How Does a Twitter Retweet Work?
Twitter allows you to broadcast, or "tweet," shorts messages to your network of followers. Tweets may be announcements, opinions or links to other websites and multimedia. If you like someone else's tweet, you can "retweet" it, which not only re-posts it, but also gives him credit and links your follower to his Twitter profile.
Other People Are Reading
-
Retweets
-
Retweeting on Twitter is a simple process. If you see a tweet you like and want to re-post it for your own followers, click the arrow located on the right side of the tweet. This opens an additional frame to the right side of your Twitter feed, which presents you withseveral options. Click "Retweet" to copy the text of the tweet -- alongside the original tweeter's username and the symbol "RT" -- to your blank tweet field. Click "Tweet" to post the tweet to your feed.
@Replies
-
Retweeting isn't the only way you can reference others or reply to their posts. Use an "@Reply" to mention a user by name and type a message, either directed toward him or commentating about subjects he previously tweeted. Accidentally making an @Reply when you mean to retweet is easy, as the options for doing so are located directly next to one another in the Twitter interface. If only a username appears in your blank tweet field, you know you've clicked "@Reply."
-
Character Limits
-
Retweeted tweets are subject to the same character limit -- 140 -- as Twitter's usual limit. Tweets that were originally 140 character in length won't work as re-tweets unless you delete characters to compensate for the attached username and "RT" symbol. If, on the other hand, the original tweet was short, include your own commentary or introduction prior to the tweet to explain its significance to your network of followers.
Retweeting Without the RT Tag
-
It's possible to copy and paste someone's tweet to your own feed without using the "Retweet" function, but doing so without giving her proper credit can have negative side effects. If she notices you posting her words as if they are your own, she may un-follow or even block you from her Twitter feed. Additionally, failing to cite her as the origin of the quote may prevent other users who'd be interested in following her to know that her Twitter account exists.
-
