Techniques to Get a Tsunami of Re-Tweets!
Experiment:
This quick post is half experiment and half thoughts. Today I came across this re-tweet post by Chris Brogan. The guy gets Re-Tweeted like a stock market ticker! I think his post has value, but doesn’t talk much about headlines. My belief is that if you have a good headline, that people will re-tweet the heck out of your link. If your headline is breaking news, then it may reach viral status. In being transparent, I suck at writing headlines and I find the usual “10 steps to a better ________” or “Get filthy rich by your next Birthday” to be below my ethical taste.
So lets see what happens with my current headline. “Techniques to Get a Tsunami of Re-Tweets!”
Thoughts (-):
- Re-Tweets are very often NEVER read. ~ Fake Karma
- Re-tweets are often done because the person wants you to follow them back or be part of your little viral re-tweet marathon. ~ fake Friends
Thoughts (+):
- If you read something of value to your network and you don’t re-tweet you are doing them a disservice. Share awesome content with your network.
- If you add value to your community and offer up content that is not “Noise” you will build trust.
- Just being a standup guy/gal that enjoys making true connections, sharing information, and doesn’t approach with an agenda is really all you need to know.
It’s fun seeing your twitter posts re-tweeted by the masses, but how many of them do you know anything bout? How many of these folks in your network have you touched personally? How many of these folks in your network can you say you have done business with or spoken to on the phone?
Thats where the value id folks. I’ve said it 1,000 times on this blog. Numbers means nothing and relationships are key. So while everyone else is out cultivating their twitter following, I’m cultivating my relationships. Take with this information what you will. I will share the number of re-tweets of this post in an update.
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
I agree that it’s not about the number of followers mean nothing. I previously wrote a blog post about this exact topic:
http://www.jayphilips.com/2009/02/11/its-not-about-the-number-of-followers/
I feel that if your tweet adds value it will be retweeted. If someone tweets and constantly says to Please RT I won’t retweet it unless I think others in my network would be interested.
Ketih,
You definitely hit upon a potentially gargantuan-ranking headline for your Tsunami post today.
Here’s wishing you a whirlwind of tweets, a blizzard of re-tweets, a firestorm of new social media network connections, a gale of exposure for the http://www.keithburtis.com website, and a firestorm of new business leads.
Good (I mean ‘really’ big) luck.
Joanne Maly, Lincoln Maly Marketing, Cincinnati, Ohio
@ED – hahah, I agree with you sir. I guess what I was saying was that some folks are driven by “Followers” I try to be driven by “Relationships” – By the way…we need to hook up over skype or phone soon 
Serious…
@jay – Agree on all counts. Doesn’t hurt to have @ChrisBrogan like numbers….but better still to have @ChrisBrogan like Trust and Relationships
@Joanne – hahah- Awesome comment!
Hi Keith:
You caught me with your headline and the fact that Chris’ name was in it REALLY caused me to click because his content is so spot on ALL the time.
Normally, I would never click on a headline like this because it looks spammy to me… of the “get 400 new followers a day” variety.
However, I did click on it which led me to realize that the reason I did was because it came from a TRUSTED resource that had taken the time to build a relationship with me through constantly providing great content that is NOT spam.
So, once again, it’s about the relationship-not the quantity of followers, retweets, etc. etc.
For someone like me, the ONLY reason I DO really care about RT’s is on behalf of my clients in case someone who could have an impact on their business decides to retweet something about my client’s business. This is a signal to me to take the time to begin to build a relationship with that person as they have taken a PERSONAL interest in sharing the information with their friends.
Thanks for a great post that made me think and, hey, where is the post we discussed a couple of weeks ago-the one you said you were working on?? Smile! Can’t wait to see it!
Good post.
But-
“It’s fun seeing your twitter posts re-tweeted by the masses, but how many of them do you know anything bout? How many of these folks in your network have you touched personally? How many of these folks in your network can you say you have done business with or spoken to on the phone?”
Is too limiting. If I only retweeted people
I’ve done invoiced business with, or hugged personally,
I would not have shared thousands of brilliant
statements, links, leads, or introduced many, many people to each other.
[I have to go retweet Brogan about this post now]:-)