Although it’s tempting to use anger, sadness, and disgust–especially when posting about Amazon–don’t cave. Bookstore owners are the smartest people I know. You are clever enough to get your message across with wit and humor.
Your customers like to share clever posts and tweets that make them smile. Have fun. This is another area where you have Amazon beat. I’ve seen their tweets. No emotional response. You’d think they were written by an algorithm or something.
