Have you ever heard about Twitter Cards?
No?
Then you are missing a great opportunity to increase the effectiveness of your social media marketing.
If you follow the steps mentioned in this post, you will be able to have Twitter Cards integrated in your WordPress blog in less than 5 minutes.
What are the Benefits of Twitter Cards?
Twitter Cards may help you increase the visibility of your content on Twitter.
You need to implement some meta tags in your blog, and your articles will definitely look more sexy on Twitter.
Not to mention, you should also be able to enhance your brand and attract more followers.
Talking about the mobile market, your tweets will look better also on mobile users.
All these features will make your content stand out!
Here below you see an image of one of my latest posts, after the integration of Twitter Cards.
How to Integrate Twitter Cards in Your WordPress Blog
First of all you need to decide which Twitter Cards type you want to implement:
- summary;
- summary below large image;
- photo;
- application.
You want to choose one, depending on your website type.
I have choosen “summary below large image” and the image above shows that kind of Twitter Cards (see more information directly on official site).
So how can you implement Twitter Cards in your WordPress blog?
The answer is using a great plugin, called “JM Twitter Cards”.
Now you want to login to your blog dashboard and select “plugins”, “add new”.
Then search “JM Twitter cards” plugin and install it (this is the link to directly download it).
Finally you want to enable it.
It should appear a menu in the left side of your dashboard, showing the name of the plugin.
Go for it and click on “general”.
This is what it the page will look like:
You need to enter your personal and website Twitter username.
Select your card type.
Now go on the “images” menu, and select a picture that will be taken as default if no featured image is added in any of your blog posts.
Under “Robots.txt” menu, select “yes”.
Finally clicking on “home settings”, you may want to personalize the message of home meta description.
Now you need to validate your Twitter card here.
Go to validate and apply, insert your blog URL (which need to contains cards meta tags) and follow the easy procedure to apply.
A message with approval will be sent to your email within few minutes (in my case) or up to few hours.
All this process won’t take you more than 5 minutes.
For a more detailed guide, please refer to the video made by the creator of this plugin, Julien Maury :
Conclusion
I find Twitter Cards a powerful way to improve your visibility and increase your social media power.
What about you?
Have you already implemented Twitter Cards on your site?
I hope you found this tutorial easy to follow and let me know in the comments if you have any questions.
Thanks for reading!
I have only recently started using Twitter cards, but like you say, it was very simple to set up. Your tutorial here is great.
I have to be honest though that Twitter is not one of my best social media platforms, so I can’t say I have noticed an difference in traffic since using it. But that is probably more from the way I use Twitter to the cards themselves. I love how they look and I’m glad I made the switch, but I do need to focus more on actually using the platform to its full advantage.
Hi Catherine,
thanks for taking the time to read and post your comment here.
Glad you already installed the meta tags on your site to make Twitter Cards working.
It looks strange to me, you are not receiving a lot of traffic from Twitter, as it’s the social network that brings me the most visits.
Are you using JustRetweet and, most of all, Triberr? 🙂
Hey Erik,
Really timely post.
I just started using Twitter Cards literally yesterday and I set everything up but I’m still waiting for approval. So I can’t tell you if it’s benefiting me or not (since I’m still waiting) but it does seem like it’s something that could be very effective.
I’ll still wait and see if (when) I get approved.
Really useful tutorial.
– Andrew
Hi Andrew,
great to know you already installed everything.
I was lucky, I guess, as I got my site approved within 1-2 hours.
Be patient!
I look forward to share some of your content with Twitter Cards enabled!
Thanks for your comment,
have an awesome week! 🙂
Ciao, Erik!
I believe this is the first time I’ve commented on your site, and really like the user-friendly layout and awesome content! I’ll definitely be back. 🙂
No, I have not heard about Twitter Cards, and the title of this article intrigued me, so thought I better see what I’m missing!
I really appreciate that you use screen shots as it’s so important to be able to follow something and implement quickly.
Okay, I’m a bit confused. These Twitter cards will appear on MY site? Or can I have the Twitter cards linking to my site on other places?
I certainly do not want to use them on my site and take people away from my domain that I own and control every aspect of how it’s monetized. The only place I have links to my social media platforms is on my contact page because I want people to stay on my site, consuming my content, signing up to my list, getting value and ultimately buying my products and services.
Please let me know, because if I can use these cards anywhere, I will do it immediately. 🙂
Thanks in advance.
– Carol
Ciao Carol!
Happy to see you here! 🙂
Ok, let me help you.
If you take a look at the first image in this post,
you’ll see how Twitter Cards look like when a tweet coming from your site is displayed on Twitter.
Basically, Twitter Cards are a way to increase the visibility of your the tweets where is mentioned your website or posts within your blog.
This won’t take people away from your content, instead, I think you’ll attract more audience with Twitter Cards.
It’s a way to enhance your name/brand, and may be increase your Twitter followers.
If you need help, please let me know!
Thanks for commenting,
have a great one Carol!
Hi Erik,
This is my first time that I am here to have some knowledge from your blog.
As you have mentioned about Twitter cards in the post that are helpful in improving your social presence. People can use them to show their Twitter presence properly.
Twitter has millions of user and between them you need to create your own brand. I am glad to know about the plugin.
Hopefully this will work fine.
Have a nice week ahead.:)
~Ravi
Hi Ravi,
thanks for your visit here.
You should give Twitter Cards a try,
it could increase a lot your visibility on Twitter.
Appreciate your comment,
and have a great day!
Hi Erik, I have not heard of or used Twitter cards but thanks so much for the heads up.
I’m reviewing your post and looking into the Twitter cards set up. I’m anxious to see how this actually works. for my tweets. Of course anything that improves our visibility and extends our reach is generally a good thing, right?
Blessings,
Liz
Hi Liz,
glad to see you here! 🙂
You should just choose the format of your Twitter Cards, and I think it definitely helps you increasing visibility and your brand/name awareness.
Thanks for taking the time to visit and comment,
have a great day!
Hey Erik,
Some time back I had heard of Twitter cards but I wasn’t on Twitter so I didn’t really want to go to the trouble of adding yet one more plugin. The Twitter cards won’t show up on the third party applications like Tweetdeck which is what I use.
But then Ashvini decided to add it to Share Juice Pro, the social sharing plugin that I use. It’s still in the testing phase but I am testing it for him and it works beautifully. I checked my Twitter analytics today and you’re right, they really convert well and I’m getting some great traffic because of them.
I highly recommend people looking into this because they work. Who doesn’t love big old images with all that great information staring your in the face? I sure do!
Great share Erik, thanks.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
great to hear that Twitter Cards was added to Share Juice Pro.
And I am happy you confirm the increase of visibility and conversion.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I really appreciate your comment here.
Have a fantastic day! 🙂
Hi Erik,
Thank you very much for the details… I am rushing to upload that plugin… 🙂
Just one more question… Is this going to work when some one is going to tweet from my Flare social share button?
Regards…
Hi Karmakar,
have you already installed and settled the plugin?
The Twitter Cards are going to show up for every content of your blog,
because the plugin is going to add the proper card meta tags to your website.
This means you or your readers sharing your content via Twitter or via any other tools connected to Twitter, are going to display the tweet showing a Twitter Card.
Let me know how it goes! 😉
Hi Erik,
I did hear of Twitter Cards, but thought “Oh dear…another thing to look up!” Not anymore!!! You have explained it so well. How it works, the benefits and even those screen shots to make it so easy to do.
Twitter is a powerful platform from a marketer’s perspective. I do believe that Twitter Cards will enhance any strategy one has.
Thanks so much for this great tutorial. It sure helped me out so much.
-Donna
Hi Donna,
great to know you enjoyed the small tutorial! 🙂
Like you, I told myself “well, I’am going to do it later”, when I heard the first time about Twitter Cards.
Now, I feel happy to have completed the procedure.
It’s so easy and it really requires a few minutes.
Thanks for your feedback, Donna.
Hope you’re having a great week!
Hello Erik,
Twitter Cards is really awesome and works better to get more traffic from Twitter. I’m already use Twitter Cards in two of my blog and got huge benefits from it.
Thanks for sharing this nice tutorial about Twitter Cards. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your experience with Twitter Cards, Manik. 🙂
Hi Erik,
Wow, I wasn’t aware of this. Thanks for the information. I tried it, it is being tough to integrate since I am in blogger. Will need to learn the tutorial and will try later.
This is something amazing, which will indeed increase the user engagement and recognition. The post looks attractive after that, Nice tips for the wordpress guys. Enjoyed the post buddy.
Glad you learned something new from this post, Rohan.
Twitter Cards are an effective way to increase your Twitter visibility!
Thanks for commenting!
Social media presence is playing a vital role in blogger’s life. And this post about twitter card is really helpful for those who want to use twitter for their blog or business.
Thanks Eric for sharing this post..
Glad you learned something new, Kuldeep!
Thanks for sharing your comment here today.
OH What a Great Guide Erik!!!!!! Definetely appreciate your help for gaining more exposure throught this great Twitter CARD, Can’t wait to Add it to my blog. Yours post is defintelya timely help to me, Keep posting Erik
Glad you liked the guide, Vino.
You’ll see : Twitter Cards will help you gain more exposure! 🙂
Thanks for leaving your comment here today.
This is a very powerful article i didn’t know anything about twitter cards thanks for sharing
Be sure to set it up Twitter Cards to your blog to improve your social media presence!
Thanks for your comment, David.
Hi Eric,
already a while ago I activated Twitter cards on my blog and I can see an increase in click throughs from my tweets since I am using them.
As I use WP Social SEO Booster which supports Twitter cards anyway, I didn’t need to install a separate plugin. However, I didn’t like that it didn’t give a choice and only used the summary card.
Just today I made some manual changes so that it will show summary cards with a large image and wonder if it will have an influence on CTR.
Have a great day,
Torsten
Hello Torsten,
glad to read your positive experience since you enabled Twitter Cards in your blog.
I’ve chosen the large image because I think it will catch the attention of users.
I’ve started paying attention to the image featured I use for the post and Twitter Cards, since then I’ve enabled them.
Thanks for leaving your thoughts here today.
Have a fantastic day! 🙂
Hello Erik!
This is a great post. Twitter cards are indeed the greatest way to drive traffic and beautify your Twitter profile.
Lately I’ve been effectively using Twitter Analytics. In that, I can notice that the links with Twitter cards tend to get more click through rates and engagement. Twitter cards when properly implemented in the blog with the help of WordPress SEO or any other plug-in can be very beneficial.
You have explained how to integrate Twitter cards with WordPress with the help of JM Twitter Cards. However, most of the Webmasters are already using WordPress SEO. It would be easier for them to implement.
The link you have linked to “apply approval” is wrong, kindly fix it up!
I heard about Twitter cards about a month ago. Before that I was not aware of that. It’s a beautiful thing. It learnt me a lesson that one should not ignore a simple stuff.
Cheers,
Akshay Hallur.
Hello Akshay,
it’s great you shared your experience here.
And good to know you verified Twitter Cards get more engagement
Thanks for letting me know about the link in the article for the approval.
They’ve changed URL, it’s now pointing to another page (validator page).
Thanks for the comment,
have a great sunday.
yes its Looking More Cool. thankyou for sharing video also with proper settings and use.
Happy to know you found the post useful, Ajay.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Its My pleasure to come back and find more intrusting stuff
Thanks for the encouraging words, Ajay!