Interesting new research by Dan Zarrella of Hubspot provides interesting insights into optimising the use of Twitter, and particularly for maximising clickthroughs on links posted.
The key findings from his research, based on an analysis of activity across multiple Twitter accounts are:
- Aim to write Tweets of between 120-130 characters (NB: this allows space for @usernames to be added to ReTweets, the recommended length being 125 characters)
- Place a link approximately a quarter of the way through your Tweet
- Tweet your links at a slower pace (one per hour achieving higher click through rates than multiple Tweets per hour)
- Tweets containing the words “via”, “@”, “RT”, “please” and “check” experienced higher click through rates than those without these words. The opposite was true for Tweets containing the words “@addthis”, “marketing” and “@getglue”
- With the paper.li online newspaper system, the inclusion of the phrase “the daily is out” in related Tweets led to a higher rate of clickthroughs than those without
- Use more verbs and adverbs, and fewer nouns and adjectives (the former being more successful at generating clickthroughs)
- Tweets posted on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays had higher clickthroughs than those posted on other weekdays
- Afternoon Tweets posted had higher clickthroughs than those posted in the mornings
All very helpful to bear in mind when composing and scheduling Tweets. Clearly though, these findings are of a general nature and not specific to any particular sector or business. This is an important consideration – think “who are my customers, what are they doing and when are they most likely to be online?” – depending on whether you run a B2B or a B2C business, and what the profile of your existing and target customers looks like.
Happy Tweeting!
