What Makes People Click Retweet?

We get asked lots of questions by clients and business contacts about social media and SEO, one of the most common questions we are asked is what makes people click retweet when they see on a tweet on Twitter.

This question is often asked when we are completing social media training and Twitter Training. It’s normally asked as we are thinking about what sort of things the client should post on Twitter to get the most engagement and response.

We came across this excellent research by Martech that shows what makes people retweet your posts on Twitter, and some of it may surprise you!

92% of people will retweet good content, so it is still important to think about good / useful content, instead of jumping on the bandwagon of the next best trending hashtag.

84% of people will retweet a post that they think is humorous or funny; now of course this is dependent on your business as there are some industries where the audience will not appreciate the humour. You also need to make sure you are not funny all the time as this can be off-putting and mean people don’t see you as serious.

66% of people will click retweet on a post from a personal connection, which just goes to back-up the importance of being real on Twitter, engaging with your audience and using it as a platform to build relationships as your audience will then see you as a personal connection and retweet your posts.

32% of people will retweet a post if there is a personal incentive; for example are retweet competition or 5% off your first order if you retweet this post. Often people will want to know what’s in it for the, so this is why they love a personal incentive tweet.

25% of people will retweet your post if you ask them too; a simple ‘Please RT’ can encourage people to retweet your post. Like the saying goes “If you don’t ask, you don’t get!” so ask for that retweet and 25% of your audience are likely to do exactly that.

21% of people will retweet if the post is from a celebrity status; this is a lot lower than it used to be and lower than many expect. However, it does mean that us ‘real people’ have a better chance on Twitter!

If you’d like to know more about our professional Twitter training then please contact us directly; or we can offer Twitter Management on a long or short term where we post on your Twitter account for you.