Social Media Marketing: Getting retweeted on Twitter
One of the most exciting aspects of social media marketing is that everything is new - new social media, new avenues and methods of marketing. While companies and organizations of all kinds now use social media tools like Twitter, we are just discovering how to do so successfully.
A recent research article in the MIT Sloan Management Review addresses some of the successful ways that Twitter is being used as a marketing tool. It's entitled, "How to Get Your Messages Retweeted", by Arvind Malhotra, Claudia Kubowicz Malhotra, and Alan See. The authors focus on retweeting, or forwarding a message on Twitter, because they believe that this is a great marketing tool whose significance is not yet fully taken advantage of. In defense of this argument, the authors point out that, "[f]irst is the simple fact that, if retweeted, your tweet reaches more people. Second, and more importantly, a retweet comes with an implicit, and often explicit, endorsement.
So, how do organizations go about getting retweeted?
The authors go on to outline nine distinct ways to make your organizations tweets more retweetable:
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Keep tweets short. This allows the retweeter to personalize their retweet.
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Use attention words, like WOW, at the beginning of the tweet.
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Ask to be retweeted. "RT Please" is the shorthand, Twitter lingo for "retweet please".
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Humanize your organization. Use things like humor and personal content to connect with your followers.
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Validate your organization. Announce goals met or awards received.
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Educate your audience.
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Offer deals and coupons.
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Connect the tweet with current events and news.
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Create anticipation for what's coming next from your organization.
Want to learn more?
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Have any of these guidelines worked for you? Have you found any other methods that help get you retweeted? Please start a discussion by leaving your comments!