How to Get Retweeted on Twitter

Recommend this blog post in a tweet, by clicking here
Note: You can edit the tweet before you send it out.

Here are two great blog posts on how to get retweeted on Twitter.com.

How to Get Retweeted by Guy Kawasaki: http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/02/18/how-to-get-retweeted

The Science of Retweets by Dan Zarrella: http://mashable.com/2009/02/17/twitter-retweets

Basic advice:

1. Ask to be retweeted. Say please. E.g.: Please RT or Please retweet.

2. Link to a great blog posts. People like to retweet great blog posts.

3. Post a funny joke or great quotation. People like to share jokes and quotations.

4. Post a list (or a link to a list). Lists are very popular.

5. Offer a freebie. Tweeple like to pass along freebies.

6. Share breaking news or timely content. The hotter it is, the more it gets retweeted.

7. Tweets about Twitter get retweeted. Tweeple love Twitter.

8. Keep tweets to 120 characters so people have room to add RT @username in their retweets. If you push to the 140 limit, people will have to edit your tweet in order to retweet it. Sometimes it's really hard to edit a tweet so it doesn't get retweeted.

9. To have people retweet any content on any page with your special message insert the following code to the top and/or bottom of your blog post, website page, or Squidoo lens: < a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=140 CHARACTER MESSAGE HERE">Click Here< /a>. Note: Eliminate the spaces between < a and < /a. See the sample below:

Recommend this blog post in a tweet, by clicking here
Note: You can edit the tweet before you send it out.

Here are some of the current retweets of tweets by @johnkremer: http://www.bookmarket.com/twitter-rt.htm.

Founders at Work: How to Read a Book

In a recent blog post (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/03/founders_at_wor.html), Guy Kawasaki wrote a great review of Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. I like the way he reads books. See his copy of the book in the illustration below. The yellow stickies on top are ideas for his next book. The yellow stickies out the side are ideas for his blog.



In his review, he tells 15 stories from the book. Here's one:

James Currier (Tickle). “When we started the company, we wanted to change the world, and we had all these tests on the site to help people with their lives. We had the anxiety test, the parenting, relationship, and communications tests. And no one came. … ’Let’s do a test for what kind of breed of dog you are.’ … We put it online and 8 days later we had a million people trying to enter our site.”

The lesson to learn from his story is simple: Make your news releases or promotions interesting and unusual. We have all seen dozens of tests on parenting and relationships, but few of us have ever taken a test on what breed of dog we are. No wonder millions flocked to the site.

How to Use LinkedIn and Other Connections Websites

Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start, has blogged about Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn in his How to Change the World Blog. His tips apply to other connector websites as well. Read his blog here: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn.