So many tweets pass my eye everyday andthere are just a few tweets that catch my interest and make me click on the link that is added in the tweet. Sounds familiar?  I always wonder what makes a tweet catchy or not. According to the well-known Malcol Gladwell, author of the Tipping point, a message will stick if has the three principles of the stickiness factor :

  1. Practical: What is the value of your information and have you also include the information that shows how your reader can act on it? Thus, translationo of theory into practice.
  2. Personal: How does the information fit the personal needs of your audience?
  3. Memorable: If the information is practical and person it will become memorable.

Background information

Researchers have found these results, when they tried to get a group of college seniors to get a tetanus shot. There strategy to achieve this objective was to give them a ‘high-fear’ booklet that described tetanus in dramatic term and included horrifying photo’s of people who had the tetanus virus.

While the booklet had succeeded to convince the students of the dangers of tetanus, only a few of them had actually gone to the health center to get the tetanus shot. Even worse, the majority of the seniors had forgotting everything they had learned about tetanus and they did not translate the information into action.

So, the researchers added a map of the university’s campus that highlighted the locations of the healt centers and the opening hours. In this way the seniors were given the information that was needed to schedule the visit to the health center in their daily activities. In other words, the message became practical, personal and with that memorable.

Practical, personal and memorable is the golden box of your tweet that will help you get your tweets stand out and being read by your audience!