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Lisa Campo

By: Lisa Campo on July 30th, 2015

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Knowledge Stop: Step Up Your Association's Twitter Presence with Cards

Association Industry Commentary | Content, Social & Digital Marketing

mailto:demo@example.com?Subject=HighRoad Solutions - interesting article

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Most of you are probably familiar with Twitter and its 140-character tweets. An added photo makes the tweet much more appealing. As you grow ever-dependent on social media to expand your member base, opportunities are being constantly developed. Now, your audience on Twitter can simply sign up for your email list without having to leave Twitter, or even download your association's app right from Twitter. You can plan out an article and a photo to go alongside each and every tweet.

Twitter cards make this possible.

What are Twitter Cards?

If you've ever watched a video on YouTube, or clicked on a photo that came up on your Twitter stream, then you have already made contact with Twitter cards.

Twitter cards enable you to enhance your tweets, taking them beyond the basic (and bland) text. You can develop a media-rich experience for those members who tend to tweet your content. These cards can add appealing visual interest through product info, images, videos, and others. All you need to do is add a few lines of code within your website.

There are a total of seven distinct cards to choose from, including:

  1. Single photo cards
  2. Gallery cards offering numerous images
  3. Summary cards with images
  4. Product cards
  5. App cards
  6. Player cards with specific showcase videos
  7. Summary cards that can allow you to post additional information with a link

For marketers, the product cards are one of the most attractive options, as they enable the user to share information and photos straight from tweets. Learn more about the types of cards

Setup

If you have chosen the Twitter card of your liking, you should now set them up.

If you are a developer:

To have ultimate control and greater flexibility over Twitter cards, you can add meta tags for the particular card on your website. Twitter provides ample information to help you do this.

For non-developers:

If you are not a developer, and have a WordPress site, then Twitter recommends three different plugins that can be used to integrate your site with the Twitter Cards. Consider checking out the following plugins:

  1. Jetpack
  2. WordPress SEO by Yoast
  3. JM Twitter Cards

HubSpot also has a great infographic on Twitter cards (applies to all users, not just HubSpotters). Twitter cards are already integrated into the HubSpot CMS, so if you're using HubSpot, you're already taking advantage of this.

Benefits

Depending on the type of card you use, your association can gain various benefits.

For instance, association can use product cards to launch new products or advertise existing offers – free of cost. Lead generation cards can be used to generate leads by collecting email addresses from your tweets. On the other hand, website cards can be used to enhance web traffic and engagement through tweets.
With that said, the results you yield all depend on your goals and the type of Twitter card you choose.

Get rid of boring tweets and add color to your campaigns with this free tool.