posted by Robin Tooms @ 3:02 PM
Turns out, there’s a science behind retweeting. And I say “science” with a little grin because that’s usually the last thing I’m thinking about when twittering.
In this current Fast Company article, Macsai notes Dan Zarrella’s research for the upcoming The Social Media Marketing Book to help all of us become better tweeters (at least if you’d like to get more of your tweets to go viral).
Take notes! Here are two of the findings worth highlighting that relate to the structure of the tweet itself.
Use Retweetable words: Asking someone to retweet interesting information seemed to be an effective tactic. Go figure! Also, a number of blogs (including this one) are tied into twitterfeeds. The graphic below shows with numbers 18-19 what happens when people pass along blog or web information. So, if your blog post contains an interesting title, that might also increase the chance of it being passed along.
Think headlines, not phrases: Maybe we’re all just trained to pay more attention to something crafted to read like a headline than a sentence or random thoughts. The lesson here is to be specific, mention topics by name and use capitalization when appropriate.
I find it interesting that the article doesn’t mention hashtags and whether or not this has any impact on retweeting. Anybody know? Is there any evidence or research around this as well?
Here is able a bit more from the presentation on Dan’s blog as well, just in case you would like to see more of his charts:
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5.13.2009
posted by Robin Tooms @ 5:55 PM
Ok, conference organizers, take note: start putting Twitter handles on your conference nametags. At recent events, I’ve witnessed a lot of attendees exchanging Twitter information at the social or networking functions. Sure, I still carry my business cards, but now I’ve also started handwriting my Twitter information on my conference badge so that when I do talk with someone, they know how to link up immediately. And when you’re at a conference, this is also good way to make sure you don’t miss out on any tweetups!
When I do get a business card from someone, I look them up on LinkedIn and send my follow up note and invitation to connect that way. If you care enough about the person you met to follow up with via email, then why not add them to your online network? With a LinkedIn connection, you may be doing both parties a favor – you never know how your extended networks might be able to help each other.
What does this say about the way we interact in person? As professionals, our networking is not just about exchanging your information, it’s about participating in an extended conversation and perhaps knowing that person on a more human level too. Online social networks make these conversations so much easier now! But if you do participate in social networks in this way, make sure that you are developing a good personal brand online (and by association, being a good ambassador for your company’s brand too).
