Viral marketing scientist and author, Dan Zarrella just released his newest report, The Science of Retweeting. Zarrella spent nine months analyzing millions of tweets and tens of millions of retweets (he must be a scientist!) to study how ideas spread from person to person. The fact that anyone would spend so much time analyzing tweets amazes me. I am, however, more than happy to share his findings as posted by Dan Macsai on Fast Company.
Here are Zarrella’s nine ways to get retweeted on Twitter, and my own comments.
1. Link Up (But Don’t use Tiny URLs)
Zarrella found that links were three times more prevalent in retweets (RTs) than in normal tweets. He recommends using URL shorteners such as bit.ly, ow.ly and is.gd.
2. Beggars Can Be Choosers
Tell people what you want them to do. Words and phrases such as “please,” “retweet,” “check out,” “post,” “follow,” “help,” and “how to” make Zarrella’s “Most Retweetable Words & Phrases” list.
3. Avoid Idle Chit-Chat
I agree with Zarrella here. Sometimes I really don’t want to know “what are you doing?” Words on Zarrella’s least retweetable list include “bored,” “ha-ha,” “tired,” and “sleep.” He strongly suggests avoiding ‘-ing’ verbs such as “going,” “watching,” and “listening.”
4. Don’t be Stupid
Yep – I like this one too. The RTs Zarrella studied had more syllables per word and were more intellectual than normal tweets. Don’t overuse abbreviations and keep those smiley faces and other emoticons in check.
5. Semicolons = Satan
It took a few sips of wine to calm the Mojo Lady down for this one; she really loves her semicolons. According to Zarrella, 98% of RTs contain some form of punctuation. Alas, while there are plenty of colons, commas, hyphens and exclamation points, he calls the semicolon “the only un-retweetable punctuation mark.”
6. Break News
Simply put … share new stuff. Or, old stuff in a new light.
7. Use Proper Nouns Properly
Time to go back to sentence diagrams! Zarrella’s study suggests that headline-style tweets are more likely to be re-tweeted. For instance, “Doc Yankee Stars in new Mojo Video.”
8. Bottle Those Emotions
If you are tweeting about how upset you are with the current state of your job, the economy, your life – don’t. Vent elsewhere. Tweets about religion, money, and media/celebrities are more retweetable than your complaints.
9. Tweet at 4 p.m. on Friday
Sure – we’re all planning our weekend!
By the way, Dan is offering the great report as a downloadable PDF file free on his own website if you sign up for his newsletter. It’s a sure thing. Grab it here.
