Let’s Talk About How To Make the Most of Retweets

Ah, retweeting content on Twitter. Such a good idea. I mean, retweeting seems like it carries so much more weight than that little thumbs up on Facebook or that little +1 on Google Plus, doesn’t it? It has so much potential!

Sadly, a lot of people retweet in just the same way that they “like” or “+1.” It’s all a matter of clicking a button. However, in the world of Twitter, you are missing out on a world of opportunity if you just hit “retweet.” If you add a brief comment before or after your retweet, you are showing the person you’re retweeting that you really know and appreciate what they said (or maybe you really didn’t appreciate it, but at least they know you’re not responding without much care). You’re also passing along another person’s content to your followers in such a way that they are getting that content plus your take on it. That’s pretty darned efficient for 120 characters, I think!

So how can we make the most out of that little RT? Here are some ideas that I use.

1. Retweet a person’s post with your commentary attached: Especially with the increasing number of ways people can tweet out content in an automated fashion, I feel like adding your own comment about a post is becoming increasingly valuable. Sure, a retweet is indicating that you feel your followers should check that post out, but if you add a teaser, you’re hinting to your followers at why you feel the post is good and you’re also helping the person promote their post. That’s pretty nice of you!

2. Retweet a person’s question and add your own addition to it: We all know that it can be really discouraging to ask a question on Twitter and get nothing but crickets in response. If you see someone asking for help, try to retweet it, but don’t just hit that retweet button. I like to add something to it like, “Can anyone help this person out?” That personalizes the tweet and shows your followers that this is important to you. It also tells the person you’re retweeting that you’re really trying to help them out.

3. Retweet a smart thing someone says in a chat, but add your own spin: One of the things that can kind of muddy up a Twitter chat is all of the retweeting. I know there are lots of brilliant folks in chats, and I agree that passing on some of the great things they say is really important. However, the conversation can get even more interesting if you retweet a smart comment with an addition of your own. I like to do things like add, “SMART!” if I dont’ have a lot of room, or I might even disagree with someone – that way they know what they said and they know what I’m disagreeing with (always helpful in a busy chat). Just retweeting something doesn’t always accomplish a whole lot, at least in my opinion.

4. Do not retweet things about yourself: I know that this may be a point of disagreement, but I feel (and this is just me here) that it’s poor form to retweet things about yourself. I see a lot of people who will tweet out every mention of themselves, in fact, which can get pretty messy on “follow Friday.”  While retweeting good content or smart stuff is helpful to your followers, retweeting nice things about yourself just seems to be an over-abundance of self-promotion. I’m very happy that someone said you were the smartest person in the world. If you say thank you, or if you respond to someone in kind, I’ll still get the picture. Just hitting the retweet button on these types of occasions looks even worse to me. It’s almost like people are saying, “Ho-hum, another compliment.”

Is that just me?

What’s your take on retweets? How do you use them? Do you use them?

Let’s talk about it!

Image by Hermo Sakk. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Herzz

23 comments

  1. RTs are always appreciated. Another result of RTs is that people can make their own ‘newsletters’ and Twylahs with someone else’s tweets. I like it the other way around, as looking for articles and information to share with my horse friends (I founded #horsebiz for this purpose), for me, is the thrill. I learn so much along the way. But everyone is different.

    For the record, I do not have any ghost tweeters (or retweeters!).

    Thank you for the interesting subject.

    1. That’s an interesting point regarding the paper.li and twylah reporting feature. Thanks for adding that, Susie! I like sharing content all over the place. It’s a hobby 🙂

  3. Retweeting with any context at all is becoming more and more difficult as twitter is drinking the “Thou must not change anything on my tweet” Kool-Aid. Their official retweet button no longer shortens the URL until AFTER you send the tweet, preventing you from adding anything at the end. Twitter clients (like Twitter for Mac and iPhone) are pushing to use just a RT instead of a quoted RT. It is just becoming harder and harder to inject any humanity into a RT… so many times, I just don’t anymore.

    I’m sure the push button easy RT option is increasing RTs… but not meaningful ones. Just littering the Internet!

    1. Hi Rufus Dogg,

      Not sure if you use a third party app or not. Since RT anything on Twitter itself is a nightmare, I do all of it via Sprout Social. Makes it really easy, and lets me get my comments in. I really do try to add something to a RT, so I’m not a virtual world litterbug.

    2. When the new Twitter arrived it did become a lot harder to retweet in the way I describe – retweeting with Hootsuite is much easier because you have the option right away to add to the tweet. In the web version of Twitter I tend to copy the person’s name and tweet, paste it into my own, and then add my own commentary. That might be more time than what people want to spend on it, but it works for me 🙂

  4. When I see people RT compliments to themselves, I don’t think “Ho hum.”

    I think, “Oh, lordy, are YOU workin’ on your Klout!” And for at least some of those, I know I’m right. (Even if Klout doesn’t read it that way.) 😉

  5. I can’t figure out how to add a comment to a retweet. Neither twitter on my computer, or TweetDeck on my iPod, give me that option. So I rarely, rarely retweet because I hate seeing RTs without comments.
    And I did peruse Twitter Help, which was no help.

    1. Hi Susan, as I mentioned above, I copy & paste so that I can add to the tweet – just hitting the retweet button doesn’t allow you to edit at all. Hootsuite also seems to work well for me – I’m surprised TweetDeck doesn’t offer the same functionality, although I’ve noticed mobile versions of apps tend not to be as flexible on things like that. Or, what Susie said 🙂

  7. Love the post. I do the first three and whole-heartedly agree with the last.
    A few months ago it struck me that I was going to tweet someone’s post, as well as leave a comment, so I eventually figured out that it made more sense to tweet after the comment was made.
    This would blend some of my own thoughts to the post, while promoting the author at the same time. This might encourage others to read more of this person’s posts.
    The last point that you make about overpromotion. I don’t think people understand what a real turnoff that is, and just like in real life (IRL), you start avoiding them. 🙂

    1. You are right Jack. It always creates a moral conundrum for me when someone mentions me really nicely in a post. The common practice is to tweet out that post because traffic is a way of saying thank you, but I still struggle with what the best way to do that is. Just hitting RT doesn’t strike me as the best solution, though.

  9. Hi Margie,
    I completely agree with your suggestion to add a comment to the RT either before or after the post. It creates credibility for the viewers and sincere appreciation (hopefully) from the person who tweeted. The RT and #FF components of Twitter would be so much more effective is people used them with sincerity and included something relevant to the RT or #FF instead of sending out mass RT or #FF tweets. There….I said it…I feel better 😉
    Thanks Margie,
    Claudia

    1. Pretty small, actually. I tend to reply more than retweet. I have always been much more interested in the conversational aspects of Twitter over the retweeting aspect. If someone needs help I’ll retweet their request, but even in those scenarios I’ll add my own commentary most of the time.

  11. Thanks, Margie – again, another fabulous post. RTs are important. I RT a lot and pay it forward when someone RTs me – either via a “thank you” or scanning their stream for something to RT. Totally agree with you that, space permitting, it’s good to add a comment to show that you’ve actually read the link and have a POV. Thanks again!

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