The Blog on Branding

The Retweet

The Art of Retweet.

Want your Twitter posts to be viral? Everyone does. The point of Twitter is to be heard so take advantage of it.

Providing quality content in a strategic format will help increase your chances of being retweeted. Period. This doesn’t mean that any tweeted blurb is worthy enough to be passed along; I mean, content is still king.

What is a retweet, you ask?

A tweet is a status update on Twitter. When another user finds this information useful or interesting, they republish it onto their post. Hence, they retweet (e.g. RT@username followed by original post) or pass on the information.


“Providing quality content in a strategic format will help increase your chances of being retweeted.”

Ways To Increase Retweetability

Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz, provided some creative tactics in his last Whiteboard Friday presentation that will be sure to help increase the retweetability of your Twitter posts.

Use these tips as a foundation to add value to your Twitter posts:

• Length
• Time of day
• Phrasing
• Subject matter
• Authenticity
• Push campaigns

Length

Be concise. The maximum number of characters allowed for a tweet is 140. If the post is to be retweeted the name of the original poster is labeled pre-tweet.

Ex: RT@john Don’t drink Pepsi and eat Pop Rocks at the same time

The more retweets, the more user names eating into the 140-character limit and short and concise posts seem more likely to capture attention than long ramblings.

Note: Project Retweet, a Twitter development that would consolidate this process into the clicking of a single button, will eliminate the concern for post length. I’m still partial to the short and concise, but let’s not digress…

Time of Day

When is the best time to reach the most users?

According to Fishkin, the best time to Tweet is between 9am -3pm Pacific Standard Time. Being that California, the area with the highest concentration of Twitter users, falls in this region, your post has the best chance of receiving maximum visibility.

Be mindful of who you are targeting (investment bankers in New York City or farmers in North Dakota). There are many options to consider, but the efficient use of time will add credibility to your tweets by focusing on your audience.


“The efficient use of time will add credibility to your tweets.”

Phrasing

Different types of phrasing may spark interest in different groups of followers allowing you to target specific users or help to create more buzz around a topic.

• Definitive:
• “Gap’s profit slipped for its second quarter…”
• More or less facts.

• Humorous:
• “Apple pays Chuck Norris 99 cents every time he listens to a song”
• Who doesn’t like to be amused?

• Shocking:
• “Michael Jackson still isn’t buried?”
• Whether accurate or sensational, this is a great way to capture attention.

• Mysterious:
• “I would have never thought…
• Fishkin mentions that he is torn on whether the content at the other end of the link or the buildup of the link itself constitutes a retweet. Therefore…make them both good. A good buildup will only pull users to your site for one visit, whereas interesting content will continue to draw them in. It’s a “who came first…” kind of deal.

• Authoritative:
• “Fight for our future; fight global warming”
• Pretty self-explanatory. You’re the boss, direct us.

Subject Matter

All of these tips are useless without quality content.

Within the Twitter realm there seem to be a few consistent subject trends.

• Technology:
  Who else has the iPhone 3G?

• Celebrities:
  I wonder what Dave Chappell is doing right now…

• Politics:
  Everyone has an opinion and most voice it in their status (even President Obama).
• Images:
  Short, sweet and easy on the mind computer.

“All of these tips are useless without quality content.”

Authenticity

The more transparency you show, the more likely those following you will take notice of what you post.

So what does that mean?

Upload a real picture of yourself, not of Sidney Crosby or Megan Fox unless of course that’s who you are.

It’s that simple. Write a truthful bio and be yourself. This increases the appeal and usability of your page and lets the follower know that you are who you say you are.

Push Campaigns

Push campaigns are a systemic benefit of an authentic profile. A push campaign is when one user asks another user to retweet a thread that exhibits that they produce good content. This is not unlikely and is often a common practice.

This allows a less popular user to gain the advantage of a larger network through a friend (or follower).

The favor is part of a ‘Pay it forward’ system that encourages all users to retweet when asked because one day they will also need the favor.

Don’t Retreat…Retweet!

These tips highlight a few effective ways to make your posts attractive for retweeting, but these are not the only methods by a long shot. Twitter is constantly evolving, and so should your strategy of writing attractive micro-blog posts.

With enough trial and error you’ll soon find your niche.

For a great introduction to Twitter, check out Shane Smith’s blog post on Tweeting in the Marketplace and let us know what you think of the tips above and the soon-to-be Project Retweet with your comments below.

By Stephen Siegert