On The Mark

Statistically, How to Get Retweeted

(by Tommy Swanson…more go to www.tommyswanson.com )

I recently read a report by Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist, which outlined what statistically gets retweeted. After taking a look over the in-depth report which can be read by signing up to his email subscription list here, these are the major points that I took away from the data.

Call to Action
Some of the most retweetable words according to Zarrella’s report are words that encourage individuals to retweet. By simply adding something at the end of your tweet such as: (Please RT) or (Please Retweet), not surprisingly, you have a much higher chance of being retweeted.

Get to the Point
Another interesting point that the data brought out is that users don’t want to hear you blabber. By using nouns, rather than descriptive adjectives, you provide your followers with quality content, rather than fluff, something that Zarrella advocates at speaking events often.

Many twitter users, including myself, still use the traditional RT: to retweet. By getting to the point, you can more likely leave 10-20 characters at the end of your tweet for followers to put RT: @username at the front of the post. Those who fill their tweets with fluff leave followers with no room to perform the traditional RT.

Provide Quality Content
Some of the least retweetable content is that of casual conversation. Words such as going, haha, lol, and game are some of the least retweetable phrases. Other data presented asserted that tweets with links, specifically with a bit.ly url shortner, is a much more viable way of getting your followers attention.

Zarrella made the data proven pitch that celebrities are far less retweetable than other users. Why so? It’s because they are self-driven. By constantly posting updates that pertain to themselves, rather than providing useful information to their followers, they leave their followers with no reason to retweet.