#EIR - 14 kick-ass tips for getting your tweets retweeted

If you want your tweets retweeted, you have to do 2 basic things: get your followers' attention and make it easy for them to retweet you.  From the time I started on Twitter I've worked hard to do these two things and, though it took a while to build, I'm very pleased with my resulting rate of retweets. Here are 12 tips I use on a daily basis to ensure that my tweets are as retweetable as possible.

1- Keep your links short.

Leave around 20 characters open.Use a link shortener like bit.ly.  That's one less thing your followers will need to do when they retweet.  A good rule of thumb is to try to leave 20 characters open when creating a tweet. That way when your retweeter's handle is added, the tweet will not need to be shortened again.

2 - Write "headlines" - tweets that grab attention 

A popular tweet grabs your attention like a newspaper headline.  I find that using verbs in your tweets keeps them more interesting, ei - "Top bloggers share secrets of their success" as opposed to "Secrets of top bloggers". However there are exceptions to this rule. See tip #7.

3 - Put your 2-cents in.

If you are retweeting a post that you feel deserves particular attention, add a comment ei "Gr8 tips" or "Excellent!" But be judicious about this.  Your followers will tune out your comments if you do this for every post.

4 - Repeat your tweet.

For the best chance of being retweeted, you can repeat your tweets at different times of the day, because not everyone is on Twitter at the same time.  However, you need to be very careful about this or you could come off as spammy. 

I don't repeat all of my tweets. If I have a blog post that I want to promote, I generally schedule a tweet in the morning and one in the evening the day after I post it. Then on Saturdays, I pick a few tweets from the past week that I think have the most potential for being retweeted and I schedule repeats of those tweets throughout the day.

5 - Be an AVID retweeter yourself.

People are apt to return the favor. About half of the tweets I post are retweets. I get them from lists I've created or hashtags that I follow. While I'm very loyal to those who retweet my posts, I also like to retweet new followers or people outside of my industry whenever possible. This helps me to keep expanding outside of my sphere of influence.  Again, it's always important to read or thoroughly scan all tweets before retweeting them, to make sure the content is of good quality and not spammy.

6 - Choose the best time to tweet.

If you spend a good amount of time on Twitter and do a little experimenting, you'll find out when your target Tweeters are on and when they're not.  Make sure to use this knowledge to schedule your tweets at times when they are most likely to be seen by the people you want to see them.

7 - Tweet links to list posts.

Social media users are scanners and always looking for quick and easily accessed information. So list posts do very well, even if your tweet doesn't use a verb, ei "Top ten secrets of successful bloggers." This may be the most powerful retweeting tip I can give you.  If you are a blogger, take note.

8 - Choose USEFUL content to tweet.

Find reliable sources of information that your target tweeters are seeking and regularly visit these sources.  To make things easier, subscribe to rss feeds through Google Reader or some other rss feed reader like iGoogle. You can also find great content through news aggregators like AllTop or bookmarking sites like Stumble Upon.

9 - Use hashtags.

Hashtags are wonderful because they alert particular groups to tweets that are of interest to them. Because these people value this information more, they are more likely to retweet it.

10 - Don't overload tweets with hashtags.

You can certainly have too much of a good thing and tweets that take up tons of characters with 3, 4 or 5 hashtags are messy, confusing and make your tweet less likely to be retweeted. Remember, you need to make things clear and easy for your followers. One or two clicks should be all that is necessary for them to retweet your posts. Don't create tweets that your followers will have to mess with too much.

11 - Write intelligent tweets but don't use jargon.

Social media users respond well to tweets that feature a wide vocabulary, but don't use jargon. Making your tweets clear to a wide variety of people gives them more of a chance to be appreciated and retweeted.

12 - Build friendships.

If you engage in conversations with other tweeters on a regular basis; inform them of useful information and retweet the tweets of others, EIR, you are more likely to build friendships on Twitter.  And friends are always more likely to retweet your tweets

13 - Be consistent.

Tweet throughout the day as often as you can, but no more than once an hour for best results. I use Hootsuite to organize the lists and hashtags I follow and to schedule my tweets and shorten my links. When you are consistent with the quality and frequency of your tweets people come to regard you as a reliable source of good information.

14 - Reward retweeters

You can recommend them on #FollowFriday, you can put them on a list and promote it, you can send them an individual note or, if you are strapped for time, thank them in a list all at once. But make sure to show appreciation to those who retweet you, if you want to encourage them to do it again in the future.

Following these tips won't change your retweet rate immediately.  It will be gradual. But if you are providing quality information to people who appreciate it, these tips are bound to help you build a very respectable retweet rate over time. If you have any other thoughts, suggestions or  tips for getting retweeted, please add them in the comments. :)