In this second part of our Twitter engagement study, we’ll study what to post on Twitter. More precisely, which type of tweet performs best and what are some top performing Tweets from different accounts.
If you haven’t checked out part one I suggest you do that before reading further.
Pat Flynn
Most retweeted
Supporting a good cause is always worth the effort — the social media engagement is just a bonus. Note the direct call-to-action: “Please retweet to support making a change in education!”.
Most favored
With 156K followers, Pat Flynn has a bigger Twitter following than most of us. But compared to Marques Brownlee‘s 3.17M followers, his account suddenly seems small.
Celebrities always spur engagement and — as this Tweet shows — it also works on Twitter.
Text only receives the most favorites for Pat, but retweets are evenly distributed except user mentions.
@neilpatel
Most retweeted AND most favored
Tapping into current events is a great way to connect with followers. And if you can add a bit of humor you may just have a high-score.
I imagine this works best if you can keep the current events related to your normal topics — like what Neil Patel did here with GDPR that is relevant (but also annoying) to marketers.
Text only is a clear winner for both retweets and favorites.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Most retweeted AND most favored
Gary Vaynerchuk is famous for his lines and this one hit home with a lot of people it seems (and personally, I can see why).
@garyvee is following the trend so far in this study — text only is the most engaging type of tweet for him too.
Casey Neistat
Most retweeted
A shoutout to @Nike and @Kaepernick7 is @CaseyNeistat‘s most retweeted tweet in his last 2592 tweets. Again, a tweet for a good cause tops the retweet spot.
Most favored
Casey’s most favored tweet is a personal moment — the birth of Georgie Neistat. The tweet has a bit of humor and a very casual style (missing capitalization, extra space, etc.) which is very much in line with most of Casey Neistat’s other tweets.
Text only tweets are still the best performing type of tweet like it has been for the other accounts in this study so far. But url(s) and media tweets are also doing well for Casey.
If you take a look at his feed you’ll quickly get a sense of why: a lot of great images and links to YouTube videos are constantly flowing from the @CaseyNeistat account.
@amazon
Most retweeted AND most favored
Most retweeted and favored tweet for @amazon is a video reveal. Again, celebrities — even if they are not present in the video — boost engagement.
Media works for Amazon. Many of their image and video tweets are quite creative — just see their most favored and reweeted tweet above.
@amazon is an interesting candidate in this study because it is not a personal brand or celebrity like the rest of the accounts. Instead, it’s a massive corporate brand. And what seems to be working for them is creative images and videos.
@elonmusk
Most retweeted AND most favored
Well… this one is just great. @elonmusk being Elon Musk. The tweet is an image of an article headlining that Musk has bought and deleted the popular game Fortnite.
The article is obviously fake but still a rather controversial thing to post — especially when you consider that Musk has a massive personal (and corporate) brand with more than 25M followers on Twitter.
But probably, that is exactly why Elon Musk has so many followers. He hasn’t sold out or gone corporate. Instead, he dares to post hysterical images like the one above.
Elon Musk isn’t scared of being controversial. Not in the real world and neither on Twitter.
@elonmusk is doing really well with media. Image or video tweets from some of his crazy adventures (in space, reinventing the automobile business, etc.) or just plain memes like the image from earlier.
@realDonaldTrump
Most retweeted
The most retweeted tweet from @realDonaldTrump is a video of people doubting his run for president.
No matter what you feel about his politics and personality, you have to admit that this video hits home. So many people (myself included) didn’t believe he had a chance and this video shows some of their (our) ignorance.
Most favored
Another example that current events often receive lots of engagement. A simple “Merry Christmas!” is the most favored Donald Trump tweet in his last 2460 tweets.
Trump’s tweet types are quite evenly distributed, but Text only is also the best performing type for him.
All users combined
Text only is a clear winner. Apparently, it is the most popular type of tweet to favor and retweet. To me, this is a surprise. I would have guessed that media tweets were doing better.
Then again, Twitter is about tweets. And tweets are text. 280 characters of plain text. Images, videos, and links are supported and work on the platform. But at the core, Twitter is a place for text-based social interaction.
Some accounts are seeing great results with media, but it’s clear that you don’t need it to succeed on Twitter. And if you really want to post only images or videos, other social media platforms are readily available (e.g., Instagram).
Summary
A brief summary of what I have learned in this second part of out Twitter study:
- Text only tweets are doing just fine on Twitter (actually they are doing more than just fine. They are the top performing tweets for many accounts).
- A call to action like “please retweet” can work if your tweet is worth retweeting.
- Tweeting about a good cause is a good idea.
- Celebrities also boost engagement on Twitter.
- Tap into current events with your Tweets. They often receive high engagement.
- Humor goes a long way.
These are the headlines of what I have learned. I hope you have learned something too.
And that concludes Improve Your Twitter Game Part Two. If you haven’t read part one yet, here’s a link: Improve Your Twitter Game (Data-Driven) — Part One.
