Twitter Retweet Best Practices in Four Easy Steps
RT @HubSpot- great article on how to retweet correctly (insert link here).
There are lots of informative tweets on Twitter these days that we want to share with our followers. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to retweet. I know that retweet icon makes it quick and easy to retweet something, but whatever you do, don’t use it!
Active tweeters consider the retweet button to be a coveted feature on Twitter, but ironically, Twitter didn’t develop or adopt this traditional form of retweet—its customers did! Trust me, this little icon will actually do you more harm than good.
The biggest and most obvious drawback is that you are unable to add your opinion to the tweet. You can’t say why you felt it was retweet-worthy or what you’d like to point out. Being able to add to the initial tweet is a really important aspect and something the retweet icon prohibits.
Another limitation is that it misses the important relationship-building role that retweets play. With automatic retweets, the person you’re retweeting won’t know it unless they routinely check their tab titled “Your Tweets, retweeted.” Retweeting the manual way, although old fashioned, has a lot of value. It allows you to incorporate your thoughts and the person you’re retweeting will know that you have retweeted them, which is likely to be taken as a compliment. A little compliment now and then can go a long way!
So, here are four easy steps to help you retweet manually:
1. Copy the entire tweet, including the Twitter username of the person who sent it, and paste it into the text box wherever you normally tweet.
2. Delete the user’s name and any unessential characters that came over when you copied and pasted. Type “RT @” at the very front of the tweet.
3. Edit the tweet down to fit 140 characters and/or allow comment space. Get rid of optional punctuation, change “and” to “&,” and abbreviate. Don’t forget to check link URLs carefully because Twitter’s handling can break them when you copy & paste. You may need to add “http://” back in.
4. Add your two cents either before or after the retweet.
Leave other Twitter best practices in the comments. Happy tweeting everyone!
Melissa H. • March 14, 2012
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