The Science Of Being retweeted

Twitter: how difficult can it be?

It seems easy enough: write a few words and automatically your message is spread around the world. Guess again: the seamingly simple activity of micro-blogging is now the subject of a science that reveals it's surprisingly complicated nature.

If you're not a scientist and are looking for a quick way to be (re)tweeted about: add a blog post such as this one to The HOB.Biz! It will automatically reach an audience on Twitter and elsewhere.

If you're serious about starting a viral hype using Twitter, consider some of these findings that social scientist Dan Zarella deduced from analyzing millions of tweets and retweets!

Some surprising findings:

-Only one to two percent of Tweets are retweeted
-It matters which URL Shortener you use
-There are words you should and words you shouldn't use (see lists below)
-Retweeted messages tend to contain a link (3:1 ratio compared to non-retweeted)
-Messages sent on mondays and fridays are more likely to be retweeted (time of day also matters)

Yesterday's URL Shorteners

Some URL Shorteners are hot, others are not:

Graph 1: Popularity Of URL Shorteners (in relation to retweets)

Source: Dan Zarella

Widely used URL shortener TinyURL is much less likely to be contained in a retweeted message then newer services bit.ly and ow.ly

Choose Your Words

Success depends in part on the words you use. Succesful words seem to suggest positivity and content, negative words an words associated with spam or everyday boredom are out:

Graph 2: Popularity of words in Retweets

Source: based on Dan Zarella

Presentation:

View the presentation below to learn more about "The Science Of Retweets" and it's author or read the enclosed whitepaper.

Whitepaper:

The link to the full report:

science-of-retweets.pdf