Tag Archives: social media science

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Want To Get Retweeted? MOST & LEAST popular RT’d Words

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Sharing is cool, especially when people share your Tweets. Did you realize that the WORDS YOU USE can help — or hinder — your Tweets from being Retweeted?

It’s scientific. Dan Zarrella reported his research in a slideshare presentation:

The Science Of ReTweets

View more presentations from Dan Zarrella.

Most Retweeted words and phrases:

  1. you
  2. Twitter
  3. please
  4. retweet
  5. post
  6. blog
  7. social
  8. free
  9. media
  10. help
  11. Please retweet
  12. great
  13. social media
  14. 10
  15. follow
  16. how to
  17. top
  18. blog post
  19. check out
  20. new blog post

Least popular words in Tweets

  1. game
  2. going
  3. haha
  4. lol
  5. but
  6. watch
  7. work
  8. home
  9. night
  10. bed
  11. will
  12. sleep
  13. gonna
  14. hey
  15. tomorrow
  16. tired
  17. some
  18. back
  19. bored
  20. listening

What’s wrong with these words?

[a little levity]

  1. game– Anyone who spends time gaming doesn’t have the energy to Tweet
  2. going -If you are always going to do something, chances are you won’t get to it.
  3. haha – The words Twitter and Tweet are funny enough.
  4. lol – People are laughing so loudly they get their fingers on the wrong keyboard keys and they spell RT as %*.
  5. but – No one likes to hear the contradiction.
  6. watch – If you’re looking at your watch, you’ve lost focus on what matters.
  7. work – Too obvious: WORK — call it “play” and people will share; call it “work” and people will avoid.
  8. home – Did you know that the word “home” can be an adverb? Maybe people are confused.
  9. night – Re-Tweeters are otherwise occupied at night.
  10. bed – see above
  11. will – In today’s culture, we want everything NOW. Will implies “later.”
  12. sleep– See #9
  13. gonna – Bad English; shows your ignorance?
  14. hey – “Hey[hay]” is for horses, as the proverbial saying goes. We don’t like to be “hailed” that way.
  15. tomorrow – You know: when you put things off for tomorrow . . . they don’t get done [or re-tweete].
  16. tired – No, I’m not getting lazy, it’s just that #’s 9,10,12 and 16 are all related. DON’T use them if you want retweets.
  17. some – It’s All or Nothing.
  18. back – With All Things Social Media, we’re looking ahead, not back.
  19. bored – Don’t worry, the “levity” is coming to a close.
  20. listening – Can’t figure this one out: _______________________________ YOUR TURN

And if you want to learn more about the science of social media read my last post on Dan’s webinar “Why do people do what they do online.”