Easy tutorial for creating Twitter Threads (with examples)

After I published my last thread on Twitter, someone asked me “How do you make those tweets string together like that?”

Some people would have ridiculed him for asking what many Twitter users consider basic knowledge, but I don’t believe in dumb questions. I broke down for him how to create Twitter Threads, complete with screenshots.

If you’ve seen those series of tweets on the timeline and want to know how to take advantage of one of the coolest social media features, this article is for you. This is a very simple, step-by-step text on how to create a tweet thread.

Let’s dive in.

What is a Twitter Thread?

Threads are tweets that are connected to one another and meant to be read as one continuous post.

You can think of a Twitter thread as a type of mini-blogging. Twitter users can use Twitter threads to:

• Do a deep dive on an idea
• Do a list
• Compose a collection
• Elaborate on something that couldn’t possibly be covered in 280 character limit of a single tweet

The grey line on the left connecting my profile pics shows that all though these are separate tweets, they are threaded together.

The phrase “tweet thread” or “Twitter thread” is also used to describe a tweet or quote tweet with several replies beneath it. It should be noted that Twitter threads are not the same thing as tweetstorms.

The difference between tweetstorms and Twitter threads

Tweetstorms are rapidly fired tweets that are not connected.

They may be meant to read without interruption, but they aren’t structured that way. Although each new tweet in the tweetstorm may be related to the previous tweet, they are not actually connected.

Twitter threads, on the other hand, are connected.

The content needs to be more clearly related. Otherwise, the thread doesn’t make much sense. Any single tweet can be made into a Twitter thread by adding additional tweets to it.

Another notable difference between tweetstorms and Twitter threads is that (as of the publishing of this article) Tweetdeck (and many apps to schedule tweets) do not allow you to schedule Twitter threads.

Tweetstorms, however, are easy to schedule because they’re separate tweets.

Why write Twitter Threads?

I used to be the biggest opponent of Twitter Threads. I looked at the stats and saw that engagement on a thread just kept decreasing as you went further down.

However, Twitter decided that it wants to make a push toward encouraging longer-form content, so the algorithm appears to have been tweaked to measure something similar to the dwell time metric on each post.

Moves made by Twitter to acquire the newsletter platform “Revue” and their own developments into long-formcontent point the way towards favoring content that makes people read more and spend more time on the platform.

Each tweet only takes a few moments to read. Every time you add another tweet to the first tweet, you increase the time people will read and engage with your Twitter account. This engagement time goes up even more when you add images and gifs.

And if you think about how Twitter makes money, this makes perfect sense.

Like any other social media platform, they make their money by either selling advertising space or collecting and selling data. The longer you stay on the platform, the more likely you’ll click on an advertisement or Twitter will get more information about you that they can sell.

So, since their goal is to make money and you enable them to do so if you spend more time on the platform, it’s most reasonable to suspect that they will reward activity that makes people spend more time on the platform.

Twitter threads do this much better than individual tweets.

How to create a Twitter Thread

There are two ways to create a new thread:

Add tweets to an already published tweet and use the threads feature before publishing. This section of the article covers both.

Adding Tweets

The easiest way to create a Twitter thread is to publish a tweet, then reply as you would to a tweet written by someone else. After the second tweet is posted, reply to it with a third tweet and continue this pattern until your thread is finished.

<figcaption>This will open up a box that you can comment in</figcaption>

While easy to use, one big problem with this method is that other Twitter users can reply to your tweets as each is published, before your entire thread is finished. You can imagine how this might cause problems for any number of reasons.

This is just one reason why I don’t recommend publishing Twitter threads this way.

The other reason is that a good thread requires a little preparation. You don’t have to write a full-blown essay, but a good thread has some structure. Good structure is a lot harder to create when your writing is a product of spontaneity.

That’s why I recommend using Twitter’s built-in thread feature, which lets you compose an entire Twitter thread first before you publish it.

Twitter threads feature

1. Open the Twitter website (if you’re a computer) or the Twitter app (doesn’t matter if you’re on android or iOS; it all looks and works the same).
2. On the desktop, click the “Tweet” button. On the Twitter app, press the blue “+” button.
3. Write your usual Tweet.
   
4. Select the blue “+” button in the lower right hand of the tweet. You’ll get a new tweet box.
   
    
5. Now type what you want to add to the tweet. Continue until the end of the tweet thread.
   
   
   Hint: Just because it’s a thread doesn’t mean that you need to make each new tweet be dependent on the last. Your thread will get much more engagement, retweets, and each part of the thread can stand alone as its own tweet.
6. Go over it, check for typos, then hit the Tweet all. Your Twitter thread will now publish.

Now you know how to join in the fun of creating Twitter threads.