The latest research on social media reveals how to get followers on twitter by boosting clicks on each tweet. Writing the perfect tweet is a methodology developed over just a few short years.

We pulled together the latest research on how to get followers on Twitter. These significant findings show you how to boost your click-through rate, and generate more traffic and followers from each tweet.

How to Get Followers on Twitter

1. Write headlines that evoke action and emotion

  • 80% of readers won’t make it past the headline (Copyblogger)
  • Over 50% of content consumption happens on a handheld device. These real estate starved devices lack the space for anything more than a headline showing in your stream. It is more important than any other time since the Gutenberg Press to perfect the art of headline writing.
  • Upworthy.com brainstorms up to 25 headlines for each piece of content. The perfect headline can increase traffic by over 500% according to their analytics. (Upworthy)
  • STOP using you, your, you’re, must or need or risk a 20%+ drop in clicks (Outbrain)

Learn more: 9 Irrefutable Laws for Writing Irresistible Headlines

2. Include Images

  • Color visuals increase the willingness to read content by 80% (Xerox)
  • Visuals positively affect participation (reading, clicks, shares, purchases) by 80% (New York University)
  • The vast majority of knowledge held by adults (75%) is learned through seeing. Hearing is the next most effective (about 13%) and the other senses – touch, smell and taste account for 12% of what we know. (Bangalore University)

Tutorial: Easily create branded images to include in your tweets.

3. Insert hashtags

Similar to keywords used for search optimization, hashtags help people discover your content in social. You can instantly become more visible and become part of a trending conversation.

  • Tweets with hashtags can increase engagement almost 100% (2x) for individuals and 50% (1.5x) for brands. (Twitter)
  • One or two hashtags appear to be the max. When you use more than two hashtags, engagement drops by an average of 17% (Buddy Media)
  • Tweets with one or more hashtags are 55% more likely to be retweeted (DanZarrella.com)

How to: Automatically convert Twitter headline keywords into hashtags

4. Post at the right time

New research is consistently coming out on when is the best time to post to Twitter. Use the following as a guide; however keep testing to customize timing for your Twitter feed.

  • 32.6% of all social shares occur on the weekend (TrackMaven)
  • Social media shares were highest for posts published between 9 pm and midnight EST (TrackMaven)
  • Retweets have been shown to be highest around 5 pm (KISSmetrics)
  • Click-throughs on Tweets spike between noon and 6 pm (Argyle Software)

5. Keep it short

  • The optimal length of a tweet is 71 to 100 characters. This length leaves enough room for a retweet (SumAll)
  • The 100-character mark is the sweet spot for Tweet length (Track Social)

In both studies, Tweets at this length get more retweets. Retweets lead to more exposure and potentially more clicks.

6. Include triggers

  • Tweets with the words “via,” “@,” “RT,” “please” and “check” had the highest click-through rates (DanZarrella.com)
  • Tweets that use PaperLi’s generic intro “daily is out” had an average 30% CTR (DanZarrella.com)

7. Play tag

The most important thing to a person is their name. If you share content from another person, give them attribution – @{insert Twitter handle}, ex: @dlvrit. It not only acknowledges that person but also says you enjoyed their work. It shows thoughtfulness. It will also cause people to check your content and gain more followers.

Results may vary. Learn how to add UTM tracking parameters to your Twitter links. This code will allow you to track the results when you test the above research.

Optimizing Tweets is an ongoing process. Learn how to get followers on Twitter by using Twitter Analytics.