A Scientific Guide to Writing Great Tweets: How to Get More Clicks, Retweets and Reach

Recently Buffer had the great pleasure of co-hosting a webinar with Twitter (yes, THAT Twitter!)

• Writing great tweets
• Timing it right
• Measuring and testing

What do people want from brands on Twitter?

So we know your customers are on Twitter, ready to click some links. They want to hear from you there and take actions that can benefit your business.

Twitter's research shows that:

• 60% of respondents say they've made a purchase from an SMB based on something they saw on Twitter.

Writing great Tweets

• Know the difference between voice and tone. Voice doesn't change, but a business' tone should vary based on a situation. If a follower did not have a positive experience, a business' tone may be more sympathetic and understanding.

Viral words and phrases

So if you want a little help with that amplification potential, here's a look at a few different studies on words and phrases that are most likely to help content spread.

Ripenn looked at the most viral words and phrases on four sites that focus specifically on viral content, including Upworthy and ViralNova. On these lists you'll notice:

• Imperative words that tell you to do something, like see, make, look.
• Visual words like video and photos point to the importance of multimedia content.
• A lot of superlatives like "the most" and "the best" and "blow your mind."
• Audience-referencing phrases like "make you," "when you," and "you see." If you're talking to "me," I am more likely to feel strongly about the content.
• How-to phrases that explain a process or teach a skill.

Specific to retweets, social media scientist Dan Zarrella of Hubspot compared common words and phrases in Tweets and ReTweets to isolate words that occur in ReTweets more than they occur in normal Tweets. From that research, he pulled out this list of the top 20 words and phrases most likely to get retweeted.

Similar patterns appear here. Again, lots of audience-referencing, like "you," and "Twitter," another mention of "how to" and a lot of imperative words that tell you to do something, like retweet or share.

Zarrella also found that tweets that contained more adverbs and verbs have a higher click-through rate than tweets with more nouns and adjectives. So the general rule that action words make for stronger, more compelling writing is also true for Tweets.

Formatting: Optimize for your goal

Start with a compelling offer and then communicate a sense of urgency. Next, include a strong call-to-action with a link to your website. Finally, avoid using hashtags or @mentions.

Here's the anatomy of a great "direct response" Tweet---you'll notice that everything is focused on one goal: click the link.

This formatting can help set off content and signify that it's something special that your followers will want to read and share.

Hashtags: How to choose the right ones

The volume of hashtags is important as well: one or two hashtags can get you up to two times more engagement than tweets without hashtags, according to a study by Buddy Media/Salesforce.

Length: Around 100 characters is the sweet spot

While there may not be a foolproof "perfect length" for a Tweet, research by Track Social on 100 well-known brands popular on Twitter found that the sweet spot for Tweet length is right around 100 characters.

Their analysis saw a spike in retweets among those in the 71-100 character range--the "medium" length tweets column in this chart.

This research makes sense when you consider how we use Twitter---a tweet at this length is long enough for the original poster to say something of value but still short enough for the person retweeting to add their commentary as well.

If you can veer toward the shorter side, it might be worth a try for your clicks as well. Tweets shorter than 100 characters get a 17% higher engagement rate, according to Salesforce.

Photos and video can make content twice as engaging

With Twitter, you have more than characters as content. Equip your marketing arsenal with rich media like photos and Vine or YouTube videos to drive retweets---it can double engagement with users.

Late last year Buffer took a sample of 100 tweets from our own account and compared the engagement averages of tweets with and without images included using Buffer's built-in analytics.

The results? Tweets with images received 18% more click-throughs, 89% more favorites, and 150% more retweets.

Try a Twitter promotion for special content

• Twixclusive: An exclusive offer on Twitter that your followers can't find anywhere else. Use unique coupons to track your results and reward your customers. If you have a brick and mortar location, Tweet a discount code for customers to redeem at the register. For online stores, direct message followers with a discount code that you can track at checkout.
• Flock to Unlock: A concept to help incentivize followers to spread your message by retweeting (i.e. sharing) your Tweet to unlock exclusive content i.e. a sale, special product, an early release, etc.
• Lead Generation Card: These cards (which require you to add a few lines of code to your website) make it easy for potential customers to demonstrate interest in your business. When someone expands a Tweet that contains a Lead Generation Card, they will see a description of your offer. Then the user simply clicks once to securely share their contact information with you. Finally, easily download all the leads to use in your email marketing efforts. Here's an example:

Timing it right

Try weekends for B2C, weekdays for B2B

A study by Salesforce discovered that Twitter engagement for brands is 17% higher on Saturday and Sunday compared to weekdays, but that only 19% of all brand Tweets are published on weekends. Weekend engagement rates are particularly high for sports brands, fashion, entertainment and publishing brands.

And you don't have to give up your weekend to take advantage of this--there are a lot of solutions like Buffer and others available that will schedule your tweets in advance (though you will want to keep an eye on your replies and participate in the conversation.)

The best time of day to tweet: Daytime and afternoon

Specifically, the afternoon and early evening tend to be good time to see more engagement and clicks.

Another study on optimizing for clicks from bitl.y showed that 1-3pm is the best time to Tweet (once again, Eastern time zone).

Although some of the advice is conflicting, it all stays in the afternoon to early evening range, which may be worth a test for your brand.

Mobile users have their own patterns

While all these different timing findings for different users can get complicated, the main idea is to put yourself in your followers' shoes and consider the patterns of your own audience. What's their day like? When are they busy? When are they bored? When do they have a few minutes between meetings? When are they most likely to want to hear from you?

If you want to know something a little more specific to your audience, you can also try a tool like Tweriod, SocialBro or Followerwonk that analyzes your account and gives you some key times to shoot for. You can then integrate those times right into your Buffer account.

Frequency of Tweets

More posts=more engagement

It's generally OK to tweet as often as you have content to support it. Twitter is a high volume channel, and it helps to Tweet enough to get noticed in the stream.

Track Social studied 100 well-known brands that are active on Twitter and found that as brands tweet more, the total number of Retweets increases.

The general rule here: Make the most of the time you do have. If you're a small business owner with a million things to do, you might be better off trying for 4-5 tweets per day to make the most of the time you do have. If you have the time and the content to post more often, Tweeting regularly helps you establish yourself as an authority on Twitter.

The more you tweet, the more opportunities you have to engage with fans, and the more total response you will receive. Greater volume should generally correlate to greater total response.

Try spacing out your links for more clicks

However, you might want to try to space your link posts out throughout the day. Social media scientist Dan Zarrella found that the higher the number of links an account Tweets in a given timeframe, the lower the click-through rate on each individual link.

To combat this potential effect, you might try experimenting with your posting rate by mixing up "conversation starter" tweets---where you ask question or post "inside scoop" type photos---with your more salesy posts with links so each link gets a little more attention.

A content calendar can help keep it together

• On Monday, you could launch a Twitter-only promotion for your followers. Tweet an online offer code or a secret word for customers to use when they visit your business.

• On Tuesday, tweet a behind-the-scenes tour of your business. Highlight how your products are made or where they are sourced from.

Measuring and testing

Metrics to explore: Growth, reach, engagement, clicks and conversions

• Follower growth: How many new followers you get every day, week or month.

Testing: How to test headlines, hashtags and more

All you need is a way to track the metrics of all the Tweets you are sending. You can do this either through a URL shortener like bit.ly or with Buffer's built in analytics.

For example, we test timing at Buffer by taking one piece of content and choosing 3-4 different times to test it on the same day. Buffer will always generate a different URL so it's super simple to do a quick A/B test. It works best to keep the posts simple tweets with a headline plus a link each time (interspersed each time with other types of posts that are perhaps more conversational in tone).

The following day, check your analytics and see how the tweets compare for clicks, favorites and retweets. From there, update your schedule to optimize for your metric of choice. Repeat this process as your content changes and you get more followers to make sure you're always tweeting at the most optimal times.

You can also do this with headlines. At Buffer, we test headline variations by Tweeting out the article 3 or so times throughout a day with a different title each time. We track the results in Buffer analytics to see which headline performed best in terms of clicks, shares, and favorites. Then we re-write the post's headline depending on the winner of the test.

What "Twitter science" works best for you and your audience?

I'd love to hear what you've tested and how it went. Let me know in the comments. You can also check out the presentation slides or watch the webinar YouTube video below.

P.S. If you liked this post, you might also like The Twitter Strategy Guide: 14 Twitter Tips to Take Your Tweeting to the Next Level and Twitter Tips for Beginners: Everything I Wish I Knew About Twitter When I Started.

Image Credits: linh.ngan, Twitter, Dan Zarrella, Conductor, Salesforce, Track Social, Convince and Convert, KISSMetrics, Raka Creative.