What makes an effective tweet: research

Visit: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/03/22/who-gives-a-tweet/

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Billions of tweets are sent every day. Is it all Stephen Fry talking about his breakfast? This London School of Economics academic research looks at how and when to send good content.

We are able to confirm some commonly held truths about content, as well as quantify the value of categories. Reasons why tweets were liked and disliked provide some insight into accepted practice and emerging norms, as well as simple lessons to improve content.

With Twitter’s emphasis on real-time information, old news, even links that were fresh this morning, can be seen as annoying.

One way to add value to links is to include a personal opinion or thought.

Misuse of retweets and @mentions can make it feel like you’re overhearing someone else’s conversation, and overuse of #hashtags can make it hard to find the real content. E-mail or direct messages might be more appropriate; though unique hashtags are valued when users want to follow a question.

Cryptic tweets and a lack of context were particularly disliked: “just links are the worst thing in the world”

for more examples and tips