The Power of ReTweeting: The 7 Reasons to RT on Twitter

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The Power of ReTweeting: The 7 Reasons to RT on Twitter

If you ask someone on Twitter why they enjoy tweeting, you would most definitely get varied responses.  But a common answer would be it’s because they learn so much from people from all over the world.

For those new on Twitter you might wonder why you see people sharing a tweet with an RT at the beginning of each tweet.  This is called a ReTweet.  Re Tweeting started around 2008 when someone saw a tweet and wanted to share it but also wanted to be able to give credit to the person who shared it first.  From then on it has been a practice to RT when you find a useful content to share.  ReTweeting can be powerful and here are the reasons why you should ReTweet.

1.  Give credit where credit is due – Finding information and sharing good content is important on Twitter.  There are people you can call good curators and RTing them will allow you to give credit to those who work hard at sharing the best info.

2.  Connect people - We have found and met people who we have become good friends with because of a simple RT.  When you RT someone you literally share them to people who follow you. You connect others with the same interest on certain topics.

3.  Break the ice  - When we were new on Twitter, we were both afraid to just converse with someone because we were natural introverts, but again with a simple RT you open the way for that person to notice you and talk with you on stream.  RTing breaks the ice.

4.  Sharing is caring - One person on Twitter we both love is he always reminds us that sharing is caring.  RTing is also a way for you to show your appreciation for someone. An appreciation for a well written post or a good information or breaking news.

 

Infinity Strings Marty McPadden's Flickr

 

5.  SEO - Social media is a great way to boost your searchability and online presence.  ReTweeting allows you not only to share great information with your followers, but increase your visibility in search engines. Retweeting also helps the originator of the tweet increase their visibility too. It’s a true “win-win!”

6.  Make your thoughts heard – By adding your opinion on a tweet before you re-share allows you to show that you agree or disagree with a particular opinion or quote.  Remember we only have 140 characters to work with.  RTing is a great way to be heard.

7. Build relationships -  Both of us have been enjoying our experience on Twitter because we have built connection and friendships because we have learned the power of reciprocity.  We both connected on Twitter because we in someway or another was ReTweeted and that started our friendship and now a very strong partnership.

 

Retweeting is powerful but also make sure that you do not sacrifice what you believe in. Only re-share things that you feel are right for you and your followers.  We know you have other reasons for retweeting and we would love to hear from you. Please do share them here by leaving us a comment.

 

About the authors:

Marty McPadden founder and host of PodJamTv is a professional photographer, videographer, blogger, apple geek and a Production Supervisor at ESPN one of the largest sports network in the world. His vast knowledge in the above mentioned field will allow you our readers to tap into tools, apps, reviews and tips that he has learned and mastered over the years. How to’s and hacks that will allow you to have a richer online experience.

Misty Belardo co host and co writer of PodJamTv is an experienced blogger, designer and a self proclaimed Twitter-holic and an avid Facebook user is a Senior Production Manager at Barefoot Proximity, one of the most awarded advertising agencies across the globe. Her experience with writing, designing, SEO and brand and advertising strategy will give readers a point of view of what happens behind the scenes in the digital sphere.

© 2011, PodJamTV. All rights reserved.

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  • http://twitter.com/FinAidAdvisors Jodi Okun

    Love this

    Jodi

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Thank you Jodi.

  • http://twitter.com/mistygirlph Misty Belardo

    Glad you enjoyed the article Jodi =))

  • http://twitter.com/gracey_castro Gracey Castro

    This is great especially for those (and I have heard the gripes on Twitter and G+) that hate retweeters. I am so ‘guilty’ of that. I love to spread news, humor, updates, reviews, technology. Not everyone sees every post. Sharing IS caring. This is so going on G+, FB and Twitter. Thanks!

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Thank you Gracey!! Great point about not everyone seeing every post. The web effect is the beauty of online communication and retweeting helps spread information quickly. Couldn’t agree more!

  • http://twitter.com/mistygirlph Misty Belardo

    Thank you Gracey for visiting PodJamTV and we are happy that you enjoyed the article. Thank you for sharing it too on Twitter, Google + and FB

  • Redwinediva

    One of the greatest forms of flattery is a retweet – I always feel honored by a retweet.

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      So true!! Thank you!

  • http://twitter.com/iconic88 iconic88

    Love your work guys!!! Some great tips here for people

    Keep it up!!
    Mahei

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Thank you Mahei!! YOU inspire US!! :-)

  • http://twitter.com/mistygirlph Misty Belardo

    Thank you Mahei!! =)

  • http://www.ydeveloper.com/kaushalam-ecommerce.html eCommerce

    It;s really a great tips shared here.

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Thank you.

  • http://www.beforethecross.com Before The Cross

    Does it make a difference to use Twitter’s retweet function or to manually type out RT and tagging the person in your post? Which one is better?

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      I personally prefer the manual method of typing “RT” in front of the tweet you’re re-posting. That way, it’s visible to all your followers plus the author of the original tweet. Twitter’s RT function isn’t always visible in all Twitter third party clients. Thank you for your question. I hope that helps. :-)

      • http://about.me/sandmaxprime Lionel Faleiro

        To do a manual RT, if you are using Google Chrome then install the ‘ Retweet Old School’ Extension which will allow you to Retweet with Comments

  • http://twitter.com/ManInBlackNY Jason E.

    I’m grateful to those people who are more influential, that have retweeted my content and have helped me get more exposure as both of you have. So I’m a big believer in retweeting because I have a first hand experience in how it helped me. I will continue to do my best to help do the same for others. Thanks for writing this article, great points made!

    • http://twitter.com/mistygirlph Misty Belardo

      Thank you Jason for your feedback. We are so happy that you have found our article very helpful to you and hopefully to the people you have shared it to. It inspires us to know that we are sharing content that people enjoy and also learn from.

  • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

    Thank you Jason. We agree about retweeting. We have found that if you freely share great content from others, it helps everyone and lifts all boats, including your own.

  • http://twitter.com/MirrorDotMe mirror.me

    Good tips, and of course RTing is one of the highest forms of Twitter flattery.

    How does RTing affect your SEO, though? Links on Twitter are no follow, so RTs really only build links if websites have a Twitter stream running on them and you can get your RT to show up in that stream. I suppose the same would be true for websites that aggregate RTs, and if you get a lot of RTs, your SEO could go up. Still not sure how RTing someone else could impact your own SEO, though.

    I’m by no means an SEO expert, though, so I could certainly be mistaken :-)

    –Jenn at Mirror.me

    • http://twitter.com/mistygirlph Misty Belardo

      Hi Jenn, our experience is that reciprocity helps boost your online presence and visibility in search engines most specially if the tweet you rtd has become very popular.

  • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

    Thanks Jenn for your comment. As Misty mentioned, we have found some significant SEO value in retweets since Google does index tweets in their search results. While to results does not directly link back to your site or blog, it does indirectly through the tweet which usually contains a link back to the original article.

  • Lincoln

    Hi Marty and Misty,
    I’m new to twitter. Look forward to learning a lot from you. Many thanks for sharing your expertise and insight.
    Cheers!
    Lincoln

    • http://twitter.com/mistygirlph Misty Belardo

      Hi Lincoln. We are happy to meet you and connect here and on Twitter =)) Please feel free to ask us any questions regarding Twitter we are happy to help in anyway we can. Cheers!! =D

  • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

    Thank you so much Lincoln and welcome to Twitter!!

  • http://twitter.com/intel_chris Christopher F Clark

    As a self-admitted serial-retweeter, you can bet I’m going to RT the link to this article. To me one of the nicest things about RTg is that you can selectively share and promote a lot of good content which people couldn’t follow themselves. I try to be active in keeping safe on the internet and thus follow a lot of people in that area, more than any normal person would ever want to follow. Nearly every day I come upon notice of some scam or attack that people should be aware of, by retweeting those links, I make that information more public and often it gets picked up by one of my followers (often by ones who have more followers than I). And if I think it is specifically significant I will add an #alert or #scam hash tag to it to emphasize it. That way the key news does get amplified, and the other information which is of interest mainly to the more constrained circle doesn’t have to be waded through by everyone. By selectively retweeting the best (or most important) of what others have said, we make twitter the best place for sharing, and grow everyones neighborhood.

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Thank you Christopher. Great points about spreading good and important information through retweeting, especially alerts on scams or malicious attacks. Thank you for your perspective.

  • http://www.robertbcairns.com/ Rob Cairns

    It is all about engagement. The SEO will come but you need to engage and build relationships first. I agree credit should be given where it is due and I try to do that every day.

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Very true Rob. Thank you for your comment my friend!!

  • http://twitter.com/MaureenaHart Maureen Hartnett

    Regarding retweeting, is there a way you can just RT to the entire Twitter Universe? What if I want people who aren’t following me to notice that I’ve RTed something. That’s how I’ll get more followers. Let me know when you have a chance. Twitter: MaureenaHart or e-mail:

    Thanks!
    Maureen

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Thank you Maureen for your comment and question. First, I wouldn’t make gaining followers your primary goal. You will gain followers as a result of sharing good and relevant content of your own and sharing good and relevant content of others. I also recommend reading and commenting on other blogs offering topics you are interested in and establishing engagement and relationships with other content producers. Do that consistently and over and extended period of time and you will definitely gain followers. Not because of some numbers game but because you are sharing great content others are interested in reading and viewing.

      I hope that helps. Thank you again Maureen for taking the time to engage with us here. =))

  • http://twitter.com/MaureenaHart Maureen Hartnett

    PTLC-U161011-8NRA

  • http://twitter.com/susanborst susan borst

    Nice post! Thanks for sharing. I RT for most of the above reasons, and, of course, I appreciate when my posts are RT’d. A follow up post suggestion, if you have not done one already, is the protocol of thanking for a RT. I’ve read many opinions on this, but would love to hear your perspective. The one practice I don’t like in this regard is the “auto thanks to a list’ way of “thanking” for a RT (e.g.,lists titled: “my generous RTers”, “people who mention me”, etc.) In my book, that’s as bad as the dreaded auto DM!

    Thanks, again.

    • https://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

      Thank you Susan for your thoughtful comment and question. For me, I usually will handle thank you’s in one of two ways: thanking people by direct reply tweet or retweeting their content. I like the second method best since spreading good and relevant content is the essence of social media.

      I agree with you about auto thanks to a list. Not really a thank you is it? Thank you again Susan!! =))

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  • Twitte

    Twitte. twitte, twitte, twitte. Where is my corn!

    Uncle Barny

  • Jfelissaint

    This is a wonderful piece of information and i love it.Great job ,keep it up.

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  • Bobo

    i think this is doom as boap

  • Jmuhj

    I RT and CP posts that help save lives (I advocate for cats in shelters or elsewhere who need loving, forever homes) and that help those who care to become more involved and more caring. Saving precious lives — what better reason could there possibly be to retweet and crosspost?

  • http://www.lifealamode.com/blog Tabitha

    These are all good reasons but sometimes when the combo of retweeting and public replying becomes a little too much. Once is great but a whole conversation? That’s too much.

  • http://www.lifealamode.com/blog Tabitha

    Whoops, “Sometimes the combo of etc etc.” Pardon the grammar fail.

  • http://www.digett.com/ Amy

    I love getting retweeted, and I’m assuming that other people do as well. :) I also retweet stuff that I know my followers will find interesting or funny or meaningful.

  • http://twitter.com/hykos1045 kevin hykos

    In facebook if you like something, it gets categorized into a post that you and X number of other people “like.” In twitter however you have to see the same redundant post 100 times as it gets RT’d. Stupid.

  • Anonymous

    Love being RT’d! & I love to RT what others are saying!! BTW great article!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OWC66FWDF57KMWGAG5VDSEHWOI 23LoneStar

    Unquestionably one of the most self-indulgent, self-important crock of BS I have ever read. It’s like listening to aliens living in an alternate universe. Get a life people.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AIGMWIYBHKR2PKG4M3PLM5RSQA allah_speaking

    I think I just threw up in my mouth…