Study: Retweets Tend to be Noun-Heavy and Use Third-Person Verbs

This past spring PRNewser asked several PR pros for their advice on how to get content re-tweeted. As blogger Dan Zarrella notes, in an interview he had with web entrepreneur and investor Guy Kawasaki, Kawasaki told him the Tweetmeme Retweet button is, “the most important button on the web,” as it allows one’s content to reach hundreds or thousands of people.

Now, Zarrella has conducted research into the “factors surrounding retweets.” He writes:

When I looked at the parts of speech that occur in retweets versus those that occur in normal tweets, I found that retweets tend to be noun-heavy and use third-person verbs.

This pattern is reminiscent of newspaper headlines. Highly retweetable headlines talk about someone or something doing something.

Read his full report here.

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