Micro-blogging site Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) with its own unique custom and traditions has acquired a selective flavor of the worldwide web users, who are using the platform effectively to convey their message to the masses. Actively tweeting users are effectively using hashtags, images, videos, mentions and links to attract their tweeps and gain more re-tweets. Marketers, Twitter users and other influential personalities must focus on effectively utilizing Twitter’s above mentioned features to make the tweet more viral and retweetable.
Track Maven, a leading competitive analysis provider for digital marketers, analysed 1,423 Twitter accounts, 1.7 million tweets, limited accounts with over 1,000 followers and normalized re-tweets per 1,000 followers – to generalize the various methodologies adopted by top Tweeting users to gain more re-tweets or virality. A few interesting findings from the report are summarized below.
Usage Of Hashtags Is Vital To Increase The Re-Tweet Count!
Hashtags is one of the unique features of Twitter, which helps users in discovering the tweets pertaining to the discussions regarding a particular topic or a person. People use hashtags widely as it makes the topic-search task easier and gains access to a vast collection of tweets, opinions and talks about the shared content on the micro-blogging site. Not just that, hashtag are also widely used by brand advertisers as most of the people browse for their favorite brands, discover any promotional brand event details or discount offer deals via hashtags. Nearly 70% of consumers who clicked on the TV ads through hashtags ended up watching the commercials all the way through. Brands must wisely chose hashtags, which are likely to be searched for by users, and utilize them in every single tweet.
If we analyze the graph above, we can observe that the usage of hashtags increases the likelihood of getting more re-tweets. 5 hashtags in a tweet receive on an average 0.301 re-tweets whereas tweet without any hashtags receive an average of 0.116 re-tweets. Hashtag is an innovative Twitter tool to explore topics of interest and get connected with like-minded users.
Highest Average Re-Tweet Rate Of 0.190 Was Observed For Tweets With 6 Mentions!
Twitter mentions is a simple way of tagging other Twitter users within the tweets, if you are talking about them or want them to view or engage with the tweet. Tweet that mentions Twitter username shows up in the timeline of the tweeps of the tweet composer and the user who was mentioned and on the @connect (mentions) page of the Twitter user (who was tagged within the tweet).
Brands must make best use of the mentions feature in their business conversations and also one-to-one customer interaction. Using the business’ Twitter account to mention and reply to people shows them that the company is approachable and builds a rapport with its followers.
From the graph above we can conclude that the number of Re-Tweets at an initial stage rises with an increase in the number of mentions. With 6 mentions, the average Re-Tweet rate was around 0.190. The Re-Tweet rate decreases for mentions beyond 6. Brands and corporate accounts must make use of mentions while addressing their customers or followers’ queries or complaints. Twitter users, by making use of the mentions feature, can increase its virality and increase chances of getting Re-Tweeted or receive replies from the user.
Positioning The Link Within 90% Through The Tweet, Gains On An Average 0.2 Re-Tweets!
Most of the tweeting users are under the impression that link should be placed at the end of every tweet to gain higher CTR. But it is not always true. In a majority of cases, the CTR rate was higher when a link was not placed at the end of the tweet. In the graph below, we can see that the positioning of the link within 90% through the tweet gains a 0.2 average Re-Tweet rate.
Tweeting users must take care to include the link at the appropriate place, somewhere within the 75%-90% through the tweet to gain more CTR or Re-tweets. Inclusion of links is important as some of the users prefer exploring more detailed information if the tweet seems exciting to them. Brand advertisers must effectively place the link such that the CTR rate zooms higher.
