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When you post a tweet you want it to be noticed and nothing makes a tweet noticed more than an embedded image. When you include an image in your tweets, you greatly increase your engagement on Twitter.
By adding an image to your tweet you can increase the chances of that tweet being retweeted more than any other factor. You can also tweet a more powerful message with an embedded image to overcome the 140 character limit.
Proof of Effectiveness
Last year Twitter examined the impact of various factors to see how much increased engagement a tweet could have. The most important factor was including an image, with the chance of being retweeted 35% higher for those tweets which included images.
⇒ See, Twitter blog What fuels a Tweet’s engagement?
Buffer did a similar study in 2013 and found that adding an image to a tweet improved engagement by even a larger percentage. Tweets with images had:
- 150% greater chance of being re-tweeted
- 89% greater chance of being favorited
- 18% greater chance of having a link clicked
⇒ See, Buffer blog, How Twitter’s Expanded Images Increase Clicks, Retweets and Favorites
But adding an image in a tweet is challenging. If you do it wrong, you will just be adding a link to an image which isn’t nearly as effective.
[note]Bloggers, check out Share as Image blog 4 Powerful Reasons You Need To Add Images To Your Blog Posts[/note]
You be the judge. Which tweet is more engaging to you?
Twitter News and the Setting You May Want to Change Right Now http://t.co/yYsRDiAuAS via @wonderoftech #twitter #tips pic.twitter.com/1mg0CLSPPY
— CarolynNicanderMohr (@wonderoftech) February 24, 2015
versus
Twitter News and the Setting You May Want to Change Right Now http://t.co/fkI7ls56WY #twitter #photos via @wonderoftech #twitter #tips — CarolynNicanderMohr (@wonderoftech) February 27, 2015
How to Embed an Image in a Tweet Easily
The easiest way to embed a photo in a tweet is to use the Buffer Chrome extension. This extension allows you to add images that will be embedded in your tweet, in addition to scheduling the time when your tweet will be published.
Check out my full review ⇒ Buffer: The Twitter Tool You Should Be Using
Buffer Share Image Button
When you add the Buffer extension to Chrome, you’ll see a Share Image button when you hover your cursor over an image in an article.
Click on that button and you’ll get a pop-up window with a composed tweet including the title of the article and the link to the article. You’ll also see the image that will be embedded in the tweet.
[tip] Don’t miss 2 Easy Steps to Greatly Increase the Chances of Your Tweets Being Read! [/tip]
You can add the @TwitterID of the website and some hashtags, then click on the down arrow to:
- Add to Queue
- Share Next
- Share Now
- Schedule Post
Be sure to pay attention to the number icon that tells you how many characters you have left in your tweet. Adding an image uses up some of your 140 characters.
Buffer Button
You can also embed images in tweets from your computer by clicking on the Buffer button in an article or the Buffer icon in your toolbar. When the window opens to compose the tweet, click on the camera icon to choose an image from your computer.
Twitter Website
If you don’t have a Buffer account, you can embed an image in your Tweet from the Twitter website. Click on the Compose icon, then write your tweet. Click on the Camera icon in the Twitter window to choose an image from your computer. The image will be embedded in your tweet.
Your Thoughts
Are you more engaged with tweets that have images embedded in them? Have you ever tried to embed an image in a tweet only to discover that a link to the image was included instead? Have you used the Buffer Share Image button to embed an image in a tweet? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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Carolyn is away from the Internet capturing photos to embed in Tweets but articles will continue to be published here at The Wonder of Tech while she’s gone. She will return on March 16 to respond to comments.
Hi Carolyn,
Informative tip indeed 🙂
You are absolutely right about images having such a great impact, especially on Twitter. It certainly attracts more eyes, and there is no reason anyone would miss or skip out on tweets with images. They surely catch my eye!
Thank goodness I knew this little trick you shared…lol…for a change! Yes, I also usually share the image through the buffer option you mentioned, though if it’s not a post or even otherwise, I also just add the image on Twitter, and add a quote to it, with tags, and it works pretty well.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
I’ve always found images to be great ways of pulling in the attention of those on Twitter, it goes to prove that an image is indeed worth a 100 words and as you say the buffer app is a great tool for sharing images from a web page, it’s certainly something I tend to do as often as I can myself.
Hi, Carolyn, I think images are so effective in Tweets I have to hold back from using them all the time – I use the odd text-only tweet to make the images stand out, but they seem such a waste 🙂
It would be quite useful for me to have a little alert that popped up saying ‘You’ve used an image in the last five tweets, now give it a rest…”.
Definitely the most important tip for anyone who uses social media.
Hi Carolyn,
This will be useful for me. I do have Buffer, but never use it. I thought it was just for scheduling tweets. Now I’m trying to appeal more locally, I can tweet local pictures to local followers. The weather has been terrible for photography, so I’m looking forward to Spring. It was sunny for a while today, but I wasn’t well so stayed in. I’m still having photography articles published on the regional newspaper. They can’t keep up with me! I really want to get out and take photos especially for the articles, which has been difficult. I’ve been making a list of places to photograph! Spring starts officially in 3 weeks so I have to remember where all the Spring flowers will be!
Hi Carolyn,
Haven’t yet used an embeddd image for a tweet, to overcomethe 140 character limit.
I started using the buffer extension (it’s available for all major browsers) since this year and LOVE it.
The great thing about the buffer extension is, even if a blog doesn’t have social sharing buttons, we can share easily, using the buffer extenion on our own browser. Just click and go!
I even schedule retweets, using this extension. 🙂
Hadn’t used the share image button till now. Will do so, now on.
I try to make my tweets to 100 characters along with any hashtags. Leaving 20 characters for retweeting.
BTW, what’s the wrong way to add an image into a tweet? Just adding a link?
For many months, I saw, whenever adding an image into my tweets, only my own tweets wouldn’t display the expanded image previews. They used to show links instead.
I’m sure I added the images right. I even did it with Tweetdeck. Same result. I was frustrated why only I couldn’t display the previews. Then, after a few months, it started happening automatically.
Hi Carolyn,
Great tip. An image embedded with a tweet will surely catch a few eyeballs. More the attention it draws, more are the chances of it getting re-tweeted.
I did not know about the buffer extension for Chrome and I am glad that you wrote about it. It is very easy to use the ‘share image’ functionality using the extension rather than uploading the pic on Twitter. Will try out the extension. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I agree Carolyn, adding images just makes the tweets stand out. My eyes will still gravitate to an image before it will anything else. Of course the more appealing the image is the more attention I will pay it and the more it will get retweeted.
Buffer has just continued to make things that much easier for us so your suggestion is definitely spot on my dear.
Thanks for sharing this with us and I need to definitely do much more of this moving forward.
~Adrienne
Hello Carolyn,
Images do get lots of attention. I have never uploaded a photo to my tweets. Sometimes when I send a tweet from a site the image will automatically come up. I never really took the time to do it myself. I will now give it a try. Most of the time I use Hootsuite but I will try Buffer for adding images. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Hey Carolyn,
This is quite new to me. I actually have a plugin that allows me to add an image to my tweet the first time I tweet it out.
One thing i always wanted to know is if there is a tool where i can constantly tweet my blog post with my featured image. That would cool since I use an automated tool that tweets my old posts, but without the image.
I still get quite a few retweets, but an image will help to give our audience more of a visual view and a reason to check out our blog posts!
Thanks for the share Carolyn! Having an image does make a great difference! Take Care!
Hi Carolyn,
I have used buffer chrome extension and also the regular compose thing in twitter to embed an image in a post. And the results I have seen is quite impressive. Tweets with images got higher responses when compared to tweets without images. Pictorial representation is much more appreciated than normal words. Just as in the case of Infographics.
Hi Carolyn,
Great tip. An image embedded with a tweet will surely catch a few eyeballs. More the attention it draws, more are the chances of it getting re-tweeted.
Hi Mire, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Exactly, an image really captures attention. By using Buffer you can embed images in your tweets easily.
To be honest I think images will improve engagement in any social network. Better the image better the result. We’ve been using SocialOomph to automate out Twitter updates and noticed that some tweets got lots of favorite and re-tweets. A simple analysis showed us that they were the ones with images. We update our whole queue with tweets with images and the engagement has been amazing.