Retweets, you have heard about them, you know what they are but you aren't gettin' them.
For some reason you just can't seem to get the engagement you are seeking, desiring and yearning for in social media and Twitter.
You may be new to Twitter and simply don't know what the heck you are doing, how to get a retweet or why the retweets even matter. This post won't teach you what Twitter is but provides good tips for tweetable content which you need regardless if you know what you're doing or not (joking).
Or you may be a Twitter and social media veteran who just wants to boost your ego, increase your Klout score or simply show off for Grandpa this weekend how popular you are on the social waves?
Retweets are good in that they help spread your message, can increase brand awareness, visits to your blog, and help you meet business and marketing objectives if you have properly integrated social media into your business.
Whatever your motivation may be to increase the retweet love, below are a few tips (55 of them) to increase those retweets. No promises. No guarantees. But heck, what do you have to lose?
55 Tips to Increase Retweets on Twitter
1. Remove the default egg avatar & add a photo of your smiling face asap.
2. Don't use photo as an avatar that I can't see. Otherwise I'll think you're a stalker.
3. Add a bio to your Twitter profile.
4. Add a link to your blog, website, Facebook page or Linkedin profile to your Twitter bio.
5. Turn off your Twitter auto DM spam messages.
6. Don't be a stalker.
7. Know your audience.
8. Know the lingo.
9. Know the tools.
10. Include a link (but not on every tweet).
11. Shorten the link (use bit.ly or other shorteners).
12. Leave room for a retweet (room for your twitter handle plus a few extra characters).
13. Tweet something unique (not just the first 5 posts on Mashable.com).
14. Add a comment to the end of the tweet (this will require you actually read the content you are tweeting).
15. READ the content you tweet a link to (BTW, I don't tweet anything that I have not read!)
16. Be interesting.
17. Don't tweet like you are writing a piece of corporate collateral from 1992.
18. Don't tweet about yourself all day.
19. Time of day matters. Try tweeting different content different times of day and see what works.
20. Measure results, refine, measure again. Measure via bit.ly clicks, blog visits, time of day etc.
21. Inspire me.
2 2. Make me laugh.
23. Make me cry.
24. Educate me.
25. Show me that you're human.
26.Talk to me like I am human.
27. Connect me with other people that you know.
28. Provide value.
29. Be yourself.
30. Context is important.
31. Tone matters.
32. Include words like “top, how to, tips” if you are tweeting link to these types of documents.
33. Make tweet easy to read – not too many abbreviations.
34. It's okay to abbreviate if I can still read it.
35. Quit complaining.
36. Consistency in tone, language, style.
37. Stop the profanity – who wants to retweet profanity?
38. Be positive. Nobody likes hanging out with negative Nelly all day.
39. Don't repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat same tweets tweets tweets all day.
40. Be relevant.
41. Leave a few tweetable nuggets (tweets) as your last few tweets if you are taking off for a few hours or longer.
42. Variety in content tweeted.
43. Share others content.
44. Add value yourself.
45. Talk to me. Social media really is one big conversation, so might as well join in.
46. Share a song.
47. Share a video.
48. Share your favorite quote (quotes are some of the almost retweeted content).
49. Ask me a question.
50. Join a Twitter chat. I host #GetRealChat at 9pm et Tuesdays. Some of my other favs are #SMManners with @DabneyPorte, #CMChat with @JessicaNorthey, #LinkedInChat with @LinkedInExpert and #BlogChat with @MackCollier
51. If you read an awesome post, let author know you liked it via a tweet.
52. Include the authors name in the retweet via their Twitter handle
53. Include a link to the original authors name if you find post syndicated on another site
54. Don't take yourself too seriously, it's just a tweet
55. Have fun!
Your Turn
What retweet ninja tips do you have? If you got em', share em'!
