The Science of Re-tweeting

Hubspot viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella has examined 5 million tweets and 40 million re-tweets over the course of nine months and just published his study on the factors of re-tweeting success: What does/does not get re-tweeted, and for what reasons?

Some insights: We learn that semicolons are the "the only unretweetable punctuation mark," which I, as an avid semi-colon fan, find deeply disturbing. Speaking of which, emotions and ego-mania are not so popular. Tweets about work, religion, money and media/celebrities are far more re-tweetable than negative emotions, sensations, swear words, and self-reference. The least re-tweetable word is "game," and the most re-tweetable is "you." Time of day matters, and breaking news works, both of which are not too surprising. But "please retweet"? - please... 

Read Zarella's Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted on Twitter on Fast Company or download the full report.

Tim Leberecht is the CMO of frog and the publisher of design mind.