This article in the Atlantic makes a point that every emergency manager using Twitter needs to have burned in their brain: most people don’t click on links in Tweets to read content.
The article is long and the context is different, but the analysis shows only about 1% clicking a link in a tweet.
Now maybe your stats are better. But unless you’ve got proof, assuming that people will click on your links is just blind speculation.
Images are something else altogether. We’d guess that images get much higher click-through rates, which is useful if you’re using tweets to spread an Amber Alert.
And we think this lesson goes beyond Twitter. Monday, we got this from our county’s emergency alert system:
Residents urges to prepare for hazardous weather conditions. Visit https://charmeck.org for the latest information.
So get your point across in the tweet or text itself. And if you need more room than 140 characters, send two messages – or more. That’s our advice for IPAWS WEA messages as well.
After all, if it’s worth sending, it’s worth getting through.
