Our social team had a hunch that linkless Tweets were favored by the Twitter algorithm. So we ran an experiment to find out.
I’ve been testing different types of tweets to see how they perform (in terms of engagement) from the @hootsuite channel.
Our most successful posts BY FAR have been linkless posts. No CTAs, no websites, nothing. Just sharing thoughts or helpful information as plain text.
— Nick Martin (@AtNickMartin) December 4, 2020
Could it be that Twitter’s algorithm favours tweets that keep people on the platform? Or are linkless tweets just what the people want?
Probably a bit of both. But there’s only one way to find out: Let’s get into it.
Hypothesis: Tweets without links will get more engagement and reach
In social media marketing, we often over-rely on data to inform ideas. But sometimes it takes an idea or an observation to uncover a data trend.
How do we define “linkless tweets”? For the purposes of this experiment, we define a linkless tweet as a tweet that only contains plain text. That means no images, videos, GIFS, polls, or even hashtags and @ mentions. And obviously, no ow.ly short links, long links, or other links of any kind. Just words.
Methodology
In short, linked tweets had the upper hand.
Methodology Overview
Time frame: 15 weeks (October 2019—January 2021)
Number of tweets: 269
Percentage of linkless tweets: 12%
Linked tweets: Some paid + Amplify
Linkless tweets: Organic
Results
Let’s look a little closer at the results.
Results based on retweets
Five of the top eight most retweeted tweets are linkless. For perspective, that would be like Vatican City (the least populated country in the world) winning the most gold medals in the Olympics. Linkless tweets are clearly punching way above their weight.
If Taylor Swift could share her productivity tips, that’d be great.
Remember, not only are there way fewer linkless tweets, many linked tweets were promoted or supported by Amplify, which is the case for all three of the linked tweets here.
“If we left a linked post without boosting it, it would never receive the level of engagement our linkless posts receive,” explains Martin.
Results based on likes
If you’ve been endlessly scrolling Twitter, take this Tweet as a sign to close the app and go read a book, or bake brownies, or do literally anything else.
It’s ok to be offline every now and then.
It’s the equivalent of Gritty single-handedly skating circles around the best five-player hockey shift the Philadelphia Flyers could throw at him. That’s a lot of grit.
Flyers vs Flyers has me CONFLICTED pic.twitter.com/NdBdjuwpue
— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) January 11, 2021
What do the results mean?
“We try to make sure every post strikes an emotion,” says Martin. “We aim to be inspiring, humorous, or tug a little at the heartstrings.”
So what makes this formula click? Here’s our analysis:
Link CTAs may deter engagement
The most obvious reason why linkless tweets outperform linked tweets is that there’s usually a call-to-action involved with the latter. “When there’s no CTA, there are no expectations,” says Martin. “We’re not trying to push anything, we’re just joining a conversation.”
Same! Tweets seem to perform best for me when it’s not asking for anything, just vibes haha
— Meg (@MegVClark) December 5, 2020
Calls to “click here” or “read this article” may distract people from tapping the heart, retweet, or reply icons. That may be fine if conversions are what you’re after, but because the Twitter algorithm favours engagement, a direct CTA could hinder the reach of your tweet.
Linkless tweets may boost overall engagement levels
Turning social into a two-way conversation builds trust, community, and engagement. And that engagement can eventually transfer to linked posts. “Since we’ve started sending out more linkless tweets, we’ve seen the engagement levels of our CTA posts go up a little,” Martin says.
It’s difficult to explain to executives that everything doesn’t need a CTA and/or hashtag. We can create engagement the old fashion way – conversation, delivering a message/info – without asking the audience to do something. Traditional techniques can be applied to modern comms.
— Ryan Hansen (@RPH2004) December 5, 2020
Aim to strike a balance between linked and linkless tweets.
“When you build community and push CTAs less frequently, it makes your call-to-actions seem more valuable and important,” says Martin.
Twitter’s algorithm may favor linkless tweets
Martin suspects linkless tweets are likely favoured by the Twitter algorithm, too. “A tweet without a link in it won’t direct people away from Twitter,” he says.
They also don’t direct people away from engaging with the tweet. And the Twitter algorithm favors tweets that get engagement.
Social media managers are the funniest in the group chat because they live online and know all of the memes. This is a fact.
It’s worth tapping a trending topic
For the most part, brands should focus on their subjects of expertise. “Understand what your brand talks about, and own that topic,” says Martin.
That way, when there’s an opportunity to share your brand’s perspective to a trending subject, you can.
Who is the marketing and why is it Ryan Reynolds?
A little personality goes a long way
“When you add personality, you’re not a faceless brand anymore,” explains Martin. “That’s why I think Wendy’s has done so well. They’ve been a prime example of a brand that successfully stepped away from sounding robotic on social media.”
Someone out there already has all of their posts scheduled for 2021 and we just want to say that we admire your confidence.
Images don’t always boost engagement
Conventional social media wisdom tells us that a captivating image is required to get attention. But that’s not always the case, at least on Twitter.
“In our tests, linkless tweets with an image or a GIF don’t perform as well as plain text, at least at the moment,” Martin says. Same goes for hashtags.
I haven’t found a lot of success with hashtags lately.
People need to be searching it up for them to work, and personally, I don’t follow too many hashtags unless it’s for a Twitter chat. You know?
— Nick Martin (@AtNickMartin) December 4, 2020
Less is more when it comes to word count
Hot takes, one-liners, morale boosts, and pithy statements are what the Twitter community excels at.
“The posts that work best for us are often just one sentence,” says Martin. “Don’t be too long-winded. If it’s a wall of text, people might scroll right by it.”
This is a mental health reminder for Marketing Twitter.
Not every post on social media has to go viral. You’re doing great
Never underestimate the Swift effect
So if Taylor Swift could share her popularity tips, that would also be great.
Conclusion
So, how to explain the ROI of hot takes in your next social media report? Social media can be weird and wonderful (and awful). For the most part, social marketers have the whims of the algorithms and the people to thank for that.
But when you take a step away from the data, it just makes sense that tweets without a sales agenda do better than those with one. So consider adding a little personality and community-building to your Twitter strategy.
That way when it comes time for the pitch, you might just have more people listening