It’s a pretty well established fact that tweets that contain images get exponentially more engagement. According to a blog post on Buffer, tweets containing images earn 150 percent more retweets and 18 percent more clicks.

So, a great way to extend the life of your tweets is to tweet photos, or to add photos that illustrate the point of your tweet.

The problem with tweeting photos is that Twitter’s API is pretty locked down. You basically HAVE to use twitter in order to tweet photos, or else they won’t show up inline. With third party options like Hootsuite and Instagram, the images only show up as a link, and that isn’t going to get you as much traction as the image showing up in someone’s twitter stream.

When you’re tweeting from your phone, it’s pretty simple. Just use the twitter app, take a photo, and upload it to Twitter.

But if you’re tweeting from your computer, it gets a little more complicated. You have to write your tweet, copy/paste the link, and then source and upload an image (which you may have to download from somewhere else).

I recently discovered a cool tool called Twitshot that makes this whole process easier and more streamlined.

Twitshot is a chrome extension that automagially pulls an image from whatever link you are tweeting. So, instead of tweeting:

You get this:

Cool, right??

It also works with multiple accounts.

All you do is install the plugin, and when you login to Twitter, you’ll see an additional button beside the one to write a new tweet:

Write your tweet, plug in your URL, choose which image you want to be displayed with your tweet, et voila!

Instant upgrade in Twitter engagement!