bobology newsletter: What's a Retweet?
Retweets: An Introduction
People can often find themselves in the situation of being new to Twitter (people join every day) and quickly become stuck, not knowing quite what to do with their account now that they have it. For instance, you may have mastered how to send out a tweet of 140 characters, and how to check your @replies, but then you get a message telling you someone has “retweeted” one of your tweets. What does it mean? Is that a good thing? Actually, glad you asked. This article is going to focus on the subject of retweets; what they are, how to use them, and why we use them.
What is a Retweet?
Well, basically, if someone finds one of your tweets interesting, funny, or compelling enough, then he or she may wish to republish it to her own followers. That's literally what a retweet is. In the old days, a retweet was done by putting 'RT' in front of the person's tweet, along with his @name.
Example: RT @JohnSmith: I'm finding it difficult to understand this whole ‘retweet' thing.
Nowadays, Twitter also has a handy retweet button, which you can see at the bottom of every tweet, and always works unless that specific person's account is protected - meaning that person has to approve followers. In such a case, only his followers are able to see the person's tweets.
Why Retweet?
The retweet button is an easy way to share information with your followers. If you see something that is particularly funny, interesting, or insightful, you may consider it worth repeating to your own followers.
In the same vein, you can build up your own popularity and follower count by getting others to retweet you. After all, Twitter is basically you having a conversation with yourself and hoping others will join in, and they do, on a regular basis. A good way to interact with your followers is to tweet regular, funny, informative or interactive tweets, and hope people find them good enough to retweet to their own followers, therefore instantly increasing your own reach. This will help you gain more followers who are interested in you and the topics you choose to tweet about.
How to Get More Retweets
Engage with your audience regularly, and try to come up with the best, most original tweets you can. You may also ask your followers for a retweet, but bear in mind, they are more inclined to oblige if you ask nicely.
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