Create a Tweetable Link – Step by Step

HandmadeMarketing.org reader Amy Vander Vorste, from Etsy’s Avlor’s Imprints, has shared a number of great posts from her blog with our team, including how to create a Facebook user name and how to manage your time on marketing on Etsy.com.

Recently, Amy posted a useful article about “Creating a Tweetable Link” and how Twitter can help boost your sales online.

“Asking people to help Tweet something?” Amy writes.  “Make it super simple for your tweeters with a clickable link and a Tweet all ready to go!”

Amy shares an an example of the code for a link she created for one of the Etsy Teams she is a member of.

<a href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=EtsyPaper%20Featured%20Member:%20Aletha%20Williams%2Designs%20http://tr.im/AJsDesign %23etsypaper” target=”_blank”>EtsyPaper Team Weekly Featured Member – Aletha Williams</a>

“Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with HTML code,” Amy writes in her post.  “We’ll dissect it.”

If you’re already familiar with HTML, you can go to “Section Two” to jump ahead in Amy’s Twitter link tutorial.

- Section One -

Amy begins by disecting the code.  “The tag for a link is “a” like this: <a></a>,” she writes.  “The href attribute is the web address where you want the link to go. Like this: href=”http://somewebaddress.com/blahblah…etc You need the = after href and the quotes around the web address.”

“The target=”_blank” attribute tells your browser program to open an new window or tab,” Amy explains. “There are more options than _blank. But I’m not going to focus on them.”   For more information, Amy suggests readers read about these options on the W3 Schools’ target attribute page.

Next, Amy explains that between the <a> and the </a>, you should put what you want your link to say (a.k.a. what will be clickable).  For her example code above, this is “EtsyPaper Team Weekly Featured Member – Aletha Williams”.

“If you look at my example above there are quite a few little %20 bits in the link,” Amy writes.  “That just means a space. No need to worry about it in your link. Here’s a reference for URL character codes, if you’re curious.”

- Section Two -

After we know the basics of what goes into HTML code, we can move on to creating a Tweetable link.  “Now to the super cool part!” Amy writes.  “How to tell Twitter what to put in the Tweet.”

In your link, you’ll use an href attribute like this:

href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=What ever you want to Tweet.”

“Twitter hashtags (one word tags in a tweet that begin with #) need to use the %23 character instead of the # for the hashtag will work,” Amy writes.  “Ta-da! That’s it!“

She suggests checking out the Ultimate Guide to Twitter Hashtags for more information about hashtags.

Amy also shares one extra quickie Twitter tip.  “Sign up for a URL shortening service like tr.im or bit.ly and use it to shorten URLs/web addressed for Tweets. You can track stats like how many people click on your link in Tweets!”

“So, tying it all together,” Amy writes, “to make a clickable link for people to easily tweet this:  “Etsy Twitter Team Shop of the Week: Sumiko Shop – Lovely Jewelry and Accessories http://tinyurl.com/9amvdr #etsytwitter”, see the code below:”

<a href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=Etsy Twitter Team Shop of the Week: Sumiko Shop – Lovely Jewelry and Accessories http://tinyurl.com/9amvdr %23etsytwitter” target=”_blank”>Click to tweet: Etsy Twitter Team Shop of the Week: Sumiko Shop</a>

Now you have an easy to use code that reads “Click to tweet: Etsy Twitter Team Shop of the Week: Sumiko Shop”, which allows your supporter to simply “click to Tweet!”

Thank you for the great research and very useful tip Amy!

What do you do to use Twitter to it’s full potential?  Do you see a lot of Etsy, ArtFire, or 1000 Markets sales from Twitter?  Why do you think Twitter is a good, or not so good, marketing tool?

Tell us what you think!  Amy submitted a link to her recent blog post under our “Join” tab.  When we republish articles from handmade sellers, we link to your shop and blog in return for your hard work!