Dustin Curtis likes experiments. He re-arranged the words Follow Me on Twitter and the position of the hyperlink to see if it would increase the number of followers, i.e. click-throughs. Changing the text increased the clickthrough rate from 4.7% to 12.81%. Here’s how he did it.
At the bottom of his posts, there’s a phrase with a link to his Twitter account.
He started by “using commands instead of statements for guiding users.” The idea was to test what he calls “forceful phrasing”.
Using a Statement
a. “I’m on Twitter” 4.70%
The original phrasing led to a 4.70% clickthrough rate.
Using a command
a. “Follow me on Twitter” 4.70%
The clickthrough rate increased by 55% to 7.31%.
Note: Using a lower case “t” for Twitter led to a slightly higher rate of clicks (up to 6% more).
Using a stronger personal command
c. “You should follow me on twitter.” 10.09%
Using the words “you should” increased the clickthrough rate by 38% to 10.09%.
Adding the literal callout “here”
d. “You should follow me on twitter here.” 12.81%
Adding “here” as the link at the end of the phrase increased the clickthrough rate by 27% to 12.81%.
To recap:
“You” identifies the reader directly,
“should” implies an obligation, and
“follow me on twitter” is a direct command.
Moving the link to a literal callout “here” provides a clear location for clicking.
He tried other permutations that dulled the command, for example, using “please” in place of “should” and made the whole sentence a link. None performed as well as the final sentence.
You should read his article here
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http://dustincurtis.com/you_should_follow_me_on_twitter.html
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