👋🌊 [new thing] - What gets a tweet get retweeted?

I love studying narrative & storytelling - so I spent > 20 hours digging through Twitter building an index of popular tweets

Here's 10 categories of tweets that got traction, with a few examples of each:
1a) First up we have INSIDE INFO
"Work in public" is becoming more common because people ❤️ those juicy behind-the-scenes details

@dvassallo gives a screenshot of his sales number, and then goes even deeper with marketing channel details, etc. https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1216175468681940992?s=20

600 RTs
1b) This 6-year old tweet from @TZhongg of intern offer $$ amounts from a bunch of tech companies is one of my favorites because it's a great example of information we've all have access to, but she recognized the value in publishing it
https://twitter.com/TZhongg/status/536565474041937921?s=20

1,700 RTs
1c) @shl's popularity ballooned when he published the 8-year history of Gumroad. The entire story is there: sales charts, layoffs, buying his investors' shares back, and going back to working alone.
https://twitter.com/shl/status/1093532795438133253?s=20

2,900 RTs
2a) Next up we have REFERENCE GUIDES
Tweetstorms that are exhaustive or so in depth that you'll want to come back to them.

@polina_marinova created 10 lessons from her newsletter @ProfileRead, with a link to 10 different stories to go deeper https://twitter.com/polina_marinova/status/1288273507726626816?s=20

450 RTs
2b) @sriramk gave us a terrific list of curated, internal company memos. Lots of great reads in here that his audience would want to bookmark https://twitter.com/sriramk/status/1186039031085142016?s=20

700 RTs
2c) @lennysan wrote a lesson on retention metric benchmarks by company. You'll save this for whenever someone wonders "is our retention any good?" which will be very often
https://twitter.com/lennysan/status/1277620704146423809?s=20

350 RTs
3a) Next up is DAVID VS. GOLIATH
Punching up is a fantastic way to tell stories & get traction

@APompliano is a master at this move and uses it to represent the little guy. Here he uses the power of the Internet to pick on Harvard.
https://twitter.com/APompliano/status/1280187279789572096?s=20

4,800 RTs
3b) @Post_Market (underrated follow btw) seals the deal on this tweet with "nobody knows anything" - i.e. you TOO can be a great investor, regardless of background, expertise, etc.
https://twitter.com/Post_Market/status/1245694017205153792?s=20

1,000 RTs
3c) And here's @ShaanVP with the screenshot of Parler topping the app store charts. Yet another thing we all had access to - the trick was framing the narrative in the context of beating the bullies of "big tech"
https://twitter.com/ShaanVP/status/1325250576792236034?s=20

1,600 RTs
4a) CONTRAST
Just like Versus videos on YouTube

@abarrallen compares 2 types of companies in a way that's punchy yet agreeable. Great example that it doesn't have to be snarky and you don't have to (necessarily) take a side - tho that can help https://twitter.com/abarrallen/status/1326346431448248320?s=20

1,100 RTs
4b) @ballmatthew does a straight comparison of gaming and film gross revenues. Quick way to drive the point of one industry's ascendency versus another https://twitter.com/ballmatthew/status/1176544949262671872?s=20

3,600 RTs
4c) @kimmaicutler shows the (painful) contrast between building in China versus San Francisco. Putting concrete details & examples to the accepted narrative gives you a strong shot at getting retweeted. https://twitter.com/kimmaicutler/status/957466551384399872?s=20

1,500 RTs
5a) SURPRISING EVERYDAY TRUTH

Take a common everyday thing we all know about & show why it's wrong or off.

Here @juliagalef demolishes our low-caloric love of tic tacs in 247 characters https://twitter.com/juliagalef/status/982122525202108421?s=20

2,000 RTs
5b) @devonzuegal shows where the 10,000 steps rule actually comes from. Surprise - it's not because of anything health related https://twitter.com/devonzuegel/status/1137112716592631808?s=20

5,900 RTs
5c) I chose this one because it uses everyday pictures of everyday things to kind of jolt you out of your everyday existence.

It surprises you that yes, maybe things are a little boring.

In classic @visakanv fashion, it's an epic thread https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/990570131238473728?s=20

51,600 RTs
6a) FIRST HAND LIFE LESSONS

What stories can you share from your life that would help others?

@jesslivingston goes into detail on how she was raised, founding YC, how she didn't know what to become, etc. in this classic post https://twitter.com/jesslivingston/status/1013132368134262787?lang=en

95 RTs
6b) @csallen makes a more narrow yet actionable point.

It works because he's the authority on all things indie hackers - of course flexibility would make sense for people working on their own https://twitter.com/csallen/status/949094952197222400?s=20

180 RTs
Gotta jump for a sec, will be back to finish
7a) TWEET-SIZED BOOK
"Most books should be blog posts, most blog posts should be tweets"

And if you really want to get retweeted, put a book's worth of info in < 280 characters.

@david_perell makes you a better writer with just 1 tweet https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1254258945255862278?s=20

2,000 retweets
7b) @lpolovets summarizes an industry's worth of pricing strategy

https://twitter.com/lpolovets/status/1217287948766339072?s=20. People have written whole books on how to price your product - and he gives a summary of all that in < 280

460 RTs
7c) @jasonlk offers a book's worth of career advice https://twitter.com/jasonlk/status/1113270047122681856?s=20. This goes not just for reporting to a CEO but to almost any manager.

1,100 RTs
8a) ACTIONABLE ADVICE
Give me info that I can use right now, today.

@patio11 gives a thread's worth here that I'd wager is ~all new info to the average recent college grad, and contains many non-obvious truths for the rest of us https://twitter.com/patio11/status/936615043126370306?s=20

3,600 RTs
8b) @garrytan advises founders to get therapy and to get a coach. You can do this today. https://twitter.com/garrytan/status/1129399740746031104?s=20

1,100 RTs
9a) EVERYDAY BASICS
Common experiences that aren't often expressed that are "snapped" into place with a tweet

@naval tells you healthy ways to find your next high https://twitter.com/naval/status/1311207199608246272?s=20

4,300 RTs
9b) Another from @polina_marinova because she's great - the tweet speaks for itself.

It works because it's not often talked about but we all know it's true https://twitter.com/polina_marinova/status/1286036586392694784?s=20

1,700 RTs
10a) WE WERE ALL THINKING IT
Expressing something we were all feeling but hadn't yet put into words.

And good lord @nateliason is so right - this is esp. timely given how many people have been Airbnb hopping throughout the pandemic https://twitter.com/nateliason/status/1333061944123809800?s=20

100 RTs
10b) @default_friend expressing a common and (relatively) new insecurity https://twitter.com/default_friend/status/1336385633506521089?s=20

50 RTs
11) Bonus(!) – IF YOU FIND SOMETHING THAT WORKS KEEP DOING IT

@APompliano went massively viral, then found 2 other ways of using that same template
https://twitter.com/APompliano/status/962772932404633602?s=20

Don't be afraid of using a pattern that works with your audience.

You should be fighting to discover it
12) Shameless plug to RT this thread if it's been useful to you

https://twitter.com/TrevMcKendrick/status/1338558086387101697?s=20

Don't reinvent the wheel - ("great artists steal" etc.) there's great raw material out there - put it through the filter of your own life experience & you might have a shot at going big /end
POSTSCRIPT - I've been writing about narrative & storytelling in my free newsletter for the past 3+ years - sign up here https://www.trevormckendrick.com/newsletter 
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