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These 20 phrases practically guarantee Twitter retweets

Getting retweeted on Twitter and having your message go viral can be a big thing for some people.

But did you know that there are specific words you can but into your Tweet that can practically guarantee that you’ll be retweeted?

Share, Retweet, Repeat: Get Your Message Read and Spread
Share, Retweet, Repeat: Get Your Message Read and Spread

That’s the findings of a STUDY BY CHENHAO TAN at CORNELL UNIVERSITY after an analysis of tweets by 236,000 people that were more-or-less duplicate tweets – they looked at why some tweets containing the same info were shared more widely than others.

The best tweets, according to the study, were those that were clearly written, mimics a news headline in its structure, and may also have a callout to followers to RT.

But there were specific words in the tweets that were shared most widely.  These are phrases that if you include them in YOUR tweets, you’ll have a higher chance of them being retweeted by others:

  • (anything with a hashtag, but no specific hashtag was indicated as better than others)
  • teen
  • fans
  • retweet
  • sale
  • usa
  • women
  • butt
  • caught
  • visit
  • background
  • upcoming
  • RT
  • this
  • bieber
  • these
  • each
  • chat
  • houston
  • book

Want to avoid being retweeted?  Talk about your boss.  Or something that hurts.  Or anyone named “john”.

Also avoid saying these:

  • ICYMI
  • also
  • sorry
  • thanks
  • update
  • earlier

These words make people think that they missed an earlier comment, and would rather retweet the original statement than the followup.  If you want to go viral, in other words, you’ll want to be original.