Do you want to boost your re-tweet rate on twitter?
Not only do re-tweets help make you feel all warm, fuzzy and appreciated, they also bring you to the attention of all the followers of the person who re-tweeted you, which can’t be bad. Oh, and being re-tweeted will help to increase your klout (influence) rating too!
So that’s the why. Now onto the how.
Here are some tips:
1. Tweet about a hot topic of the moment. If possible, link it into the content you would usually be tweeting as a part of your social media strategy, but if not just make a personal comment about your opinion on it. Tweeps are likely to be searching for good tweets on trending topics so they can then become part of the trend by re-tweeting and sharing. A great example of this at the moment is Google+ – tweets I post about it are almost guaranteed to get RTed! Do make sure you time it right though – if you’re tweeting about a TV show watched by millions – do it when the show is actually on for maximum impact, not 2 days afterwards!
2. Use a relevant hashtag. Linked to the idea above is the use of a hashtag as a classification ‘label’ for your tweet. Some people searching for tweets on certain topics will search for a hashtag, so if there’s a relevant one and you’ve got space – put one in (eg. #GooglePlus, #bbcapprentice.) (Note that if you do send some of your tweets also toFacebook and LinkedIn, having them rammed full of hashtags makes it very obvious that you haven’t written a whole new status updates for this platform. And you don’t want people to think that you don’t care about the platform they happen to be using!)
3. Be humorous. As long as you’re not being offensive, a bit of humour goes a very long way on twitter, particularly when it’s something slightly surreal that you’ve just experienced (for me, just being around my children can provide that), or providing a witty remark in response to someone else’s tweet. The Royal Wedding provided a great inspiration for all manner of entertaining tweets, mainly about the guests!
4. Ask a question! Tweeps love helping each other out, in my experience and often re-tweet the original question when answering it! I’ve had great responses to questions about parking arrangements at a local station and where to take the children in London. I’ve also had re-tweets from asking about people’s favourite social media tips and about their experiences on …yes…. Google+ !!
5. Most of all, post content that is valuable to your audience, that is novel in terms of the information or approach and the re-tweets will happen!
Just remember to allow enough space in your tweet for someone to add ‘RT @ your name’ – it’s no fun having to go through and edit someone else’s tweet just to re-tweet it and a lot of people wouldn’t bother!
Please share your best tips for getting re-tweeted below!