There is nothing coveted more by tweeps than retweets, mentions and replies. Nearly every twitter user wants to know the secret of how to get retweeted. There is definitely an art but there are also studies that provide hard data behind the science of retweets.
The Art of Getting Retweeted
Everyone on Twitter is passionate about something. That’s the reason people follow you! The single most important part of the artof being reshared is simple: post content your listeners care about. For example, if people follow you because you are the guru in the homebuilding industry, post about homebuilding. Your followers won’t care about the newest song released by your favorite band.
The best way to ensure that you will get more retweets is to create a social media budget. This budget is a simple concept that can help you figure out what topics you’re interested in and determine how much time you will spend talking about each subject. Next you figure out what type of content you should share: links, quotes, videos, etc. For some people, quotes get retweeted more. For others, only original content or news stories will get retweeted.
Figuring out what your users want to hear is extremely important. It may take a little while to determine what works and what doesn’t for your audience. That’s just part of mastering the art form.
The Science of Getting Retweeted
Retweet Scientist, Dan Zarrella, has written an excellent (free) eBook that is totally worth getting entitled The Science of Retweets. In this helpful guide, he gives you all the technical knowledge gathered from a survey of hundreds of thousands of tweets. This data shows what tweets worked and what didn’t. Dan dissects retweetable tweets from analyzing the psychology behind how word choice to pointing out what words will most likely get you retweeted. I would try to get into all of the science, but nothing can sum it up better than Dan’s book, so check that out.
Conclusion
If you are trying to get more retweets it is time for you to start learning the art of retweets and studying the science behind what people like to reshare. There is definitely a learning curve and a lot of trial and error, but if you create content your users want to hear and figure out which words will spark a desire for retweets, you’ll be getting your tweets reposted in no time.