Telling stories in your tweets and not just posting about yourself is a good way to increase your Twitter followers’ engagement.
In contrast, emotional outbursts — such as those commonly tweeted by Donald Trump — are generally less effective at engaging Twitter users.
This is the finding of a new study by experts from Australia and Italy, who analysed almost 21,000 tweets to find out how popular and retweeted posts are styled.
Tweets that were styled into a narrative were found to gain more retweets than those driven by facts.
Additionally, celebrities who tweeted more about other people or their audiences attracted more online engagement than those who focused more on themselves.
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Angry Twitter outbursts, the researchers found — such as those commonly tweeted by Donald Trump (pictured) — are generally less effective at engaging fellow users and gaining retweets
In the new study, researchers analysed the content and language style in almost 21,000 tweets posted by three types of famous people: celebrity chefs, fashion bloggers and personal trainers.
These celebrity types were chosen because food and fitness are commonly discussed topics on Twitter, while fashion bloggers represent success through their mastery of social media in and of itself.
Despite their considerable differences, however, the researchers note that these types of celebrity produce content with a similar potential for online sharing.
The team explored what made a tweet more likely to be retweeted by others.
They looked at the emotional content of the tweet, the extent to which it was driven by narrative or facts and whether it was focused externally on other people, or internally on the life of the celebrity tweeter in question.
They found that Twitter users are more engaged by tweets that are styled as stories, rather than the straight-up presentation of facts or analysis.
‘This attraction to narrative is in line with the increasing attention of consumers and practitioners for storytelling which is also being reflected in the rise of other platforms, such as Instagram Stories,’ said lead author and marketing researcher Torgeir Aleti of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
‘Storytelling enables an emotional and cognitive transfer from the protagonist to the consumer and moves people to action, that is to retweet in our case.’
The researchers also found that people prefer posts from celebrities that have a prominent social status but whom focus their tweets on their audience, or other people, rather than themselves.
The researchers found that people prefer posts from celebrities that focus on their audience, rather than themselves (such as the tweet, above, from personal trainer Kayla Itsines)
The researchers also found that people prefer celebrities who tweet about other people, rather than themselves (such as in the tweet, above, from the late chef Anthony Bourdain)
In contrast, ‘navel-gazing tweets’ from self-focused celebrities were found to be less popular.
‘Those doing this well are heavily stylising the information they disclose in telling an engaging story from life among the stars,’ said paper co-author Tom van Laer, who is a narratologist at the University of Sydney.
Previous research has suggested that the type of celebrity impacts the extent to which Twitter followers both identify with the personality and develop a sense of intimacy with them through Twitter.
However, Dr van Laer says the storytelling element is consistent across them all.
The least effective type of tweet was the angry outburst.
As Twitter users are mainly interested in messages that are rich in information, the researchers argue, emotional outbursts are not providing desired content.
However, there was one exception to this rule, with angry outbursts appearing to prove more successful in gaining retweets for personal trainers than the other types of celebrity.
‘Perhaps an angry outburst is more in line with their profession than celebrity chefs’ or fashion bloggers’,’ the researchers wrote in their paper.
‘The occasional display of anger from a fitness persona may thus evoke arousal, and consequently retweets, in followers.’
Angry Twitter outbursts, the researchers found — such as those commonly tweeted by Donald Trump (as pictured) — are less effective at engaging fellow users and gaining retweets
According to van Laer, celebrities on Twitter who want to learn how to improve their approach to social media need to focus not only on the content that they are posting but also on the style in which that content is being presented.
The same, he added, applies to companies promoting their services on Twitter.
“Brands are often focused on sharing facts with their audiences: new products, discounts, where to buy, store opening hours and so on,’ he said.
‘A better way to get such facts out would be to focus on a story to tell and then try to sprinkle the facts within the story.’
The findings could also lead to new ways for companies to find online ambassadors or endorsers, and subsequently evaluate how they are performing.
For example, brands could use basic text-mining software to examine a Twitter feed and determine the author’s typical writing style and the likelihood that audiences will continue to engage with their tweets.
‘Brand-facts [promoted] by celebrity endorsers often come out in a contrived way as the celebrity shifts focus from their regular storytelling to their contractual obligation,’ Dr Aleti said.
‘Consequently, the content communicated becomes less effective.
‘The choice of the specific celebrity should not only be related to the number of followers but also to how well they communicate and engage users with their messages and how seamlessly they can insert brand into their story-telling.’
The full findings of the study will be published in the the Journal of Interactive Marketing, and a pre-print version of the article can be read on the Social Science Research Network repository.
WHY DID TWITTER SWITCH TO A 280-CHARACTER LIMIT?
Twitter’s trial of a 280-character limit was expanded to users globally last November.
The social network said it hoped the move would stop people having to ‘cram’ their thoughts into 140 characters.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone tweeted: ‘In addition to more Tweeting, people who had 280 characters received more Likes, Retweets, @mentions, Followers, and were more satisfied with Twitter. So, you’ll be getting 280 too—enjoy!’
Twitter expanded its character count to 280 last November to make tweeting easier
Some of the key findings of the trial were:
- When people needed to use more than 140 characters, they Tweeted more easily and more often. However, people still Tweeted below 140 most of the time and the brevity of Twitter was maintained.
- 9% of Tweets in English hit the character limit historically, highlighting the challenge of fitting a thought into a Tweet and leading to time spent editing or abandoning Tweets. However, with the expanded character limit, this problem was reduced to only 1 per cent of Tweets running to the limit.
- Only 5% of Tweets sent were longer than 140 characters.
Source: Twitter
