COMMENTS
Your article was really insightful and appreciated. I'm curious which sources you used and, if you know, how many users/tweets were surveyed. Thanks again.
Well, you could add : "Automatics tweets which are URL titles ending with ellipsis". I hate that.
Boy, reading this article in the negative made it really difficult to not not figure out what my real takeaways should be. I'd love a re-post in the positive.
I found this article unhelpful. The content was good, but the constant use of double-negatives made it difficult to digest. I politely suggest a re-write in a positive context.
@Eric Olsen that is the HubSpot way. I don't get it. This was one fo the worst. I had to go back and re-analyze each takeaway. Maybe they do it to keep you on the page longer. The information itself is insightful. But it's like they encrypt to some degree.
This is a great article. Initially, I was caught off-guard with the negative references. As soon as it was apparent, I had to switch gears and start from the top. One thing I am walking away with is the difference in using tinyurl and bit.ly and how it matters.
Very hard to follow. I know that there is good information here but I need a translator to get through the double negative format. It would work much better as "How to Get Re-Tweeted."
I really like this post and even how you described it. It was a little hard at the beginning because I'm spanish speaker, so I thought what's this guy talking about, but then I could understand that was just double meaning. Also because I know about the area, maybe other people don't quite understand it at all.
Thanks for the content!
Regards!!
Bea
Good topic, but I have to agree with all who made note of the difficulty in reading the negatives to get the positives. As I was reading I felt the same way so was nice to see I was not alone.
One of your few posts I will not share because it was not easy to follow and I generally send people here to learn not get frustrated.
Looking forward to a positive re-write.
I agree with Eric.. interesting, but confusing to read in the double-negative. I got the facts ok, it just wasn't free flow or enjoyable. A weird way to write. Thanks for the tips anyhow.
This was a rather easy post to understand. Read this in the positive tone if you like. Take each heading, negate it and that gives you a way to get retweeted..but I am not so sure about the second one.
I have to chime in and agree with the others who found it necessary to work the ol' noodle a bit more than necessary to fully understand the post.
A link to the LIWC (for those who don't know about it) and more specifics on the reach of the data you used would be most appreciated, too.
Getting retweeted is always on the top of my to-do list. But I think the way that happens is not by following or not following rules, it's just be being useful, putting out great content, and be conversational.
Impossible to read. Extraordinarily great content if you could rewrite it so people "get it." My eyes see "use tiny url" and my brain tries to remember if I should or shouldn't.
Great idea, really bad execution.
I wonder how many retweets this piece will get. It's just a little too cute for my tastes. I'm well-educated. but I don't want to work so hard to get at the meaning--plus I don't have the time to spend on working through double negatives.
Really insightful. Thanks.
I love it. Seems to be a large cadre or readers complaining that "they had to read the post a number of times..." just to get the what the author was saying.
Sounds like anything an author can do to get the reader to reread their article a number of times is a good thing. And this should be considered a success.
Great article!
I had to read it twice like most here, but I liked the article and retweeted it. Yikes, then I realized I may be bringing more people onto the site to be confused by it. Sorry in advance anyone :-o
Jay Walsh said, "Sounds like anything an author can do to get the reader to reread their article a number of times is a good thing."
Wow, seriously? So, what if I misspelled every single word in an article, made it jump from positive to negative context, and even went off-topic with rambling prattle? Would you consider that a success, too?
Remind me to never consult you for matters related to content and readership, ever. lol. >.<
Great post, a lot of really helpful things to think about. I found the note about Tinyurl interesting. #6 was interesting as well.
How do i re-tweet Stephen Chapman's comment? - LOL
Great re-posting. I have been using the Science of Retweets since I downloaded it from HubSpot several months ago. As a result, about 10% of my tweets get re-tweeted. <a>htt:/
www.olinhyde.com
Great insight. We've been with hubspot for a while but just started attempting to use Twitter. It's hard not to talk about yourself and your own company, but I see how valuable it is to diversify topics.
Thank you.
Great article, I like the twist on how *not" to get re-tweets.
I have one more thing to add: You "should" set up automatic posts of exactly the same content every single day. (This is so annoying! When you look at the person's profile, every tweet is identical, and they're almost always trying to sell something. Fastest way to get un-followed, in my book.)
Good insights, just very poorly presented.
Very difficult to figure out what I should and should not do. Need to re write.
Very creative and the graphs were great. Great insights!
Sorry, I too have struggled with the double negative thingie - but the bits I 'got' were great!
Good insights, but excruciating to read. What's with the influx of Hubspot articles written in double negatives?
What to know how not to get articles forwarded? Don't not write articles in double negatives ;)
Dan,
I for one am a fan of some well placed sarcasm. I think you may well have tested the reading level of your audience here. Now you know. Don't change a thing.
Dan's next post will be how to write an article so it does not get positive comments.
For a long time that twitter has been online, shouldn't have users known this by now? I mean they should have observed their accounts.
It's ay to late in the day to decipher all the double negatives. Can't wait for positive rewrite.
I dont understand the point with colons and semicolons. What kind of corelation is between use of colons and number of retweets? Thanks
Double Negatives made it really difficult to get grip on the facts. The content is an interesting one. Look forward to a positive re-write.
A nice healthy dose of sarcasm-coated advice; just what the doctor ordered. Oops, used a semicolon!
I had to rewrite them to digest them.
1. Do not talk about yourself constantly
2. Do ask to have your message retweeted
3. Do not dumb you tweet down – Tweeters are intelligent people
4. Do include interesting links
5. Do tweet original thoughts
6. Do use twitter vocabulary in your tweets (nice list of 20 good words included in original link)
7. Do not use tinyurl.com
Might help you too
Stephen
8. Do use proper punctuation
#9: Don't write an article about Twitter with a list that makes it easy to share and retweet. (smart!)
But I also agree with the above comments about double negatives - I had to go back and read a few of these more than once to digest them.
Dunno. I kind of liked the challenge of the double negs. At least it was different.
Great information too. Thank you!
I think Dan got tricked by his own double negative style in point 7. Or using URL shortner really prevent tweets from being retweeted?
Great stuff here -I did have to read it very carefully to get the opposite meaning - and that in itself, whether deliberate or not, ensured I GOT it!
Thanks
Matthew Simmons
Interim Director and Marketing Specialist
Great post - thanks a lot.
Best regards
Valerie
This article is really insightful and much appreciated. Thanks for sharing.
I would, like a previous commentor asked, like to know which sources you used.
Thanks
Debbi
Snap Marketing
Hi Dan yes of course most of us using Twitter for business wish to have our messages retweeted. Most of this is useful concise abbreviated information. But the tiny url use could be explained a bit more. Just retweeted http://tinyurl.com/22rvyz8 & it seemed to work fine. Please clarify when you find the time. Thanks, Connie
Well said Dan! I ReTweated it : )
What happened to the concept of user-friendliness? If a reader has to rethink just to digest, isn't this missing the point? Great info but I, too, found it hard to grasp the quick takeaway.
wow - I have to agree. This was one of the hardest articles to read and comprehend in a long time. My head still hurts from it and I still don't know what I read or what my call to action is supposed to be...
*off to take some aspirin*
Well, this has been a learning experience. 185 tweets and 25 responses! The experts say that it is better to be controversial if you want to increase your response rate. People seem to be more passionate either agreeing or disagreeing with this post.
Thanks for the inadvertent learning lab.
Alice Zyetz
Please re-write in the positive way. I love your content and it makes very good reading... But like Steve Krug said "Don't make me think!" Your readers should make clear sence of the points you are trying to make. personaly I got bored of reading halfway through as I had to keep reminding myself, it was written in the negitive!
Amen @EricOlson! I have to turn my brain inside-out again. Or would that be outside-in? Hrmph.
Excellent post - Very well signposted and easy to follow. Very ReTweetable :-) Thanks for sharing.
I thought I was the only person that had problems reading it... Thanks! I feel much better :)
I loved this! Making people think harder means it will be more memorable, and people were clearly willing to think hard about it.
Congrats.
Wow, way to go with all the double-negatives. I already have to battle with information overload and signal/noise ratio, so thanks for making me re-read everything twice. Hopefully Hubspot will take note of similar comments and write Plain English. You don't need "clever" writing for your great content!
Please add to the article on bit-shortener, CHECK your shortened links before you use them.
Also, suggest you write your tweets in Word first, so you can spell check them before you send them out.
Writing in Word also gives you a chance to "think" about what you say, rather than just blast it out there.
Cheers, TC
I liked the content of this post, as it is extremely useful for new Tweeters. I am currently attempting to build networks and a voice on Twitter, so offering these tips has really helped me out! I think everyone wants to get Re-Tweeted on Twitter; it is a goal of many users as it helps to establish a personal brand and voice. These insights into promoting Re-Tweeting has given me many ideas for improving my Tweets that I will be able to implement in my own usage. Thanks again for sharing these ideas!