Did you follow the happenings in the GOP nomination? Then you must know that Monday, September 26, was the first sponsored debate between presumptive nominees Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party, and Donald Trump of the Republican Party. Living in the digital age, it is not surprising that many netizens (even the two nominees) took their thoughts to the popular microblogging site Twitter.
Clinton, with the Twitter handle @HillaryClinton, is currently being followed by about 9.7 million followers. Since she announced her campaign, her number followers and engagement rose considerably. Many speculate that she may be buying the engagements to pad her social media influence.
According to many reports, Clinton may be paying for her followers and retweets. In April 2015, the Daily Mail wrote a report claiming that 2 million of her then-3.6 million Twitter followers were fake and inactive accounts that she probably paid for. Last February 2016, the Telegraph wrote that Clinton has a large portion of fake followers as they found out that 59% of her followers are not real people.
One of her most popular Twitter posts, when she announced her campaign, garnered more than 100,000 retweets. During the debates, she got more than 500,000 retweets when she quoted Donald Trump’s tweet with the famous ‘Delete your account’ remark.
Delete your account. https://t.co/Oa92sncRQY
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
Why buy retweets?
We all think that a person who has thousands of likes and retweets on their posts are deemed famous or influential. In millennial terms, that person is called a ‘social media influencer.’ If Hillary can get as much as 500,000 retweets in a single post, well, you have got to say that she has huge influence over Twitter.
You may also be asking, ‘she’s very famous, she’s running for the highest position in the land of the Americas, so why buy retweets?’
The logic is very simple. She wants to assert her popularity not only on ‘the ground,’ but also online – and hope that this will translate to a win at the polls.
Getting those thousands of retweets is not easy and we all know that. Getting high Twitter engagements puts your post on top of everyone else on the feed and it ranks that tweet higher on the platform’s internal search engine. If you check your search and click on ‘Top Tweets’ tab, you will see it first.
A boost on your posts can also trigger the ‘Bandwagon Syndrome’ – and it is real. Once a real user sees your post getting thousands of retweets, they are more likely to retweet or like it as well. People are naturally inclined to retweet something with large amount of retweets and likes. That’s basically joining the bandwagon. In one instant, you become a credible source. They will think that you won’t get that much retweets if you are not making any sense, right? So apart from those paid retweets, you get organic ones as well.
Great content takes a while to get viral. It can only go so far without some sort of push into top results for popular hashtags or riding famous or other influencers’ fame. And it does not always come naturally.
Why Hilary needs social media
Clinton needs the command of social media to assert her position over Donald Trump. It will seem that more people believe in her capacity and that many people actually are on her side. Politics is seeing a new era of campaigning which includes digital strategizing and taking advantage of social media, so she might as well take on this challenge of getting more retweets.
Buying retweets is legal. Furthermore, it does not cost a fortune to buy those, so why not try it altogether? It will save you more time in engaging in those time-consuming social media campaigns, which is by the way, more expensive as the polls draw to a close.
Retweet if you agree. pic.twitter.com/OjW9FBzlfm
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 31, 2015
There are many excellent providers out there, and we review all of the best providers on our site. Look through our top providers for Twitter to see those which not only provide followers, but also retweets.
Increase your Twitter engagement for free
If you want to take the harder route on getting retweets, here are some tactics that may help you increase your Twitter engagement:
- Tweet with photos and links: Images capture attention almost immediately. Tweets with photos and links have higher engagement rates. The same is true for those with videos. Findings suggest that a post can receive as much as 150% increase in retweets than those without photos or videos. According to Buffer, tweets with accompanying images get more retweets 70% of the time.
- Tweet during ‘peak’ hours: If you’ve noticed, there are times when people use Twitter more than other hours of the day. If you want to get more retweets, you have to maximize that window of opportunity. Observe the peak hours for your audience and tweet at that time as more people will be able to see your tweet.
- Ask for retweets: There is one saying we all have heard of, maybe – ask and you shall receive. According to Salesforce data, asking for retweets gives you better chances of retweets. The analysis company found out that it results to getting as much as 12 times more retweets.
Retweet if you agree with Hillary: We need to do more to make sure women and families can get ahead. pic.twitter.com/Ev9iKhoNZV
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 13, 2015
- Use hashtags: Twitter is known for its use of hashtags where ‘tags’ are used to easily compile tweets in one click. Using hashtags helps a user to get more retweets, especially when you are riding a popular one or a currently trending one.
- Use strong calls to action: According to research, tweets with please, retweet, help, follow, and how to get higher engagement rates as the user is more focused on the content of the tweet than its sender. If you have call to action, your followers are more likely to respond to that. This is all part of learning how to write content for different social media platforms.
One good way of measuring your impact on Twitter is through Twitter Analytics. This tool helps you find the best times to tweet, or what kinds of tweets get better engagements than others.
If you ever decide to buy retweets, be sure you check out the reviews first. If you look carefully at each one of these screenshots of Hillary Clinton’s Twitter, you’ll notice at least one picture of a default profile photo and no bio. These are signs of cheap, dangerous, and temporary retweets that are readily available. At least use a good vendor, with a solid history, and solid reviews, such as those found on our list of the Top Twitter Follower Providers list.