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What Happens When You Tweet More Than 10 Times A Day On Twitter?

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Do you think you’re tweeting enough? Or do you need to tweet more?

This is a question I ask of myself and of our clients.

So I spent an entire year trying to figure out what happens when you tweet more.

Here are my results from a yearlong case study (of myself).

tweet-more

How Often Should You Tweet?

I scoured the internet for an average users tweets-per-day — but I wasn’t successful in finding that data.

All I was really able to find was this REALLY OLD post from HubSpot where Dan Zarella states the following …

“Users who tweet between 10 and 50 times per day have more followers on average than those that tweet more or less frequently. The “peak” of the curve below is at about 22 tweets per day.”

But let’s be real: a range of 10 to 50 isn’t that specific or helpful. So I looked for more posts from professionals seeking to give tweet-per-day advice.

Like these below …

  • Social Bakers conducted a study and says engagement decreases after the third tweet (2013)
  • Buffer says you should tweet 14 times a day (2014)
  • Neil Patel suggested posting 1-5 times per day would, “not take too much time, will increase audience engagement, and will leave you with the time you need to focus on more important parts of your business.” (2016)

Over the years no definitive answers had really emerged, so I decided to do a bit of my own testing.

Here’s what went down …

Is there really an answer to, 'How often should I tweet?' This may help.Click To Tweet

I Decided To Tweet More (And This Is What Happened)

From January 2016 to January 2017 I decided to tweet more. In fact, I sent 5,809 tweets over the course of a year.

That’s an average of 15.9 tweets per day — though I can tell you there were some days I tweeted more or less than others.

The previous year I was at about half that, so I guess you could say I doubled my efforts.

Here are the metrics for my year of tweeting from my go-to tool of choice, Sprout Social.

tweets-sent-jan-2016-to-jan-2017

You’ll notice I’m not including my 123 direct messages (DMs) as “tweets.”

I had a healthy reaction to those tweets, with:

  • 4,607 mentions over the yearlong effort
  • 219 direct messages (yes, as you’re guessing, many of those were spam! Gah.)

So we can positively conclude that most of my tweets garnered some sort of reaction.

However, in an effort to be really transparent, let’s break down the metrics even more.

Tweet More, Increase Engagement

The biggest reward for tweeting more was (you guessed it) more exposure. And that exposure led to more engagement.

My engagement breakdown over the yearlong study looked like this:

tweet-more-engagement-metrics

So of the 5,809 tweets I sent from January 2016 through January 2017, I was able to snag:

  • 1,203 replies (20% return on conversation)
  • 921 retweets (16% return on sharing)
  • 147 retweets with comments (2.5% return on conversation & sharing)

Not too shabby, right? We marketers know that a 20% return on anything is pretty darn good.

Breaking it down even further, here’s how my engagement metrics related to my audience size:

tweet-more-engagement-breakdown

While these numbers aren’t super, they did help me grow my Twitter audience:

audience-growth

Even though I only followed a select few during my yearlong study, the content I consistently tweeted was able to help me grow my audience by 16.5% compared to the previous year.

Which actually brings up a good point … I wasn’t just tweeting crap!

More Tweeting, Concentrated Content & CONVERSATION

Out of the 5,686 tweets I sent (including 123 direct messages, which were all plain text):

  • 2890 were plain text tweets
  • 1241 were text with a link
  • 1555 contained a photo

Here’s my content breakdown from another Sprout Social report:

tweet-content-breakdown

Notice all of those plain text tweets? That’s not just me tweeting out statements or opinions, that’s me thinking conversation with my followers, audience, and potential clients!

74% of my activity during January 2016 and January of this year is conversational, while only 26% of what I posted was considered an “update.”

A key takeaway here is to use Twitter as a vehicle for two-way conversation, NOT to post updates incessantly.Click To Tweet

Other Findings

I still can’t definitively tell you that tweeting 10 times a day, or 15.9 times a day is the “sweet spot.” You’ll have to run your own diagnostics.

I can tell you that based on my study, there is a direct correlation between the amount of content you’re tweeting and the amount of engagement you receive.

See the evidence below:

  1. When my number of tweets sent dipped (orange line), so did my engagement. Oh, and that huge boost in likes? A Tweet Chat I did with Sprout Social!
    tweet-more-audience-engagement
  2. Just so you see the correlation, here’s a client of B Squared Media’s. Notice when their number of tweets sent increased (orange line), so did their engagement.
    client-audience-engagement-example
When you tweet more -- you guessed it -- you get more exposure and more engagement for you/your brand.Click To Tweet

Final Thoughts

Did anything extraordinary come out of tweeting more? Not really.

We did grow our business by over 200% last year, but I’m not in any way, shape or form attributing that to Twitter or tweeting more.

I can say that more tweets helped me:

  • Get more engagement
  • Grow my followers
  • Network more/have more conversations

I’m hoping in some way those outcomes are helping me grow as an authority and thought leader online.

But when it comes down to it, can I tell you that you have to tweet more? That posting 15.9 tweets per day will make you a star or save your business?

Nope. I can’t.

With rumors of Twitter’s demise, I can’t even promise you any efforts are worth it. But I’ll still be there, tweeting away!

What are your thoughts about Twitter tweeting and posting frequencies? Does it matter to you? Or no? Let me know in the comments section below!

 

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Brooke B. Sellas is the in-the-trenches Founder & CEO of @HelloBSquared, an award-winning social media, advertising, and social media customer care agency. She's also the author of Conversations That Connect -- a book all about social listening and social media customer care. Brooke's marketing mantra is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign” so be sure to give her a shout on the socials!
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Category: Content Distribution, Return on Conversation (ROC), , ,
Tags: content distribution, posting frequency, , tweets per day,
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6 Comments. Leave new

  • This is really interesting data, Brooke. It’s good to see that focused engagement on Twitter can indeed lead to some good marketing returns. Thanks for posting!

    Reply
    • Thanks for saying so, Steve! Increasing tweets definitely increased exposure, so I’d say that’s reason enough to keep tweeting several times a day. Appreciate your comment! 🙂

      Reply
  • Avatar
    Renee Fishman
    March 19, 2017 6:29 PM

    Really interesting, Brooke. I did some of my own experimenting by using Quuu to automate sharing links to newsworthy articles. I found that I got a lot more “engagement” – in the form of retweets, conversation and likes.
    In the end, my experiment proved to me what I’ve been teaching for years: the quantity (whether # of followers, retweets, likes, etc) is not as relevant as the quality. “Quality” here refers to both (a) the content of the message and (b) who you are engaging with.

    A smaller number of followers who believe in my message, will promote my work to others, and will invest in that work when the time comes will mean more for my bottom line than large number of followers who simply retweet my posts.

    I’d love to know more about what type of content you shared in your year long experiment.

    Reply
    • Awesome, Renee! I’ve never heard of Quuu — I’ll have to check it out.

      I shared mostly two types of content: My own content from the blog (heavily shared over 90 days with several different leads), and curated content from other marketing thought leaders. Not overly-shared pieces (think Mashable), but hidden gems or diamonds in the rough. And I *always* try to include a photo with each tweet I send out! Hope that helps. 🙂

      Reply
  • Hey Brooke!!

    Thanks for the post!!
    Really great and a well researched insight that you have shared, its of great importance to increase twitter followers.

    Reply

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