I hope that you’ve discovered the amazing power of Twitter by now. If not, there’s still time, but where have you been?
Twitter is by far one of the most effective, efficient tools to network , communicate, share content and market events, services…anything. Twitter gives you a worldwide audience, that, if interested and engaged, will not only read your content, but share your content!
It’s a great honor (and the goal of many) to have posts retweeted. It’s free advertising, if you will, and the ultimate Twitter compliment. If what you have to say is deemed interesting or valuable to the community, your materials can be shared over and over again.
As I watch, monitor and participate in conversations on Twitter, one of the most common barriers to having content shared is a lack of brevity. Many people use every bit of their 140 characters to communicate their post and link. This leaves people who may want to share your updates in a bit of a quandry. Instead of simply retweeting and paying it forward, now they have to figure out what words to delete, shrink, change, etc., to pass your message along. Most people will just give up, or even worse, retweet it and half of the post gets cut off.
I’m not saying that getting retweeted is the goal, however, if you want your content shared, you can help the community out a bit. So for retweets, 120-is-the-new-140 is the way to go. Leaving room at the end of the post gives people room to retweet your content easily. Here are a few tips to help you be more “retweetable”:
Keep Your Tweets to 120 or Less
Using 120 or less characters will give tweeters room for the RT (retweet) moniker as well as your user name.
Remember to Use a URL Shrinker
Save valuable space with a URL Shrinker like http://www.is.gd or http://www.bit.ly. Tweetdeck has several URL Shrinkers built in. This saves you space and if you use a URL service with tracking (such as Krumlr, Bit.ly, Tr.im or others) you’ll also be able to track how many hits your link receives.
A Great Headline (And Content) Never Hurts
Add value to the community. Solve a problem. Don’t just post links to stuff you’re selling. Post helpful content. Use more than the “new post” line. Quoting the best parts of your content can be a great headline to get attention. Promise to solve a problem or get amazing results. Of course, be honest, but hype up your post. With over 10 million people on Twitter, you have a lot of competition.
Brevity and value are the basics to Retweet success. So, the next time you post something you think you may want shared, remember, 120 is the new 140!
http://tr.im/greatbrand & http://tr.im/RTimize add more to your article.
Good reminder about this well used technique. Retweeting is often done so poorly that folks not only don’t immediately see the link, like me, they’re avoiding some of them.
120 is the new 140 if retweet matters. Great tip.
Keep them short, but more importantly I don’t try to be retweeted, my approach is if I like it someone else may too, if not… so I still do…. share it and then its outta’ my hands…
Great Post Staci!
I must add… Being retweeted is greatly hinged upon the content of the tweet. If your desire is to be “retweeted”, be compelling. YES how long the tweet is makes a huge difference, BUT what I have also found is that if your tweet is compelling people will rethink your original tweet, make it fit, and still spread the idea giving you full credit and endorsement, AND this is equally as flattering as the traditional retweet of your original tweet (idea). In an essence what has happened here is that the nature of your tweet was compelling enough to cause the “Retweeter” to fully engage the tweet, and process it mentally… THIS MATTERS. This is an indication that not only did they “like” the tweet, BUT they “adopt” the tweet, and believe in it’s relevance enough to do what it takes to spread the idea.
I couldn’t agree with you more Vincent, if you want to be retweeted, keep it short and create great content behind it…
Great insight and advice as always from the community!! Nothing beats having something valuable to share. There also has to be the element of relationship! Those who do not actively engage and share others are alienating themselves from a great support system.
Thanks everyone for chiming in…keep ‘em coming!
Staci, love it….I’ve been posting a lot about the power, suggested “Tweetiquette”, and use models for B2B customer conversation using Twitter et al. Most important, I think, is that we embrace our F2F skills and grace as we reach out to our Tweeple across the globe!
Absolutely! For me, online is a great way for me to engage, interact and let people get to know me and my brand! It’s an awesome ice-breaker that makes the offline conversation flow. It’s more “continuing” the conversation than starting!
Thanks for your comments!!!
I like this post. I definitely think about my tweets being retweetable. I use Twitter to promote my blog and my website, but even if I find something interesting somewhere on the net, I want people to be able to retweet it.
At some point in life, I made up quotes also so when I share those I try to leave room for them to be retweeted because a lot of times they are meant to be inspirational.
I agree 100%. It is really annoying to have to edit a message because it is just too long when you want to retweet. Sometimes, I just don’t bother.
I like to add a bit of my own content to retweets any way, so a bit of breathing room is priceless.
Mr Hunt is correct as well. The best way to get retweets is to take time and effort to post compelling information in the first place.
Thanks for your insight – it is a great way (twitter etikette) to tweet this way. @r_rowe
[...] This post was Twitted by jimhunt – Real-url.org [...]
[...] timecommander 1 hour ago RT @StaciJShelton: If you want to be Irre-tweetable, try this: http://www.stacijshelton.com/2009/05/18/... [...]
[...] 120-is-the-new-140 How to get retweeted on Twitter from blogger Staci Shelton. Makes sense. [...]