A single X post can travel around the world – but an X thread can work even harder to get across the information you want to share and the links that you want to invite people to click.
Threads are two or more posts by the same person, created all at once or over time by linking multiple tweets together.
With a thread, you can:
- tell a story or announce something and describe how it came to be,
- describe a process,
- trace the progress of a line of research or chain of events,
- include more links, Twitter handles of people/entities you worked with or want to thank, and images than you can do with a single tweet
Each post in a thread can still be seen, liked and shared on its own.
But wherever each post goes, X tells viewers that the tweet is part of a thread, to try to invite them to view the other tweets in the thread. It does this with a vertical line at the left edge of each tweet, and also with a “Show this thread” link after the tweet you’re viewing.
To build a thread all at once:
- Think about how you want to structure your thread, and gather the images and links you want to include, and the X handles of the people and entities you want to tag. See the samples below.
- You can pre-write your threads in Word or Google Docs, to get your key points organized and ordered, and do a spell-check. Or you can simply start writing a new tweet within the X app.
- Either way, start your first post by clicking the blue “quill” button or within the web interface by clicking the blue “+” button or starting to write in the “What’s happening?” box at the top of your home page.
- Once you type or paste some text into your first post, a little “plus sign” in a circle shows up. This is what you click to start the second tweet in your thread.
- Once you start typing or pasting text in that second post, another plus sign will show up, so you can keep adding more tweets to the thread.
- If you'd like to indicate from the start how many posts are in your thread, you can start or end each tweet with a number, a forward slash, and another number. For instance, if you have 10 posts, mark the first one with 1/10, the second with 2/10, etc. This is not required but it can tell your reader how much more they have to go. If they happened to encounter a "middle post" from your thread first, this is another indicator that there is more to see.
- Each post still needs to fit within the character limits, and each post still allows you to tag up to 10 people in a non-GIF image.
- Once you've created all the posts you want to send at once, you should go back and review/edit all of them one more time before sending them out into the world. Do this by scrolling up or down and clicking in the post you want to review or edit.
- When you're sure you're ready, click "Post All" from any of the posts in the thread.
- If it’s appropriate, especially on a long thread, think about adding a GIF somewhere in the middle to give the reader a little fun reward for sticking with you. (Here's a great example.)
- If you discover an error or a need to add something later, it's best not to delete a post or add one in the middle, but rather to reply to the last post in the thread and say what you need to correct or add.
To turn a single post into a thread:
If you want to add more to a past post of yours, find the postand click the ‘speech bubble’ on the bottom left of the tweet, and compose a new post.
Alternately, if you want to build a new thread based on an old post of yours, you can click the Repost button (the ‘recycling arrows’ under the tweet), choose Quote Post, and compose a new post that has the old post enclosed in it. Then, you can build a thread under this new post
Examples of potential threads:
New research paper or report:
On the day your paper is published, or as soon after publication as possible, post a thread that announces it to the world, and gives credit to your collaborators, the journal, your funding source and those whose work you’ve built upon.
This capitalizes on the new-ness of the work and is a way to give credit and thanks in a way that may encourage those you tag in the thread to re-tweet you and broaden your audience.
First post: How excited/proud you are to announce the publication of new paper, with a link to the paper on the journal site, the journal’s Twitter handle, and a brief description of the work. If you’ve made a Visual Abstract, embed it here. (And keep in mind that you can tag up to 10 people/accounts in any image you insert that’s not a GIF!) Also include the DOI of the paper in the tweet if you have room.
Second post: A bit more about the findings, perhaps with an image from the paper. Use any relevant hashtags that people in the field might be following.
Third post: Explain what led you to study the topic, or what your prior work on this topic found. Link to previous papers by your team or others.
Fourth post: Implications of your work or next steps for your team, perhaps tagging organizations that you hope will take notice.
Fifth post: Thanks and appreciation, tagging co-authors, staff, funding source, institutional accounts
New grant:
On the day you receive your Notice of Award (but not until!) do a thread about the new funding. This can serve as both an expression of gratitude for all involved in writing the grant application, and the funding source, but also as a way to re-surface past work and talk about the new research ahead.
First post: Express pride/pleasure at receiving a new funding award notice. Tag the funding source and co-PIs. If you’ve made a Visual Abstract, insert it here.
Second post: A general description of what you plan to do with the grant, with hashtags for the condition/topic you’ll study
Third post (or you can spend several tweets on this): Look back on what led you to develop the new grant, including past papers, work by colleagues in the field, relevant policy or professional issues/reports.
Fourth post: Express thanks to all involved by tagging or naming them. Include mentors, staff, institutional accounts, etc.
Reaction to an external event:
If something has come up in the news, or the policy realm, that relates to your work, you may want to seize the moment to tweet a thread based on your expertise. If done quickly and using the hashtags related to the topic, this could help ensure that people interested in the new development know about your work in the area, and could even lead to inquiries from reporters, policymakers or others.
First post: State what has happened, and your initial reaction or thoughts, noting that this pertains directly to your expertise and past work. Link to a reputable news story about the development, and use any hashtag that might relate.
Second/third post: Describe how the news relates to your past work, and link to paper(s) or other publications
Additional post: Include observations about context, immediate ramifications and potential downstream effects of the new development.
Final post: Invite others to reply to express their thoughts or ask questions of you based on your expertise. Tag others who might also have thoughts based on their own work.
Live-posting an event or experience:
If you're at a conference or lecture, or going somewhere new, you might want to post a thread of your impressions or takeaways, so that someone later could read them all at once instead of just seeing one or two that happen to pop up in their feed or in a search.
First post: Set the scene - where are you? What is going on? Tag any relevant accounts and use any hashtags that the event organizer might have established.
Second through Nth posts: Add to the thread as the event or experience continues - it doesn't have to be all at once. Just reply to the first tweet, then reply to the second tweet, etc. Take photos (if allowed - speakers may specify that they don't want you to share photos of slides containing unpublished data!) and share them along the way. Tag those you are with, or whose work is being referenced.
Final posts Try to sum things up - what did you take away? What do you hope others will do or explore because of what you've heard or experienced?