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02 Jul 2009 15:06

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Biz, Tech: We want you to retweet this, but you won’t ’cause it’s self-referential

  • What the frack? It’s true. We want you to talk about us, but a recent set of statistics gathered by internet smart guy Dan Zarrella shows that you won’t retweet this because we’re talking about ourselves. Really, it plays into the viral nature of the Internet. You’re way more likely to trust your friends finding something than us saying it.
  • Other notes Zarrella also notes that if you want to be retweeted, you need to include a link. A link is key to the process, and nearly 60% of retweets have one (versus fewer than 20% of non-retweeted links). Also: Say something original. Make up some stuff! Use some unusual big words! Play on our emotions! But make sure it’s original.
  • Our takeThis explains a lot about how people use social media, but not everything. Seemingly everyone on Twitter’s a marketing expert who would like nothing better than for you to retweet them. Some people are better at this than others – the social media equivalent of Neil Strauss. But in the end, we don’t want to be gamed. source