Content is once again king. With the recent Google algorithm updates, more businesses are investing in content at a phenomenal rate. This means that all your blog posts, Facebook updates and Tweets are appreciating in value, if you can find a way to get it in front of the right sets of eyes.
If you are a business owner and Twitter is part of your brand awareness campaign, getting your tweets retweeted is an important step in squeezing maximum value out of your content and Twitter campaigns. There are several tactics that can be employed by even the average Twitter user to get more retweets. Here are 10 best ways to drive more retweets.
1. Do it yourself: Retweet your own tweets
There are 58 million tweets sent every day worldwide; breaking it down to a smaller scale—9,100 tweets are sent out every second. That means the tweets you are sending out everyday can quickly become lost in the constant stream of your followers’ Twitter feeds. One way to make sure your tweets get seen is to retweet them. This is not tantamount to spamming if you space them out and time the tweets perfectly. Don’t retweet tweets that you sent out only yesterday. If you’re using some sort of Twitter manager that keeps a record of your past posts, go into the archives and retweet content that is still relevant. Twitter will send you a complete archive of your tweets from day one. Space out your retweets about 8 hours or so, to maximum reach to global followers who are in different time zones.
2. Timing
The only way your tweets get any attention, and thus retweets, is if your followers are logged in, and active. It would be an absolute waste of time to push out tweets when everyone within your niche is not looking. When they do log in, they will be flooded with a myriad of tweets and your valuable tweet may just be overlooked. Your timing is everything. You should push out your tweets when most of your target audience is logged into Twitter. Tools such as Tweriod and Socialbro can help you find out the behavior of your demographic, and when they are most active. Find out what the most popular period or time frame is, and be sure to always schedule your tweets then. This should be done for all your territories.
3. Form mutually beneficial Twitter relationships
The problem with our overly social platform based society is that everyone wants to talk about themselves. We have taken our self-centered behavior to a whole different virtual level. Always tweeting about yourself may work to some extent if you are a highly popular socialite. For businesses, you need to do what businesses always do, form a valuable network of people who share the same interests. This means you have to share content on Twitter that is not all about you or your business all the time. Share other people’s content, retweet their tweets, involve yourself in their discussions, and always make sure that your contributions add value to the conversation. This way you will slowly position yourself as a thought leader and a team player. More people will want to be associated with you, and thus increasing your retweets.
4. Use sharing triggers
People are more likely to share your content and retweet your tweets if they are informative, controversial, uplifting or unbelievable. Make sure your content is any one of these things, or a combination, and chances are people will want to retweet your tweets.
5. Use question-based tweets
The best way to spark a conversation or discussion with the Twitter community is to tweet question-based content. Try asking controversial questions–heated discussions are often a mood killer in drunken circles, but online, they often form a trend as everyone wants to weigh in or get the opinion of others within their circles. Combining sharing triggers with your question-based tweets is one of the best ways to get people talking about, and retweeting your tweets.
6. Tweet witty headlines
Headlines help with generic searches. The best thing to do when tweeting is to use headlines that stand out and make people notice them. This goes back to the application of sharing triggers. Controversial, highly witty and descriptive headlines are all good examples of tweets that will get you attention and retweets. When using a headline, try to make them less than 65 characters so that people can append their own content with the retweets.
7. Content
Nothing is more important than the content of your tweets. There is a direct correlation to how much your tweets get retweeted to the amount of time you spend crafting it. Make sure your post is of high quality that your audience will want to be associated with.
8. Make your tweets valuable
People will connect to content that adds some sort of value to their lives. If your tweets are of no value to anyone, then they will not be retweeted. Make sure your tweets hold some kind of worth to your followers. They can either be funny, informative, helpful or insightful. Whatever the niche you choose, be sure your followers will gain some sort of benefit from your tweets.
9. Make them unique and trendy
One way to stand out is to make your tweets as unique as possible. Tweak your tweets in accordance to the level of uniqueness you want. The other way to make sure that they get retweeted is to go with the trends. Simply run a quick search on Google and find out what is being pushed out there. Trending topics will always be bait for retweets.
10. Share in-depth content
People have become more discerning. They know shoddy work when they see it. Research has shown that in-depth content has a higher shelf life than simple posts on generic subjects. Make your content as well researched, and as informative and unique as possible, and you will have more retweets. These tweets might take a great deal more time to compose but they will pay off in the end with the longest shelf life, and the number of retweets.
There is very high competition nowadays within the various social media platforms. Following these 10 tips will make sure that your content stands out and gets the airplay you desire.
Bernard Naylor is an Online Manager for CJ Pony Parts – one of the Top Mustang parts and accessories retailers in the world. He also likes blogging about online strategies that are related to SEO, Content, PPC & Lead generation.