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5 Swiss Army Tactics to Double Your Twitter Click-Through Rate

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Content Team | 8 minute read |

“I don’t get Twitter, so I don’t do it.” I hear that way too often from people trying to generate more traffic and leads through social media. While it may be scary when you log into Twitter for the first time, it could become one of your greatest assets if you learn how to harness its power.

It’s true, clicks don’t just happen, but there are methods to get to that level. With a proper strategy, you can easily see followers increase, website traffic jump, and brand visibility grow.

What constitutes a click?

People measure success in a variety of different ways. With Twitter, there are a variety of actions that can happen simply from tweeting. Here are few that we keep a close eye on:

  • Retweet of on a post
  • Favorite (recently renamed “like”) of a post
  • Click on your link from a post
  • Click on your profile from a post
  • Expanding information on a post
  • Following you through a post
  • Clicking your @ mentions

Don’t be discouraged by low followers

You may feel like a small fish in a deep sea with your small number of followers. There are millions of people on Twitter, why should you matter?

The truth is, if you are just starting your Twitter account, you are more likely to get click-throughs than those who have a much larger following. SignUpTo recently collected the average click-through rates by number of followers for thousands of users on Twitter. Here is what they found:

  • 50–1,000 followers had a 6.16% CTR.
  • 1,000–5,000 followers had a 1.45% CTR.
  • 5,000–10,000 followers had a 0.55% CTR.
  • 10,000+ followers had a 0.45% CTR.

The number of followers you have has little to do with your success on Twitter and should be used as a small metric as part of a larger plan.

#1: Use Clever and Clear Headlines

You need something to catch people’s eye. A clever tweet with clear outcomes is important in Twitter’s fast-paced world. You need to let users know exactly what they are getting; adding a twist will draw them in.

Here are a few clever and clear tweets that have seen exceedingly high click-through rates: 

 

#2: Tweet on the Weekend

A common misconception that I hear is that Twitter users are more active during the week. The truth is that we see a large jump on the weekend, not only in Twitter traffic but also with engagement. Stats collected from Zarrella show that some of the strongest days to post (with the highest CTRs) were on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 10.53.17 AM

#3: Use Verbs

Northwestern University’s Psychology Department found that people find verbs cognitively more appealing and eye-catching (check out the case study here). From this, we can see that implementing verbs more frequently in our tweets will increase the likelihood of a click. Dan Zarrella expanded on this idea and found that adverbs and verbs performed much better than nouns and adjectives.
Verbs-in-Content-Social-Media

#4: Use Hashtags

Hashtags are an effective way to increase exposure and click-through rate. You are able to reach a whole new audience beyond your followers who are interested in the topics you are talking about. Pro Tip: Not sure what hashtags to use? Check Hashtagify.me to research the perfect hashtags for your topic/industry. A study from Buddy Media also showed that using hashtags in a tweet received 2x more engagement than those without. They also found that 21% of tweets with one or two hashtags receive 21% higher engagement rate than those with 3 or more hashtags (So keep it to 2 hashtags max.) (source) 2016-Twitter-Hashtag-Statistics

#5: Use Images

A small addition, like an image, can make a huge impact. According to Hubspot, using images in Tweets can increase CTR by 18%, can generate as much as 89% more favorites, and can jump your retweets by as much as 150%. Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 10.58.01 AM You can use a headline graphic (if you are sharing a blog) or a screenshot of a statistic, for example. Here are a few fun ideas:

 

 

Bonus: Keep on Testing

The best piece of advice for increasing click-through rate on your tweets is to keep testing. While we shared some outstanding numbers, every industry is different. Don’t be afraid to change things. Here are a few things you can test to increase CTR:

  • Use different hashtags
  • Change the photo
  • Add a statistic
  • Ask a question
  • Change the time posted

Next Steps

Starting today, start mapping out your next month of posts using these tips and strategies. Our downloadable Social Media Calendar is the perfect tool to prepare and display your posts before you schedule them to post. Take time and care writing these posts and make sure you think about the audience who will be reading your posts while using these strategies.

Download the Calendar

Content Team

Content Team Our content team is made up of thought leaders, strategists, and content creators who have more than 70 years of combined experience. With a wide variety of backgrounds as entrepreneurs, marketing gurus, healthcare associates, as well as plenty of experience in other industries, we help grow businesses with our relevant, trusted, and helpful resources.