Twitter Etiquette: Retweets
Twitter provides a means of building community and sharing information in the social media space. This information sharing is driven, in large part, by the retweeting of content by the users of Twitter. Sending out a Retweet, or RT, is essentially saying to your own audience that you like the content and feel it will be valuable for them to engage with as well. Using RTs mindfully will allow you to play a vital role in sharing information with your social media connections.
Other People Are Reading
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Retweet Relevant Information
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When you are sending out a retweet, you are essentially saying to your followers that you truly believe the information in the tweet is relevant to them. A retweet takes a tweet and re-publishes it to all of your followers. When you press the retweet button, noted by the arrow and RT acronym, the RT and original source of information is included in your RT. Proper etiquette requires leaving the RT "@originalusername" in the tweet so your followers know where the information originated. This also allows your followers to connect with this new person and engage with their content. Your own followers may unfollow if you continue to post information they do not relate to or if you post too many RTs and not enough actual conversations or original thoughts. You may find that when you press the RT button, the tweet no longer fits the 140 character limit. Trimming the end of the tweet is acceptable, as is adjusting or removing a few words to fit the character limit.
Read All URLs Before Retweeting
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Relating to the relevance of an RT, be sure you actually visit a URL address in a RT before sending it to your own audience. While the tweet you are about to RT may have a good headline, its possible that the URL is offensive or inappropriate to your audience. Such an RT could be embarrassing and may result in people unfollowing you if they take offense to the content. Your followers may no longer connect with you if the content you are posting is irrelevant, uninformative or contains bad URLs or inactive links. You may also wish to shorten a URL if the RT will exceed 140 characters. Using a service, such as www.Bit.ly, www.TinyURL.com or www.Ow.ly will shorten the URL and save valuable message space. Be sure to also double-check your shortened URL before sending the RT to ensure the link shortened properly.
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Champion Work of Others
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One major advantage to the RT is taking content and exposing it to audiences that may not connect in another manner. If the content is well received by certain audiences, this can create a snowball effect with the reach of the information growing as different audiences RT the content. When you retweet a person's work, you are endorsing its value and relevance in your online communities. Be mindful of how you use this tool, and be the champion of information and content that betters your followers and supports an artist with a valuable role to play in your community. If you passionately connect with certain work, tweet the work when you find it online and RT the same artist's work when they appear in your Twitter streams.
Reasons for Retweeting
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Retweeting plays many roles in the growth and connections created in this social media platform. Retweeting breaking news allows people to reach information that could be of life and death consequences, or have strong social relevance to all communities. Sending a RT of interesting information of a topic specific to your audience not only exposes them to new content, but provides a means of connection to new artists or content creators. Retweeting information also allows you to connect directly with the artist or creator, as many users will thank you directly for a RT or begin to follow you if they see you are relating to their work. Be mindful of your RT actions and try not to send an over abundance of RTs to your audience. Have a distinct reason or purpose for sharing information with your followers.
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