As far as social media tools go, Twitter is pretty straightforward: You get a maximum of 140 characters of type to express what’s on your mind. If you want to add a photo or a video, that’s fine too.
There are, of course, other aspects to it as well, such as keeping track of what’s trending and the best way to use hashtags. And, like almost every other social media tool or app out there, it’s a platform in flux: Twitter has introduced a new section called Moments, which is a slickly designed, curated news section, highlighting the most noteworthy events, trends and memes.
As with any kind of technology, you can always find ways to improve your workflow. To help you get started, I’ve compiled a few of my favorite tools that allow you to get great results on Twitter.
Bitly
Since you’re limited to just 140 characters, you really need to watch every word you include in your tweet. This website and app allows you to quickly shorten the length of any URL.
Canva
Easy-to-use and very versatile, this graphic design program was created to help you improve your chances of getting your image, graphic or meme to go viral. You can use it for other social media tools too. Visit canva.com to try your hand at it.
PicCollage
This website and app lets you quickly add photos, YouTube videos, various fonts, stickers and cutouts to your graphic to create an intriguing collage.
Moldiv – Collage Photo Editor
If you’re looking for a mobile app that has a simpler interface than PicCollage, check this one out (available on iOS and Android). It has a wide array of grid templates to choose from to make great-looking photo collages.
Using video on Twitter
This tool (available on iOS and Android) is actually built into the Twitter app. It makes shooting, editing and tweeting video very easy. On an iPhone, for example, simply click the tweet button, then the camera icon, and then the red video record button. Next, hold down and record a video clip. Then, record as many clips as you like — they appear as boxes below the main window. Next, you can move individual clips to edit the order of your video. Last, just press “done” and you can post your video. It’s about as simple as video editing gets.
Hashtagify
This is a free web service that’s actually a hashtag search/discovery engine. Simply type in a search term in the upper right-hand corner, and you can find which hashtags are the best ones for your goals.
Find out more ideas on how to get the most out of Twitter in my State of the Art column, in the February/March 2016 issue of Professional Artist magazine.
Terry Sullivan is the former editor of Professional Artist magazine and the former technical editor at American Artist magazine. He currently is an editor at Consumer Reports, where he covers digital cameras, camcorders, smart phones, printers and digital imaging. He is also an artist and musician. Follow him on Twitter: @TerryCR.
