How To Retweet And Be Retweeted
Posted by Matt Singley on April 21, 2009 under Social Networking, Social Networks, Twitter | 
29 Comments to Read
Tweet and Retweet: A great way to share information with others
UPDATE: I changed hosting companies since originally publishing this article, and ironically it removed the number of reweets from the plugin at the top of the post. You have to love technology sometimes!
One of the fastest and most effective ways of spreading information through Twitter is to retweet somebody. When you see “RT” followed by a username in an update by one of your friends, that means they are retweeting somebody else…taking that person’s post and redistributing it to their own followers. It’s rampant on Twitter, and one of the most common questions I get asked is, “what are some guidelines for retweeting, and how can I get retweeted more?” I want to address both of those with some simple guidelines and suggestions.
How To Retweet
Retweeting somebody’s thoughts, links or pictures is the ultimate compliment on Twitter. It says that you think enough of what they have written to share it with your followers, a pool of people that may be completely different than those of the original tweeter! It is a fantastic way to share information and ideas. Of course you are free to retweet whatever you want, but here are some general guidelines that I think make it easier for you and those that follow you.
- Keep it short. No need to write out “retweet” when RT will do just fine and most people will understand it. The etiquette for this is “RT @username: the content of their original tweet”. I very strongly recommend using a 3rd party app for Twitter as most of them let you retweet in just one click, you won’t have to retype everything like you do in the web interface. My favorite desktop application is Tweetdeck, my favorite iPhone app is Twittelator Pro, and my favorite mobile browser “client” is Dabr.
- Read what you share. Truly, this is one of my greatest annoyances…it’s very obvious when people don’t read what they retweet. The two most painful cases of this are, first, when a person tweets a link to an article they liked and somebody retweets them within a minute or two; this isn’t nearly enough time to actually read the article! Second, I see a lot of people retweet others for #followfriday and they often are “recommending” people that they themselves do not follow. It happens to me almost every Friday. Please, read what you retweet, otherwise you are adding too much noise to the already busy Twitterverse.
- Know your audience. You should have a good feel for what your followers are like…chances are, they are like you. Naturally you are going to want to share things that are interesting to them, but in a global sense. If all of your followers are your close, personal friends then this probably doesn’t apply to you; have at it and retweet whatever you want. A lot of people have a mixed bag of followers that include personal friends and acquaintances online, as well as work colleagues and potential employeers. Keep it real, keep it relevant. Don’t retweet your 11 year old cousin’s rantings about the Hannah Montana movie just because you think they are cute…chances are nobody else will. (Confession: I saw the Hannah Montana movie this weekend and liked it. Don’t judge me!)
How To Be Retweeted
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Write good content. This is the number one rule for being retweeted, everything else can be worked around. If you want to be retweeted, then write things that matter to the people that follow you. Think about what you are interested in, what you are an expert at, or something that you have read that would be helpful to others. Short life updates, although they keep your followers informed about your daily goings-on, don’t make the rounds too often. “I just took my dog out to poop” probably isn’t going to get much retweet time.
Some people, like @mayhemstudios, have tremendous RT power. Check Retweet Radar for others.
- Include links. Earlier this morning I saw a tweet that interested me, it was about a marketing survey. The problem, however, is that the tweet did not include a link to the article, only a vague reference that wasn’t even enough to Google. If it had included a link I probably would have retweeted it, I think my followers would have found it very helpful. As it is, I don’t even know if the statistics included in the tweet are true…a citation would be good. Make sure you include links when referencing something that includes numbers, or is just interesting. The best way to include links, since you are limited to 140 characters per update, is to use a URL shrinking service. It takes a very long URL and makes it short. I use Cli.gs the most, but also use TinyURL and Is.gd.
- Know your RT character count. What do I mean by this? This is imporant, so please pay attention. Since Twitter updates are limited to 140 characters, it only makes sense that if you want to be retweeted you will need to write shorter updates than that to accommodate for “RT @yourname:”. For example, if somebody clicks one of my post to retweet I know that it will take 17 characters (including spaces) to write “RT @mattsingley: “, so I need to keep my updates to 123 characters or fewer (quick math for you if you’re new around here: 140 (character max) – 17 (my RT count) = 123 (length of my posts)). Just to test my theory about this, some time back I put up similar tweets with content and links, but with one set I exceeded 123 characters, and in the other I stayed under the limit. I was retweeted 60+% more with the sub-123 character updates!
Good luck! If you want to see some of the top retweeted info, my favorite site for this is Retweet Radar. It lists trends, links and people that are being retweeted, and I’ve found some good information there. If you have any retweet tips or tricks, I would love to hear about them.
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Additional comments powered by BackType
Jillian Koeneman said,
Great post about the art to getting RT’ed. I agree completely with you regarding all of the RT’ing that goes on during #followfriday. It gets to be a bit much. I really liked the section about shortening your tweet to allow for someone else to RT it without having to manually cut it. Great stuff!
Matt Singley said,
Thanks Jillian, I’m glad you liked it! I think #followfriday is going to die off soon, just too much noise on it these days. Have a great day, thanks for the comment!
MJ Neo said,
Hey Matt,
Excellent stuff! I appreciate you!
Best regards,
MJ
Melinda said,
Thanks Matt. I posted it to my FB page. You are very clear in direction giving and your step-by-step is great for those in my mid-age category, who are just figuring it out.
From helping readers all learn to blog, to FB, to Twitter, you have reached out your hand between generations to bridge the social tech gap, by graciously showing us all, how to participate. That is far better than muttering disparaging comments about generations who just don’t get it…which I see much to often.
Melinda said,
Now, if I would learn to edit first, before sending…yes, I know the difference between ‘to’ and ‘too’. ‘All’ should be before ‘readers’, not after, too. Penelope would frown.
Lil' Peekr said,
I think the one point I haven’t paid much attention to in the past is, “Know your RT character count.” But I will do that more frequently I think…
Your research and testing to show that paying attention to and accommodating a RT credit may increase your RT’s considerably is really helpful and insightful. The RT credit trend now seems to be to use, (via @peekr @mattsingley) so I try to mix things up and remain consistent and tweet-worthy, but never tweet the same thing more than once.
I really digg your custom Twitter background. Great tips… great post, I’m following you and adding your RSS feed. Thanks!
mayhemstudios said,
Great article as usual. Very informative.
I agree people don’t think about their character count. I spend more time editing retweets then anything else.
Maybe people don’t know any better but it’s annoying when people don’t give credit to the originator of the tweet and takes credit for it. A dead give away is the same url shortened.
Also, thanks for featuring me in the screenshots.
- Cal
Greg Johnson said,
Thanks for another informative and education post Matt. You’re the best.
gaj
Dave Scriven said,
Very interesting post, Matt. I’m learning a lot from your writings. Thanks.
Matt Singley said,
@Lil’ Peekr….Hey, thanks for your kind words! I appreciate it a lot. Glad you found this useful, I’ve added you as well. Looking forward to keeping up!
Arbenting's Weekly Inspiration and Best of the Web #2 | Arbenting said,
[...] How To Retweet And Be Retweeted – “One of the fastest and most effective ways of spreading information through Twitter is to retweet somebody. One of the most common questions I get asked is, “what are some guidelines for retweeting, and how can I get retweeted more?” I want to address both of those with some simple guidelines and suggestions.” [...]
Dhane Diesil said,
Very informative and helpful! Thanks for the goodies!
Is There Value in the ReTweet? | Twitterrati said,
[...] If you’re into ReTweeting or want to get your updates ReTweeted, here are some thoughts from Open Forum, Mashable and Matt Singley. [...]
A Retweet is the Sincerest Form of Flattery | Soshable | Social Media Blog said,
[...] How To Retweet And Be Retweeted [...]
6 Ways To Increase Your Small Business Rewards Programs | Understanding Marketing said,
[...] a special “hashtag” and offer up some even deeper discounts or rewards for the person that “retweets” your promotion with the hashtag [...]
Matt Singley said,
Hey, thanks for the link (How to Retweet and be Retweeted). Great article here, good perspective on two major points of the RT!
This comment was originally posted on http://soshable.com/)“>Soshable | Social Media Blog
A Retweet is the Sincerest Form of Flattery :: instantmediamogul.com said,
[…] was that in watching the accounts that retweeted it. They started retweeting… a lot. (more…) Categories : […]
This comment was originally posted on http://soshable.com/)“>Soshable | Social Media Blog
Sam said,
dailyRT (tracks hottest tweets based on RT’s) has a new resource on how to retweet: http://dailyrt.com/resources
This comment was originally posted on http://soshable.com/)“>Soshable | Social Media Blog
A Retweet is the Sincerest Form of Flattery « SmashFuse said,
[…] was that in watching the accounts that retweeted it. They started retweeting… a lot. (more…) 0 Vote Filed under: The Feed, Uncategorized No Comments Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( […]
This comment was originally posted on http://soshable.com/)“>Soshable | Social Media Blog
Emilia said,
its easy to track your popularity and the feasibility of your ideas and thoughts through the use of re tweeting. its fun to see your not the only one who thinks that way
This comment was originally posted on http://soshable.com/)“>Soshable | Social Media Blog
Dragon Blogger said,
Excellent article, agree about retweeting showing respect, much like leaving a comment on the article, but a retweet passes it on to your community.
This comment was originally posted on http://soshable.com/)“>Soshable | Social Media Blog
mattsingley said,
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This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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