2. Dan Zarrella is the award-winning social
media scientist at HubSpot and author of 4
books: The Science of Marketing, Zarrella’s
Hierarchy of Contagiousness, The Social
Media Marketing Book and The Facebook
Marketing Book.
He has a background in web development
and combines his programming capabilities
with a passion for social marketing to study
social media behavior from a data-backed
position and teach marketers scientifically
grounded best practices.
The data in this presentation is compiled
from a variety of independent research he’s
done over the past few years.
@DanZarrella
About the Author
3. I go to a lot of marketing conferences, read a
lot of marketing books and blogs, and I hear
a lot of “unicorns and rainbows” advice.
Stuff like “engage in the conversation,”
“be awesome,” and
“have a personality.”
This kind of advice isn’t based
on anything more substantial
than what “sounds good”
or “feels right.”
4. As HubSpot’s social media scientist, I work to
use hard data, facts, and science to go
beyond the unicorns and
rainbows myths.
So without further ado, here are
20 data-backed ways
to upgrade your social
media marketing.
5. Tell Us Why We Should
Follow You
Twitter accounts that used words like “founder,” “speaker,”
“expert,” “guru,” and “author” in their bios had more followers
than the average account.
1
6. Use Contra-Competitive Timing2
Posts made to Facebook timelines on Saturdays and
Sundays tend to get more Likes than posts made during the
business week.
7. Use Tall Images on Pinterest3
As image height in pixels increased for images posted to
Pinterest, so did the average number of times they were
repinned.
8. Put Links 25% of the Way
Through Tweets
4
Links placed just before the halfway point (in characters) of
tweets tended to have higher clickthrough rates than links
placed elsewhere.
9. Use Questions on Facebook
Simple yes/no questions like “should” and “would,” as well as
multiple choice questions like “which” tend to get more
comments than average Facebook posts.
5
10. Use Links to Get Retweets6
While fewer than 25% of all tweets contain a link, more than
half of retweets contain a URL.
Non-Retweets Retweets
11. Stop Talking About Yourself7
As the amount of self-referential content posted by Twitter
accounts increases, follower numbers decrease.
12. Say Something New8
Retweeted tweets tend to contain fewer commonly used
words than a random selection of non-retweeted tweets.
13. Stay Positive9
As the amount of negativity posted by Twitter accounts
increases, follower numbers decrease.
14. Use Calls-to-Action on Facebook10
Facebook posts that included the word “like” tended to get
more Likes than the average post.
15. Stay Away From Buzzwords11
Facebook Pages that used industry buzzwords tended to
have fewer Likes than pages that did not.
16. Share Links to Interesting Content12
Accounts in which between 60% and 80% of tweets contain
links tend to get more retweets than accounts that tweet
fewer links.
PercentageofTweetsRetweeted
17. Use Photos on Facebook13
Facebook posts that use photos tend to get more Likes than
text, video, or link-based posts.
18. Use Hashtags on Instagram14
Photos that included hashtags in their descriptions on
Instagram tend to get more Likes than photos that do not.
19. Talk About Food on Facebook15
Facebook Pages that mention food tend to have more Likes
than the average Facebook Page.
20. Tweet Around 4 p.m16
Tweets posted around 4 p.m. Eastern time tend to get more
retweets than those posted at other times.
21. Don’t Be Neutral on Facebook17
Posts with positive sentiment get more Likes than posts with
negative sentiment, but both positive and negative perform
better than neutral.
22. Write Longer Tweets for
More Clicks
18
Clickthrough rate of links in tweets increases as the overall
length of those tweets also increases.
23. Go Short or Long on Facebook19
Posts that either contained very little text (such as photos) or
upwards of 700 characters tend to get the most Likes.
24. Ask for the Retweet20
Tweets that contain the call-to-action (CTA) “please retweet”
are four times more likely to get retweeted at least once,
compared to those that do not include the CTA.
Please Retweet
Please RT
Neither
