Have you wondered why some tweets get retweeted and some don’t?  There is so much hype about how a single tweet can be spread to millions of people, yet it hasn’t happened to you yet.  Did you know that there is actually a science to getting retweeted?  That there are certain things you can do to dramatically increase the chances of getting retweeted?  But first things first…

Why should you care about being retweeted?

When you post a tweet on Twitter, anyone in the whole Twitterverse can see your Tweet.  Well, that’s the theory, anyway, the reality is very different.  There are 250 million tweets a day, so it is easy for your Tweet to get lost in the noise, never to be seen again.

The chances are that only your followers will pay attention to your tweet because it appears in their news feed.  And even then, not all your followers will see it.  If they are following a large number of people or don’t check their Tweet stream very often, it might slip by unnoticed.

The Benefits of being Retweeted

• Your Tweet becomes more visible because your Tweet can now be seen by your retweeters’ followers
• Your Tweet is seen at different times so it increases the longevity of the original Tweet
• Being Retweeted is a compliment because it shows that you what you have said is worth sharing
• You increase your network because you are exposed to more people and you gain followers
• The more times your Tweet is retweeted the more it will be retweeted.  People are more likely to retweet something if they have social proof that it is popular.
• Being Retweeted is a measure of influence and taken into consideration for any measure of social media clout e.g. Klout score
• You increase the chances of the right people seeing your Tweet

So, How do you Increase your chances of being Retweeted?

1.  Content worth sharing

It may sound obvious, but if you want to get retweeted, you need to be creating tweets worth sharing.  People like sharing information that enhances their own reputation of being a valuable person to interact with.  Think about your last Retweet, why did you share it?

Now for the science bit…

In 2009 Dan Zarrella of the Hubspot studied tens of millions of retweets and normal tweets and analysed them.

(If you want to know more about his research and finding, I would highly recommend Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness – by Dan Zarrella  A quick, but very informative read.)

He found that only 19% of all Tweets contained a link.  Yet 57% of all Retweets contained a link.

He also investigated which words or phrases were the most retweetable.  Four of the words in Dan Zarrella’s 20 most retweetable words refer to blog posts “post”, “blog”, “blog post” and “new blog post” which also shows that sharing a blog post is a good way to get retweeted.

So if you are sharing a useful article or your blog post, you increase your chances of being retweeted.

People are more likely to share news and information than conversation.

 2.  Call to Action

It is a myth that you shouldn’t ask people to retweet you.  Some of the most retweetable words and phrases are “please” “retweet” and “please retweet”.  Dan Zarrella found that “Please Retweet” or “Please RT” generates four times more retweets than tweets that don’t contain those words.  “Please Retweet” generated three times as many retweets as the words “Please RT” Read his report here.

I have tested adding “please retweet” and it worked for me, but I am sure if you used “please retweet” on every tweet, it would stop working.  It is worth bearing in mind.

Anyone in direct marketing will tell you that you need a call to action and a Tweet is no different. 

If you want a retweet, the simplest way is to ask for it.

3.  Focus on your Readers

Guess what the most retweetable word is?

The word “you”.  “You” is both singular and plural and when we see the word “you” we tend to think that the person is directing it to us individually even though we know that it was intended for a larger audience.

So lose the ego:  Write your Tweets with the reader in mind.

The least retweetable word were words like “tired”, “bored”, “watching” and “game” so when you talk about the boring stuff that is happening in your life, it is unlikely to get retweeted.

Top Tip to getting Retweeted:  Ignore the question “What’s happening?” that Twitter asks and instead of tweeting about yourself, tweet about something that might be helpful or interesting to the person reading your Tweet.

(The second most retweetable word?  Twitter!  People on Twitter like talking about Twitter.  It shows a common reference point.)

4.  Timing

• The time that you Tweet has a major impact on how many Retweets you get.
• Retweeting occurs much more frequently between 3pm and midnight and Monday and Friday are the most Retweetable days.
• Dan Zarrella found that the optimum time to get retweeted was on Friday at 4pm.
• There are Twitter tools on that help you find the best time for you to get more retweets and @mentions.  Read How to find Time to Tweet to find your own Optimum time to Tweet.
• Pacing is everything: your click through rate drops if you post more than one link an hour and it drops even further as you tweet more links.  Dan Zarrella’s research showed deliberate pacing allows each piece to receive more attention.

So the recommendation is that you don’t post more than one link per hour.

Caution:  Before you all rush out to start Tweeting exactly at 4pm on Friday, remember this is a trend.  According to Zarrella’s research the worst time for a Retweet is about 8am, yet I get a high level of interaction and retweeting at that time.  That is probably because I regularly tweet with the same people first thing in the morning and have developed relationships which leads me neatly onto my fifth point…

5.  Engaged Followers

Users with more followers will tend to get more retweets, but having high numbers of followers doesn’t mean that you will get retweeted more.  There are people with large numbers of followers who don’t get many retweets and people with smaller numbers who get retweeted a lot.  So what is the difference that makes the difference?

• People with authority – If you are an expert, you might as well tell people in your bio.  Dan Zarrella found that people with the words that showed expert status like, “Founder”, “Author”, “Speaker” and “Guru” had a higher number of followers than the average
• People who engage with others

So what can you do to encourage people to engage with you?

• Retweet other people’s Tweets, people are more likely to reciprocate
• Be posititve – Dan Zarrella found that being very negatives causes you to lose followers
• Give praise and recommendations
• Show that you have listened and paid attention
• Ask questions

My top tip to get me to Retweet you:  Tweet one of my blog posts with a nice comment!