Retweeting is a key part of the Twitter experience. A retweet (or “RT”) allows Tweeps to share the best links, tweets, and gems they find from others. A general ‘re-tweet- rule of thumb: anything re-tweeted, or shared by anyone becomes viewed by about 1000 people. At least! Bonus points if the re-tweeter has a lot of followers. Here I provide you with the best advice for getting the most out of your Twitter experience – not to mention gaining considerable exposure! Bookmark this page for future reference.

1. Encourage Interaction. Ask your followers a question. If you’re firstly wanting more followers to be able to interact with, you might want to look into follower growth tools services similar to Tweeteev as an example. Ask them what they are eating/doing/thinking and you are sure to generate responses. Often times, people will re-tweet hugely general items such as ‘What are you doing tonight?’ — because it applies to their own followers as well.

2. Use a good photo that clearly shows Who You Are. Stand strong behing your Twitter image. Consider this your Twitter-Face. Pick a photo that shows mostly your face (if it is a personal account) – or a captivating, eye catching photo if you plan to use the account solely for business. Logos are good. Branding is excellent.

3. Include a link. Link to interesting content, to relevant content or to amusing pieces of info. Even better: shorten the link. You can shorten any long, wordy link here.

4. Leave enough room in the post for retweets. Remember your twitter handle (@theresalongo) will be included in the retweet. Make sure you’ve left enough space. This ties back into TIP #1. Keeping things short and generic increases the chances your message will be picked up and shared by another. The 65 character rule is prime.

5. ALWAYS read into any links you are about to retweet. If you are going to suggest any post to your lot of followers, check it out to make sure it’s legit. There are a lot of bots on twitter who post bogus links. Once I was following this ‘Chef’ who always tweeted things like “Delicious Avocato Sandwich Recipe *link*” or “Homemade Turnovers *link*”- anyway, I never really investigated his links despite making a mental note that they all sound delicious. I once automatically re-tweeted his link to ”Moist Chocolate Fudge Brownies” only to realize in horror upon investigation it definitely wasn’t food he was tweeting about. Thank goodness for the ‘UNDO RETWEET’ option. TIP: You can undo any tweet you have sent by revisiting the original person’s Tweet that you’ve shared.

6. Talk to someone. Social media is one massive conversation occurring with ourselves and with everyone in the room all at once. Reply to someone else’s tweet and be yourself.

7. Know your audience and find out when you get the most exposure. Everyone has a demographic. An example of top times to tweet are 9:00-10:00AM, 3:00-4:00PM, and 7:00-10:00PM. 2 sites to help you work out top tweet times SocialBro and Tweriod.

8. Choose your words carefully. As I mentioned above, keeping Tweets generic and simple is best. Did you know? Certain words get re tweeted more than others. The least retweetable words: game, going, haha, lol, but, watching, work, home, night and bed.

9. Re-Tweet yourself. Obviously exercise moderation – but if you write a Tweet which often applies, favor it. If you aren’t sure how to favor tweets for revisiting later, check out this helpful article.

10. Share other peoples content. Mix it up. You get what you give! Share what you find most interesting or amusing on Twitter and you’ll increase the chances of someone else doing the same for you.

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