Better you than me
Want more Twitter followers? Stop talking about yourself
The more you talk about yourself on Twitter, the fewer followers you’re likely to have.
Or so says viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella.
Using TweetPsyche data on more than 60,000 Twitter users, he looked at self-reference on Twitter. He found that Twitter users who don’t talk about themselves much tend to have more users.
“Want more followers?” Zarrella asks. “Stop talking about yourself.”
In other TweetPsyche research, Zarrella found that Mom was right about social media as well as so many other things. To get more followers on Twitter, Zarrella writes, you should:
- Be positive. Writing about sadness, aggression, morbid thoughts and negative emotions and feelings correlates with fewer followers. (What a shock!) So if you want more followers, cheer up.
- Be sociable. Social language correlates with more followers, Zarrella found. So use words like “you” and “we” and write more about relationships and communication.
And remember: “You” is the most retweeted word in the English language.
So on Twitter as in so much else in life, better “you” than “me.”
Reach readers online.
Want to get the word out on the Web?
- Get it off your desk: Bring Ann’s team in to write Web copy for your organization.
- Polish staff skills: Bring Ann to your organization for a Web writing workshop.
- Boost your own abilities: Work with Ann to polish your Web writing skills with one-on-one writing coaching sessions. And find out about Ann’s upcoming webinars on writing for the Web and social media.
- Learn more: Read Ann’s Web writing learning tools. And get free writing tips every month when you subscribe to our e-zine.
- Join the club: And find dozens of tipsheets on reaching readers online at RevUpReadership.com.
