If your brand is not on Twitter, you need to get on or get out. With 500 million Tweets being pushed each day between 271 million active users, this is a marketing tool you cannot afford to ignore.
To increase your brand’s number of Twitter followers and your level of influence, you want your followers to be engaged and motivated to reTweet your work.
Being clever and interesting certainly helps. But there are some basic tricks that you should have in your toolbox to be as reTweetable as possible. Let’s look at some key Twitter statistics.
Know the Rules of Engagement
A picture is worth a thousand words and your Tweets are only worth 140. Take advantage of the bonus 860 words your image will get you. How effective is an appropriate image to your reTweetability? Twitter published the following guidelines.
- A Photo URL will increase your RTs by 35%
- A Video URL will increase your RTs by 28%
- Quotes will increase your RTs by 19%
- Using Digits will increase your RTs by 17%
- Using Hashtags will increase your RTs by 16%
Please, You, reTweet and Post to Twitter!
Poor grammar aside, the 5 most reTweeted words ranked from first to fifth are:
- You
- Please
- ReTweet, and
- Post
Don’t try to use them all as we did above, but do try to get them into your posts when you can.
Mind Your Ps and Qs
One study of more than 10,000 Tweets found that the words “Please ReTweet” increased ones reTweetability by 51%. Slightly lower, the words, “PleaseRT,” (39%). Tweets that did not ask nicely received only a 12% boost.
Remember Goldilocks
Don’t make your Tweets too short or too long. They need to be just right. The most reTweeted Tweets average between 71 and 100 characters. That doesn’t mean that shorter or longer Tweets are doomed to fail, but there is certainly a “sweet spot” of 70 to 110 that you should use to your advantage.
According to Track Blog, keep in mind these three tips to maximize your Tweets’ engagement:
- Avoid short, punchy statements
- Use images that speak for you
- Do not use the full 140 character limit
Don’t Call Me Tiny!
Tinyurl has had its day in the sun, and there may be some perfectly good uses for this tool. But for Twitter, you need something that gives very small urls. One study found Tweets using Bit.ly received a 9.3% boost in getting reTweeted. Ow.ly, Su.pr, and Is.gd also received boosts of less than 1%. Straggling in last place between the 13 URL shorteners that were examined, was Tinyurl, which seemed to have a worsening effect of about 5%.
Remember Warhol’s Prediction
Long before personal computers were ever conceived, Andy Warhol said everyone in the future would receive 15 minutes of fame. Were he alive during the digital age, he would certainly be amused at how true that has become.
You may never personally get your 15 minutes, but your Tweet just might get that plus a little more. Statistics show that a Tweet will receive fully half of its reTweets within the first 24 minutes of being posted. After that, your Tweets just won’t matter as much. Make best use of the best and worst times to Tweet and find a good online algorithm tool to best target your audience.
Must See RT!
All days are not created equal. You will greatly increase level of engagement if you post your Tweets on Monday through Thursday and between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The worst days to Tweet are Saturday and Sunday with the worst times being between 12 midnight through 9 a.m.
If one of your goals is to be reTweeted (and it should be), knowing these basic statistics should help you get the most out of your Tweets.
