It’s hard to believe that seven years after Twitter launched, organizations are still vying for any information they can find on how to get the most ReTweets out of a platform that was meant for social conversations. One of the best places to go for Twitter data is Dan Zarrella at Hubspot. Dan has spent the last few years studying millions of Tweets and what resonates with people on Twitter. So if you are looking to amplify your advocacy efforts on Twitter, check out some of Dan’s most important data. However, it’s important to note that integrating some of these strategies will only take you so far. If you don’t have compelling content but your tweets are the recommended 100 characters, you still won’t get very far with this channel.
Recommended Tweet Length to Generate ReTweets
Tweets between 100 and 115 characters were 34% more likely to be ReTweeted than Tweets outside of this range.
Hashtag Effects on ReTweets
Tweets that contain one or more hashtags were 55% more likely to be RT’d than Tweets that did not use hashtags. Note: Please don’t fill your tweet up with 7 hashtags. That will not get RT’d.
Images Impact on ReTweets
Tweets contained images using Twitter’s native tool pic.Twitter.com were almost 2x as likely to be retweeted while the use of Twitpic increased the odds by over 60%. However, tweets that used Facebook or Instagram links were less likely to be RT’d so don’t use these tools for Twitter.
Social Calls to Action Work
When you ask people do the following on Twitter, many will do it.
- Please Help
- Please ReTweet
- Please RT
“Visit” did not resonate with people so remove that from your Twitter vocabulary.
In addition, I recommend using these social calls to action sparingly. If your audiences constantly see tweets that ask for help or to please RT your message, they will tune you out. Focus on engagement such as answering people’s questions about your issue and ask them questions. Put yourself in their shoes. Do you like when people or organizations always ask you to do stuff on social media? Or do you prefer that people have a real conversation with you?
Exclamation Points Get More RT’s
While exclamation points in tweets may get more RT’s they don’t get more clicks.
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