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  Article updated: December 01, 2023

Create a tweet

You can create and publish tweets from Composer. To save time, you can publish to several social networks at once. Publish tweets right away, or schedule them in advance for a specific day and time. Read on to learn about all you can do when creating tweets in Hootsuite.

Watch Best practices for sharing content on Twitter for great publishing guidance. Visit Hootsuite Academy to watch more videos, take courses, or earn industry-recognized certifications.

Before you begin

Make sure you’ve already added a Twitter account to Hootsuite. To learn how, see Add a Twitter account.

Open the post composer

You can start your tweet from Composer or Planner. Select one of the following options:

Create your tweet

To get started, open the post composer, and then follow the steps in this article to create your post. Hootsuite does not currently support creating polls.

Sample post in Composer.

  1. Select the Twitter profile you'd like to publish to. 

    Note: Only one profile can be selected; Twitter doesn't allow publishing to multiple profiles at once.

  2. Create your tweet. The character limit for tweets is 280. You can include the following in your tweets:
    • Links - if you include a link, a link preview appears on the right. Can’t see a link preview? See Work with link previews.
    • Hashtags - Select AI hashtag suggestions for a list of hashtag suggestions. The suggestions are powered by AI and are based on your post text and media (see our guide to using hashtags on every network).
    • Mentions - To mention a Twitter user, enter @ followed by the Twitter handle, and then select an option from the list. Mentions remain in plain text until the post is published. Learn more about mentioning a user
    • Emoji - Select the smiley face to add emoji.
  3. To shorten a link, below the Content area, select Shorten with Ow.ly. The full links remain visible in the Content area, while the post preview on the right displays the shortened link.
  4. To add link tracking parameters, below the Content area, select Add tracking, select Ow.ly, and then select Custom. Enter your campaign name, type, and value, and then select Apply.
  5. Add one or more images, a GIF, or a video to your post.
  6. To edit an image, add filters, or make other adjustments to it, point to the image thumbnail and select Edit image. For detailed instruction on using the image editor, see Work with images.
  7. To add alt text (descriptive text for your image), point to an image thumbnail and select Alt. Enter the alt text description of the image, and then select Apply. The character limit for Twitter is 420 characters.
  8. To add captions to a video, point to it and select Video settings. Drag a SubRip Subtitle file (SRT file) from your computer into the Subtitles area or choose Upload an SRT file.

Advanced options

When you create your tweet, you can also take advantage of additional options (depending on your Hootsuite plan type), such as applying tags and adding images from a content library.

Publish your tweet

When you’re finished creating your tweet, take a look at it in the preview on the right to see how it will look on your Twitter profile. You'll be alerted to any issues. Once you're ready, select from the following options:

  • Post now - Publish the tweet right away.
  • Schedule for later - Select a date and time to publish the tweet. Learn all about scheduling posts.
  • Save draft - Select the arrow next to Post now, and then select Save draft if you’re not ready to publish or schedule your tweet.

If you want to create another tweet right away, select the arrow next to Post now (or Schedule), and then select one of the following options:

  • Post and reuse accounts (or Schedule and reuse accounts) - Publish your current post and begin a new one to the same social accounts.
  • Post and duplicate (or Schedule and duplicate) - Publish your current post and retain its content to create a new, similar post with a unique post ID.

Find and manage your drafts, published posts, and scheduled posts in Planner .

Tip: Want to publish Twitter threads? You can publish and schedule threads from the Tweepsmap app available in Hootsuite Apps.

 

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