Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted on Twitter

If I wanted make sure this post did not go viral–according to the standards put forth by Hubspot viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella in “The Science of Retweeting”–I could promote it on Twitter by posting something like this:

was bored watchin the game on tv and saw this thing about RTs…made me lol after i had really bad stomach cramps

Note the lack of punctuation, the use of of slang and abbreviations, the limited vocabulary, and the awkward overshare–all traits that Zarrella can now definititively say would turn Twitter users off. How? Because the avid Twitter-er and author of the upcoming The Social Media Marketing Book spent nine months analyzing roughly 5 million tweets and 40 million retweets (which are usually symbolized with an “RT” on Twitter). He noted when they were posted, which words they used, whether or not they included links, and more. Then, he says, he compared the two groups to get the first “real window” into how ideas spread from person to person: “Retweets may seem like a small idea…but many of the lessons [they teach us] will be applicable to viral ideas in other mediums.”