How Many Times Do Your Tweets Get ReTweeted?
How often do you check your tweets that have been retweeted (RTd) by others? This can help you see what your followers find interesting. You can’t draft all your subsequent tweets around that subject, but it will give you an idea of the most popular topics that you tweet about. Have a look at Twitter’s “Retweets by others” button as well to see what people are RTing.
If your tweets aren’t being retweeted and you want to improve this, there is no quick fix. It’s all about content and capturing the imagination. Use twitter hashtags so that you come up on the timelines of people looking for information on that subject. If there is a trending topic that you can comment on and add to the conversation then do – you will come up when people click on the trending topic. Is there a news story or current affairs issue that you can comment on? This could also increase your retweets.
Social Media Experts Get It Right
Also worth noting is Twitter’s use as a real-time comments board. Is there is a television programme on that is relevant to your followers that you can tweet about while it’s happening? (This is important – tweeting on a non-relevant programme or issue could lose you followers.) Comment on it using the common hashtag (run a search to see what everyone is using) and follow along. If you can add something illuminating, different, interesting or amusing then people will notice and retweet.
This is a lighthearted example, but it shows you the reach you can get using a popular hashtag. The XFactor is a Twitter juggernaut on Saturday nights – it fills the trending topics UK and Worldwide and the XFactor Twitter account is the most mentioned worldwide while the programme is showing. On the first week of this year’s XFactor expectation was high – new judges, new singers and an XFactor cliche – new sob stories. A young Janet Devlin auditioned, and the show showed her home in rural Ireland, making a big deal out of the sheltered location and the remoteness of her home.
@popjustice tweeted this;
Look at the amount of RTs for what looks like a simple comment. Out of context it may be hard to understand, but in context it is brilliant. Short, funny, complements the show and shows that popjustice knows the programme, its audience and the XFactor audience. Days later it was still getting RTd. Popjustice weren’t looking for new followers or driving people to their website, they were doing what a good twitter account does – providing great content for their followers.
So check your RTs, see what your audience likes and remember it. RTs increase your twitter reach, you become better known and it will increase your followers. The first rule though, as always, is
