Being retweeted on Twitter is hitting blogs, television, and magazines around the world, but is it all that important? I want to tell you a couple things about the coveted retweet, and why it matters.
What is a Twitter Retweet?
Just a quick overview for those who did not know, a retweet is when a Twitter microblogger sends a short 140 character message, called a “tweet” and another user sends it to their Twitter followers by sending the same message prefixed with “RT @username” showing the source of the information. It is the holy grail for some, but just a good measurement of quality to others. If you are retweeted a lot, it is generally assumed that people like what you have to say.
Proper Retweet Usage
A retweet is very useful for sharing good information while crediting the originator. By retweeting, you are being courteous to your friends. If you want to spread helpful information, a retweet can be very helpful. There is nothing wrong with asking for a retweet, as long as the purpose is for other’s benefit.
Of course, there are cases where the retweet can be misused and annoying. The people out there to provide little value and just sell you their goods would consider the retweet to be the holy grail … the brass rings to reach for. These are also the same people who consider the number of people following their tweets more important than focusing on the value they offer to their audience. These are (usually) not the most retweeted people. If selling is your goal, you should really rethink the retweet.
Getting Retweeted by Providing Value
If you hope to be retweeted, consider how you interact with people, and whether you are giving them what they want. People do not want to be “sold at”. Imagine the difference in how you feel about going to a store to buy things compared to how you feel when the doorbell rings and there is somebody there to sell you something. This is very much how people feel about the selling invasion in their social networking space.
The methods and mentality of social networking has been written about in huge volumes. Some of the information is great, and much of it is junk. There are a lot of people writing about social networking just to sell to you something. Then, there are the ones who really “get it”. The ones who do “get it” are the people who understand what I have tweeted and said many times: “If you see somebody as a sandwich, they can usually tell.” This is to say that if your intention is more about making the money, and not about being helpful, most people will know. I call it the “bullshit perfume”. If my language offends you, I am sorry, but I just want to give a clear picture.
The Real Retweet Secret
I am going to put my neck out and say that the real secret to being retweeted comes in just a few parts. Here is a short list of the things I believe to be most important. I welcome your additional thoughts in the comments section of this blog post.
- Forget about you: If you have the right mindset of being useful to people, rather than being selfish, it will show. People really like to talk about themselves. Let them, and don’t hog all of that enjoyment for yourself. Listen to what people have to tell you, and you will probably find some great friends.
- Forget the dollars: (see above) If people want to know what you do, they will find out.
- Be friendly: Try to get to know your “tweeps” (Twitter friends), and allow them to know you. This is why we use the word “social”. Address people by their first name.
- Show personality: You are a person, right? Flaunt it, don’t hide it. I sometimes crank up my Webcast and have a chat with my “tweeps”. It has been great fun, and I doubt any of my tweeps would fault me for lack of personality, for better or worse. 🙂
- Consider what people want: People want to connect with other people. They want to laugh. They want to find useful information.
@murnahan Retweeted
Just so that you do not think I am another one of those “Twitter experts” that I have made so much fun of, I feel that I must explain that I did not make this all up. I am consistently in all of the popular leaderboards as one of the most retweeted Twitter users, and can back it up. I strongly believe that my mindset of helping others and doing what I have said here truly is the reason. For a look at where I stand for retweets, I offer the lists as follows:
- retweetrank.com leaderboard
- retweetrank.com/murnahan
- Retweetist Top 100
- Retweet Radar (only shows top 10. See @murnahan there late nights)
I hope you found this article useful. If so, please pass it along and retweet (RT) it … your tweeps will probably like it too!
January 2011 Addendum: Twitter has changed a lot since I wrote this, and since I wrote the book “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“. Many things are the same, and providing value is still the most important.
I have recently noticed an increase in people searching the Internet to find out the answer to the question “how do i know if people retweet me?” The simple answer is to go to http://twitter.com/#!/retweeted_of_mine and also watch for people manually retweeting your content by copying and pasting a link and including your username. That will simply show up in your Twitter account under “@mentions“.
I hope this has helped you, and I always welcome your feedback, here, on Twitter, or elsewhere.