Twitter Cards 101

What is a Twitter card?

A Twitter card is the rich media attachment you see at the bottom of Tweets. They are the cards that allow you to attach various types of media, whether that is an image or a video, to your Tweets that link to your content. There are currently 8 different kinds of cards that are tailored for each type of media experience, built for both web and mobile users. The cards also enable users to understand how many people are seeing, interacting with and converting on the Tweets.

Here’s a brief summary of the different types of Twitter Cards:

• Summary Card: Good for the beginner
• Summary Card with Large Image: Good for expanding a general tweet
• Photo Card: Good for showing off one image, no need for title
• Gallery Card: Good for displaying a collection of pretty much…anything
• App Card: Good for driving app installs
• Player Card: Good for streaming audio, video, or slideshows
• Product Card: Good for boosting online sales

Measure results of your cards

To complement the Twitter Card platform, analytics reveal how you can improve key metrics such as URL clicks, app install attempts and Retweets.

Where do they come from?

When you share a URL to Twitter, that Tweet might be programmed to pull in a tagged part of the website you shared from. We say “might” because that only happens if that site has enabled Twitter cards. (It’s a piece of code in the site)

Why are they important?

Twitter cards can help answer some tough questions:

• What are Tweets with website links worth in terms of actual impressions (people who actually see them vs follower counts)?
• How many people are visiting our website from Twitter Cards posted by us, or anyone on Twitter?
• Are we seeing spikes in impressions or click-throughs on Twitter during TV campaigns or other paid media events?
• Is Twitter a viable channel to get my app adopted by new users?
• What is the conversion rate from a Tweet to my product (website / app)?

Making 140 characters worth a thousand words. And creating new small data to help us track what makes business cents.

Thanks to Twitter Card Analytics, it is now possible to know which deep links, images, media content, videos, and so forth are engaging the most followers, which Cards are most effective, and which followers are retweeting and sharing content. Play your cards right and you’ll be able to fully understand how your audience is engaging with your content with more visibility than ever before.