I have also noticed that funny one-liners tend to get retweeted the most!
Beth
· 5 months ago
I agree with the humor aspect of getting retweeted. Since I don't pimp anything on Twitter, even my own blog, I'm more of a conversationalist. Some of my best lines have been RT'd. Which has brought more followers. I will unfollow someone if I notice a trend of them retweeting links more than engaging with followers. We all utilized Twitter differently- I don't want to view what I deem type-based infomercials.
entwipreneur
· 5 months ago
great post, thanks!
TChachra
· 5 months ago
Great post.....I am always trying to get my site posts re-tweeted...so I use the tweetmeme plugin on my site. http://2s2d.net
Sarah
· 5 months ago
Thanks so much for sharing! Very insightful and helpful :-) Now if only I could figure out how to get a Retweet Button that actually works!
markfinch
· 5 months ago
If your using WordPress I developed some code I would be happy sharing with you. With some small modifications it could work with Blogger also, but since I am in China and the net nanny blocked Blogger and other Google properties I haven't been able to do it myself. I will take the time one of these days to make it a plugin, but I have been too busy lately.
Use the contact form at http://markfinch.info/contact and I can share the code with you. Also you can look at my blog posts and see if you like the way I have incorporated sharing.
femmefm
· 2 months ago
worksite uses wordpress, that may interest the adventurous web-engineer dude.
But I gotta say, thanks for the insight on the other side of the world. Net Nanny, hilarious.
John Gibb
· 5 months ago
Good post - a lot of this intuitively points to one thing: high-quality tweets get re-tweeted! This post's information very much reinforces that!
Gustavo Munoz
· 5 months ago
Great statistics! Love it!
lcalcote
· 5 months ago
What of the importance of leaving space for your Twitter username and RT tag? (i.e. RT @lcalcote Obama had cornflakes for breakfast this morning)
trushotsphotography
· 5 months ago
Great thorough post on getting retweeted.
Shirley de Rose
· 5 months ago
Love the quick readability of your stuff. I need a lot of info on twitter but don't have a lot of time to dedicate to getting it.
Sam G. Daniel
· 5 months ago
If you tweet something that is news breaking or trending pretty high on twitter then you'll get a RT. Using hash tags so more people to see your tweets will also help you get RT. Look at trending topics like #iranelection. Take a look at http://www.twitscoop.com/ for top topics.
EffectiveNews
· 5 months ago
Dont know but I wonder how Twitter will work in India ?
I follow you guys because there's always something of value in your Tweets. I think being funny, interesting or able to write good catchy headlines is the key.
I think I've discovered the key to attracting more avid Twitter followers, but I'm still finding my feet... http://twitter.com/CraftyJungle
AskJamesHolmes
· 5 months ago
Interesting data but not at all surprising. Another way of looking at what gets retweet is what provides value. Stating neutral opinions or talking about how long the line is at Starbucks is not adding value to the community. Sharing a link to a resource, interesting blog post, or event of interest, actually adds value and causes others to want to share.
The BIG opportunity with Twitter is not in building ten of thousands of followers with no message or mission of value to share. It is in growing a responsive following who is drawn to you based on the value you present. This has an unbreakable connection to what you tweet and if it is retweeted.
Pete, as always, I appreciate the content of your amazing blog and post.
Really well collected and interesting information about RTs. Thanks! Who would've thought about the average syllables per word in tweets vs RTs? Good stuff
The Ron
· 5 months ago
You guys have too much time on your hands... Does the art of Retweeting really need to be analyzed?
Frederick Townes
· 5 months ago
Yes! Very good insight @mashable and @danzarrella! As one would definitely expect, word of mouth is hinged on the value add that a personal referral provides. So it’s imperative we recognize and acknowledge that principles of new media as we move forward, otherwise it becomes just something else to do and is a drain on society instead of a benefit to it.
Sam the Bright
· 5 months ago
I never know what RT stand for until WordCamp as I use TweetDock for first time and notice it tell what stand for. Ahhh!
Avinash
· 5 months ago
great post with a different perspective of retweeting
Henre Rossouw
· 5 months ago
This is quite a nifty post. Retweeting it now :-)
medxcentral (Jim)
· 5 months ago
Be careful if you post too many tweets with links. I'm not sure if that is why I have this problem on Twitter >>> http://bit.ly/2Pa894 >>> but I do...and many others do too. Unfortunately, Twitter has been relatively unresponsive to the issue.
I tweet lots of links...not just my own. I do not follow everyone who follows me...but I follow only slightly more than the number of people following me. I also participate. I answer all legitimate "@" replies and DMs. So, as far as I know, I've not violated Twitter's policies.
Anyway... this reply is "on topic" as we all need to figure out why the issue exists. And, if it IS in fact because of a high "tweet with link" ratio, then we should factor that into our individual Twitter strategy.
Hope that helps. Kindly, - Jim @medxcentral (tweeting mostly medical and healthcare industry issues)
pamelafrey
· 5 months ago
Loving the RT insight - gives us a somewhat better idea when tweeting for viral reasons.
tibbon
· 5 months ago
So basically you're saying that to get retweeted we use more long buzzwords, use links, write more clearly, don't just pimp yourself, etc?
I think the conclusion of "don't be self referential" is false from that chart. More RTs are self referential than talk about money for example. It's just that they are generally less self referential than the rest of Twitter.
iTbay
· 5 months ago
This is Great. I always think about the science and statistical importance of Twitter as it a way 2 makes us all better twitters, thus improving the ecosystem. + It's a great way to improve our lingo & compete with the new Twitter platform, Facebook.
Above all, when u look at more syllables/word (S), longer words (LW), links (L) 4 tweets & retweets, NEW information from a Tweet, which adds some undefined value to a tweeple (VAT....defined as value added tweet), must yield a new level of knowledge (K) given time (T) which MAY be a function of education (E). Time is defined as the amount of time it takes one to read & comprehend a tweet, not including the time 4 reading & comprehending links. Therefore, we have:
Note that I have not factored in LWIC % - this can be explored further though. The VAT is just a basic model. If tweets and retweets have a higher VAT which is a function of (K) or { (S) + (LW) + (L) }, the tweet will add value to the tweeple. Expanding this further, if a tweet has higher chance of having more (S), (LW), or (L), the numerator value of VAT goes up causing more of chance for a VAT. Also, the values of (S), (LW), (L) must be weighted since more links, long words, and syllables do not necessarily increase VAT as there MAY be diminishing marginal returns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns
If tweeples have higher level of education to understand Tweets, the time is takes to read & comprehend a tweet will go down since according to how Zarrella has measured education based on years, the E value goes up causing the value (1/E) to go down & the value of T to go down as well which causes the value of VAT to go up (the reduction of denominator T).
Beyond VAT
I think we really have to look at the mathematics of characters. What i mean is looking at say how many spaces per tweet or RT; looking a common words like "a" "on" "you" "your" "and" ....and so on in a tweet; looking at the average length of a tweet id; looking at @replies in a tweet and a RT are just some considerations I can think of. on the hop. I think people really need to understand & develop, over time, what the numerical values of their tweets are prior to tweeting, allocating, thinking & computing the character values of their tweets within the parameters of VAT.
Conveying Meaning 4 Quick Understanding - application of VAT
Applying the VAT model above, a Tweet has the potential 4 adding value in a quick amount of time than in a full blown article - (blogs & articles R still essential 4 knowledge...the issue is time which real time info is stepping in & filling the GAP).. For instance: rt @jowyang Brands focused on tools (Twitter, Facebook, Blog) without a strategy is like buying a hammer without having blueprint for house. This Tweet contains highly valuable knowledge & meaning that I can now supplement with my business education, experience and tech education. This Tweet provides perspective & adds value to the point in which I will retweet to share with my followers, to save in past Tweet inventory for future search & to utilize the Knowledge for application with consulting advice & tech education. This is the power of a Retweet & ways in which we can make this ecosystem STRONGER!
Very interesting stuff. What's even more interesting to me is how much research has been done on a site that is so young. It really highlights the rapid change that Twitter has made to the social media dynamic.
AndaPR
· 5 months ago
What about the use of shortened urls v original urls. Does that appear to have an impact on retweeting?
HAVOC MARKETING
· 5 months ago
Great post. I like the way you support your facts with the help of pie charts and graph.
deadpresident
· 5 months ago
Great post!
richrecruiter
· 5 months ago
Not a fan of the retweeting phenomenon. Write something original, rather than parroting others. In my opinion, retweets are becoming low grade spam.
Stephen Robinson
· 5 months ago
Good post! :)
Andrea Moro
· 5 months ago
The article left me some perplexity. I don't completely agree with Zarrella, expecially when he say "understanding a retweet imply an higher reading grade".
kathy redford
· 5 months ago
This all makes perfect sense...stats evidence a model of learning. Retweets contain more syllables, higher cognitive levels, etc. because usually retweets are questions for clarification or maybe reflective thought on the first tweet...there ya go...School Tweets
Andrea Moro
· 5 months ago
This article left some perplexity in my mind. Also I don't agree when it says "retweet require more comphrension".
Andrea Moro
· 5 months ago
This article left some perplexity in my mind. Also I don't agree when it says "retweet require more comphrension".
spinchange
· 5 months ago
Enjoying @Danzarrella 's TweetPsych app/data. Of note: the word "We" seems to be the only one appearing in more retweets than tweets.
Kevin Pasco
· 5 months ago
Great post. I'm going to have to do a few of these.
DealShouter.com
· 5 months ago
This is very interesting. It's good to know that tweets with links get more retweets.
Paul OFlaherty
· 5 months ago
In other words, good , well described non self-promotional links.
Ethan
· 5 months ago
Amazing! I didnt know about retweet!
Sasha H. Muradali
· 5 months ago
That's really great advice Pete. But I'm not sure I completely agree with that. I know some great articles that friends have written w/ catchy phrases that don't get retweeted a lot. Then again, I know some that are ridiculously witty and get retweeted like crazy. I suppose it is give and take. But we can we be really sure that there is a 'science' per se to it? I'm not entirely sure that there is...yet. Twitter is still so new to the masses, and it's so subjective what people like. I think the best way to get a retweet is to have good content and say something catch in your 140 characters that will make someone want to click. If they want to click, they'll probably want to retweet it as well. Don't you think?
Catriel Torres
· 5 months ago
Probando:Esto tendría que aparecerme en twitter...
nihonjon
· 5 months ago
Am I the only one who thinks a few of those statistics were very amateur and useless? He should really get in the habit of running some of his samples through further testing(i.e. linear regression) to find if they are significant or not. Graph distortion ftw...
Great post. I often look for interesting things to RT...things that apply to current issues or things that seem to be really helpful to others. I rarely retweet a tweet with a link to a funny picture or a youtube video. I guess I'm still not in love with YouTube even thought I know that's narrow minded.
I don't RT profanity and I don't RT "quotes"....so sick of inspirational quotes. Maybe I'm just getting old.
Thisisme
· 5 months ago
I hear so many talk about the importance of engaging quality links and content, and how being conversational is more key than simply retweeting content. The commentary here is a perfect example of the opposite. First, don't get me wrong there is nothing absolutely incorrect about trying to get link backs and traffic to your site but some of the responses on this commentary are simply just a piece of words with a link in the end to 'spam' the comments. You didn't even try to be conversational or relevant. I think some of you are forgetting the essence of social conversation while gaining traffic for yourself.
Leon
· 5 months ago
Nice post, really useful information! I don't really see how reading stats is related to being a viral marketing specialist though.
Michael Eisbrener
· 5 months ago
Appears that being reTweeted and success have many of the same variables. Be brief but use words that share more than one meaning. Offer a place to go, some intention, at worst case an implied call to action.
DebbyBruck
· 5 months ago
This is a Retweet!HOW TO:Get #Retweeted on Twitter- http://bit.ly/fVLpA via RT @Tweye @Jason_Pollock: @mashable ~ and on down the line. Fabulous analytical breakdown with more than we could wish to know, but now do. Many good hints here. I love retweeting worthy articles, the best quotes, helpful information, sharing - basically it's a news clipper service with a little moral boosting. I work on shortening the tweet to get it to fit. Always the best articles can be found on Mashable. Thank you Pete.
Nicholas Quinlan
· 5 months ago
Getting re tweeted is most important. It is somewhat a science but i still think you have to have something to say http://nickquinlan.com/
DebbyBruck
· 5 months ago
Might be an interesting study to find out how long it takes for these retweets to "go around". Like I got the tweet originally two days ago and now it is showing up again from another group of tweeple. Interesting study in dynamics and the movement of information. Have a beautiful day, Debby - loves to retweet heartfelt, soul lifting thoughts, and healing information that benefits the community.
Nitesh patel
· 4 months ago
very nice and explaining post i will try out each and every step. thanks
Marketing
· 4 months ago
Thanks!
jorgeavilam
· 4 months ago
It would be nice to add the factor trend-level, do trendy tweets gets re-tweeted more?
Go to mashable.com to learn how to manage twitter and facebook.
Virtual Miss Friday
· 4 months ago
Very informative post. This definitely makes a difference. Good thing I use the re-tweet button on my blogs. Now its about how to increase the chances of being re-tweeted.
İrem Erman
· 4 months ago
suberb
İrem Erman
· 4 months ago
post great post
Vickie Smith-Siculiano, PMP
· 4 months ago
LOVE the use of social media metrics in this post - it's so valuable to take a look at what others are doing to see what's successful and use that as lessons learned. I will take note that novelty and higher education levels seem to be a factor in retweetability. Thanks!
Matthew Szantyr
· 4 months ago
Awesome stuff...however the data is a bit "noisy" for small business owners as your goal isn't necessarily just to get re-tweeted unless you are hoping to establish a little brand recognition out of a random tweet. It is much more difficult to get a specific promotional message for your business re-tweeted. Show me some data on how to accomplish that and I will love you forever!
We're just about to add the re-tweet button to our blog as we've had a few re-tweets lately and they've really helped us to build interest.
guybrinker
· 3 months ago
Lets form a party that does not support President Obama. And start a Educated petion drive to have him impeached from office! LET'S TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!! I'm not a radical. I just got through serving 3 tours with the U.S Gov. in Afghanistan & Iraq. You can reach me at guy4242@live.com
All Comments
Use the contact form at http://markfinch.info/contact and I can share the code with you. Also you can look at my blog posts and see if you like the way I have incorporated sharing.
But I gotta say, thanks for the insight on the other side of the world. Net Nanny, hilarious.
http://effectivenews.com/main/story.php?title=E...
I think I've discovered the key to attracting more avid Twitter followers, but I'm still finding my feet... http://twitter.com/CraftyJungle
The BIG opportunity with Twitter is not in building ten of thousands of followers with no message or mission of value to share. It is in growing a responsive following who is drawn to you based on the value you present. This has an unbreakable connection to what you tweet and if it is retweeted.
Pete, as always, I appreciate the content of your amazing blog and post.
James
http://Twitter.com/AskJamesHolmes
P.S. Quick retweet tip. Allow enough characters in the tweets you want retweeted to allow for RT @yourname to be added!
I tweet lots of links...not just my own. I do not follow everyone who follows me...but I follow only slightly more than the number of people following me. I also participate. I answer all legitimate "@" replies and DMs. So, as far as I know, I've not violated Twitter's policies.
Anyway... this reply is "on topic" as we all need to figure out why the issue exists. And, if it IS in fact because of a high "tweet with link" ratio, then we should factor that into our individual Twitter strategy.
Hope that helps.
Kindly,
- Jim
@medxcentral (tweeting mostly medical and healthcare industry issues)
I think the conclusion of "don't be self referential" is false from that chart. More RTs are self referential than talk about money for example. It's just that they are generally less self referential than the rest of Twitter.
Above all, when u look at more syllables/word (S), longer words (LW), links (L) 4 tweets & retweets, NEW information from a Tweet, which adds some undefined value to a tweeple (VAT....defined as value added tweet), must yield a new level of knowledge (K) given time (T) which MAY be a function of education (E). Time is defined as the amount of time it takes one to read & comprehend a tweet, not including the time 4 reading & comprehending links. Therefore, we have:
VAT = K/{T(1/E)} - value added tweet = { knowledge/{time * (1/education)} }
Note that I have not factored in LWIC % - this can be explored further though. The VAT is just a basic model.
If tweets and retweets have a higher VAT which is a function of (K) or { (S) + (LW) + (L) }, the tweet will add value to the tweeple. Expanding this further, if a tweet has higher chance of having more (S), (LW), or (L), the numerator value of VAT goes up causing more of chance for a VAT. Also, the values of (S), (LW), (L) must be weighted since more links, long words, and syllables do not necessarily increase VAT as there MAY be diminishing marginal returns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns
If tweeples have higher level of education to understand Tweets, the time is takes to read & comprehend a tweet will go down since according to how Zarrella has measured education based on years, the E value goes up causing the value (1/E) to go down & the value of T to go down as well which causes the value of VAT to go up (the reduction of denominator T).
Beyond VAT
I think we really have to look at the mathematics of characters. What i mean is looking at say how many spaces per tweet or RT; looking a common words like "a" "on" "you" "your" "and" ....and so on in a tweet; looking at the average length of a tweet id; looking at @replies in a tweet and a RT are just some considerations I can think of. on the hop. I think people really need to understand & develop, over time, what the numerical values of their tweets are prior to tweeting, allocating, thinking & computing the character values of their tweets within the parameters of VAT.
Conveying Meaning 4 Quick Understanding - application of VAT
Applying the VAT model above, a Tweet has the potential 4 adding value in a quick amount of time than in a full blown article - (blogs & articles R still essential 4 knowledge...the issue is time which real time info is stepping in & filling the GAP).. For instance: rt @jowyang Brands focused on tools (Twitter, Facebook, Blog) without a strategy is like buying a hammer without having blueprint for house. This Tweet contains highly valuable knowledge & meaning that I can now supplement with my business education, experience and tech education. This Tweet provides perspective & adds value to the point in which I will retweet to share with my followers, to save in past Tweet inventory for future search & to utilize the Knowledge for application with consulting advice & tech education. This is the power of a Retweet & ways in which we can make this ecosystem STRONGER!
Quick analysis - can be explorer further!!!
dbax
darrick glen baxter
Winnipeg,
darrickbaxter@gmail.com
http://www.therunningback.com
I know some great articles that friends have written w/ catchy phrases that don't get retweeted a lot.
Then again, I know some that are ridiculously witty and get retweeted like crazy. I suppose it is give and take.
But we can we be really sure that there is a 'science' per se to it? I'm not entirely sure that there is...yet.
Twitter is still so new to the masses, and it's so subjective what people like.
I think the best way to get a retweet is to have good content and say something catch in your 140 characters that will make someone want to click. If they want to click, they'll probably want to retweet it as well.
Don't you think?
Otherwise it provided a few obvious results...
how to's like me http://howto.totalh.com/
I don't RT profanity and I don't RT "quotes"....so sick of inspirational quotes. Maybe I'm just getting old.
First, don't get me wrong there is nothing absolutely incorrect about trying to get link backs and traffic to your site but some of the responses on this commentary are simply just a piece of words with a link in the end to 'spam' the comments.
You didn't even try to be conversational or relevant. I think some of you are forgetting the essence of social conversation while gaining traffic for yourself.
Check out this video on how to get retweeted -
http://www.webguild.org/2009/08/whiteboard-frid...