Science reveals what really increases Twitter followers

The world of science has some new advice for people who want to increase their Twitter following, and it may sound something your mother used to say: If you don’t have anything nice to tweet, don’t tweet at all.
“Expressing negative sentiments in tweets is the second most harmful factor to growing a Twitter audience,” say researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology. They speculate about why: “This might be because Twitter is a medium dominated by very weak social ties, and negative sentiment from strangers may be unpleasant or uncomfortable for a potential new follower to see.”

C.J. Hutto, Eric Gilbert and Sarita Yardi tracked data from over 500 active Twitter users as they tweeted more than 500,000 times in the course of 15 months. The Twitter users were randomly selected from the public timeline over a two-week period, and then screened for requirements like English language, an active account that was at least 30 days old, with at least 15 friends and 5 followers. Hutto elaborated by email:

Although we did nothing to specifically exclude institutional/brand accounts, a quick investigation of a subset of the ~500 users that passed all filters every 3 months indicates these are mostly “everyday” typical non-celebrity users… Very few (if any) are brand or institutional accounts.

About every three months the researchers recorded each user’s follower growth, and analyzed what it was about their tweets and behavior that seemed to lead to growth.
They say this is pretty groundbreaking work — “the first longitudinal study of audience growth on Twitter to combine such a diverse set of theory inspired variables” — and it seems so.
Another bit of advice based on the findings: Stop tweeting so much about yourself.
“Informational content attracts followers with an effect that is roughly thirty times higher than the effect of [personal] ‘meformer’ content, which deters growth,” the researchers wrote. “We think this is due to the prevalence of weak ties on Twitter.”
In other words, your Twitter followers don’t know you that well and thus don’t care about what you’re eating. Feed them information instead. Among the accounts studied, users talked about themselves in 41 percent of their tweets while informational content accounted for only 24 percent.
Overall, the study tracks and compares three types of factors — the content of your tweets, the dynamics of your social behavior and the structure of your follower network. Or more simply: What you tweet, how you interact and who you know.
This chart illustrates the statistically significant factors with the biggest impact on follower growth (translated into lay terms in the list below):

1. Number of connections in-common with potential new followers (good)
2. High frequency of others retweeting your tweets (good)
3. High frequency of informational tweets (good)
4. Too many “broadcast” tweets not directed at anyone in particular (bad)
5. Too much negative sentiment in your tweets (bad)
6. A detailed profile description or “bio” (good)
7. Profile has a URL listed (good)
8. “Burstiness” of your tweets, or the peak rate of tweets-per-hour (more is good; Twitter agrees)
9. High ratio of followers to following (good)
10. Lots of tweets with positive sentiment (good)
11. Cramming too many useless hashtags into your tweets (bad)
12. Use of long, fancy words (good)
13. Your tendency to follow-back those who follow you (good)
14. Profile lists your location (good)

As always with research like this, consider it a helpful framework but not a step-by-step rulebook. Twitter users in general seem to want you to be positive, informative and interactive — all good advice — just remember you also need to be yourself.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/205411/science-reveals-what-really-increases-twitter-followers/

Get the Most Out of Your Social Video Marketing

Over the past few years, social media has become an internet giant. Because of this, companies of all types are jumping into the video marketing scene to advertise their business, products and services. When you want the most benefit from your efforts, social video marketing is definitely the way to go. Below, you can see how to get the most out of this dynamic marketing tool.

Why Use Social Video Marketing
Social video has made it’s way into homes across the globe. Millions of people actively log onto social media sites day and night for entertainment purposes, to research products and to make their purchases. Some of these most popular sites are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google+.
When you place your marketing videos on these sites, you can literally advertise to thousands, if not millions of people. Best of all, you do not have to choose just one. You can post your videos to all of them. The more videos you post, the more quickly your name will become known.
Sharing Capability
One of the greatest features of social media is the ability for the audience to share your videos. Social media platforms have made this function simple with the help of the “Share” button. By placing your marketing videos onto various social media sites, the viewer can watch and then share your video with their friends, family and co-workers with a quick click of a button. Not only does this quickly spread your company name, it is also a great way to have your audience do some of the marketing for you.
Make Your Video Stand Out
When using social video marketing it is imperative that your video stands out from the rest. This is especially true when posting videos onto social media sites. Your goal on these sites should be to get the viewer distracted from what they’re doing and get them focused on your video instead. You can do this by making your video unique, exciting and catchy. Make it stand out and you will effectively get their attention.

Use Your Company Logo
There are likely many other companies out there who have products and services similar to yours. This is why it is important that you place your logo on each of your internet marketing videos. Whether it be simple or complex, in the beginning or the end, your logo must be visible to the viewer and memorable. Furthermore, your company logo helps to protect your videos from being stolen, copied and republished using someone else’s name.

Specify a Call-To-Action
In order to get the greatest results from social video marketing, you must have a call-to-action on each of your videos. This call-to-action is determined by your specific goal. This may be to have your viewers visit your website, make a purchase, sign up for newsletters or mailings, or contact you. Whichever you choose, you can put the call-to-action directly into your video. This enables the viewers to do business with you quickly and with ease, right from the video itself. Not only does this make the process convenient for the consumer, it also gives you immediate results.
Know Your Audience with Analytics
There are numerous reports that you can obtain through social media sites, which can greatly help you to improve your marketing efforts. These reports help you to analyze trends, such as how many views your videos get, at what times, from which locations and even the average age and gender of your viewers. With this information you can adjust your marketing to better target your audience.
With these great tools you can experience the outstanding benefits of social video marketing. Don’t let the competition get ahead of you. Start today and watch as your company goes to the next level. Have you had any experiences with social marketing?

Image #1 sourced from (nhwellnesscenters.com)

Image #2 sourced from (authntk.com)

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/get-the-most-out-of-your-social-video-marketing-0510978