Lets talk a little bit about Retweets on Twitter
This is going to be one in a series of posts I do about Social Media practices as I see them. While some people will say “There is no right way to do things” or that “Everyone is doing it wrong” I think this is a bit off, and usually used by some to justify doing some pretty annoying things that they know they shouldn’t. I think my buddy Joe Porter said it well when he said, “there is no right way to use twitter, but there is definitely a wrong way.” What I want to do is talk about the why and how things like Retweets are used, how they are commonly misused and what happens because of this.
Wondering what Retweeting is? It’s best to get it from the source so here is a link to Twitter’s support site talking about it. I figure most already have a general idea of what it is so didn’t want to get into it.
The thing I think is more important is the history of how Retweets evolved into what they are. Similar to the @ and #hashtags, Retweets were not originally part of twitter and was created by the users to solve a problem they were having with this new means of communication. What was the problem that needed to be solved? Well when you tweet something, the only people who see it are those that follow you and possibly someone who happened to search for a word that might have been in your tweet. You just saw an awesome tweet by someone and want to talk about it more with your followers but noone would understand what you are talking about with the first tweet.
So the Retweet was born as a way to share tweets you find interesting with your followers that most likely aren’t also following the other source. Eventually the RT @originalTweeter syntax came from this and continues to be used to this day. Eventually Twitter decided to implement this concept into their service and now exists for you to easily, with 1 click, share that tweet with your followers. They also now show the original tweeter and tell you who it was retweeted by.
On top of sharing the original tweet, some people like to share a simple commentary on the beginning or end of the tweet. This works best as something simple like “Agree” or “Not Close” but when you start adding more this can get confusing. What has happened though as people have used open nature of the medium to bastardize the concept and really show a lack of even understanding what it’s for.
In my next post, I’ll get into the misuses of RT and how they in fact hurt you instead of helping you. I’ll link it up once it is done.
Part 1 – Lets talk a little bit about Retweets on Twitter – This page
Part 2 – When you reply via RT a kitten somewhere dies
Part 3 – I don’t remember Tweeting what you just Retweeted – Soon
Part 4 – Personal Style – Soon
Part 5 – Seriously I saw your tweet the first time – Coming Soon – Kind of requested
