Not long ago one of my Twitter followers who is new to social media sent me an email asking for some help “decoding” the following tweet:
RT @JoeCascio: @aubreyliciouss PodCampCT meeting and tweetup tonight in Middletown . https://goo.gl/o4TA #pcct cc: @mmpartee
After looking at the tweet as if I was new to Twitter, I realized, “This stuff is garbledegook!”. I decided to try to translate it for him and this is what I said:
RT = retweet, which is usually a copy of what follows the two letters. It is like forwarding an email or re-broadcasting the content.
@JoeCascio is the original tweeter who was talking to @aubreyliciouss about the upcoming PodCamp and included a link for more information.
#pcct is the hashtag for PodCamp CT (perhaps I should do a post defining hashtags sometime, what do you think?)
I was the person sending the retweet and included the cc: at the end to alert @mmpartee of the event that I knew he would be interested in.
All of this got me to thinking about the power and gift of the retweet and I wanted to share with you why it is such an important tool on Twitter.
Consider this…
…if you have 500 followers and you tweet something, you have the potential to reach 500 sets of eyes. If I am one of those sets of eyes and I like what you have to say, I can retweet it and potentially expose your tweet to 4,500 more people. If one of THOSE people who has 2,000 followers decides to retweet it we are then up to potentially 7,000 people seeing your information.
Pretty cool, huh?
For a visual metric on the power of your tweet and retweet you can use TweetReach. This service will analyze your Twitter name or a hashtag and provide a comprehensive set of metrics about its impact on Twitter. This tool will provide a lot of information on how many people saw your tweets, how many read them, how many RT’ed your tweet and even who shared the most. For a detailed description on how these metrics work you can read this page.
Of course, not every follower reads every post, but the more times a tweet is retweeted the more chance for it to roam the Twitterverse on a wide scale.
An interesting post by Dan Zarrella introduces a metric he called the “ReTweetability Metric”. He proposes that a person can use a simple equation to determine how retweetable their posts are and that the content of a tweet seems to be more important than the influence of the person sending the tweet.
I know that retweets have karma.
A retweet is a powerful gift that you should give often. I try to spend a good portion of my twitter time on RT’ing other people’s links and amusing comments. These people will be more likely, in turn, to give me the same gift at some later date. It is good to share and be supportive and RT’ing is a super easy and powerful way to do so.
I love the serendipity of finding new people to follow via the retweet. For example: if @laniar tweets with someone that I don’t know, I am very likely to follow the latter person simply because I enjoy tweeting with Lani and she is engaging this new-to-me person. I meet fabulous new people each day that I find this way.
Retweets are endorsed information.
It is one thing for you to post a link to your blog post, but quite another for someone else to retweet it. Their RT is a form of endorsement and gives your link credibility in others’ eyes. Readers will think, “If so-and-so thought this was a good tweet, then I do, too!”. You may even get lucky enough that the person adds something to their RT along the lines of “must read” or “great post”.
A few tips to keep in mind:
#1- ask. In certain circumstances (not every time) it is find to add “pls RT” to a tweet. Using the word please will increase the chance of getting retweeted.
#2- leave room. 140 characters isn’t much, but leave space for the people RT’ing you to add their comments or they may opt not to retweet. Here is a post that explains how to figure out your retweet number.
#3- use a url shortening site like www.bit.ly . Many blog post url’s are super long and will eat up tweet space. Bit.ly has the added bonus of tracking your url data (how many clicks, who tweeted or retweeted the link).
#4- have a compelling headline.
#5- say thank you. If people RT you it is great to publicly thank them.
#6- have good content.
Alright, you are ready to hit the RT trail! How about you practice by tweeting this link with a “please RT” call to action?
