my twitter: twitter in business, using twitter to grow your business

How to Retweet

// June 11th, 2009 // Twitter Tools

Retweeting someone else’s post is the highest form of endorsement on Twitter. It also helps share good information with the Twitter community.

If you are smart- you will retweet other people good posts. As ideally you want your own good content to be retweeted as much as possible to get your messages out there.

It’s important to know how to do this properly as a form of “Twitiquette” (Twitter Etiquette) especially when you’re new to Twitter.

Here’s how retweet works…

Let’s say someone makes a great tweet:

@joebloggs: The highest form of compliment on Twitter is the retweet.

If you think that someone’s tweet is so interesting and remarkable, you might retweet it to share it with others.

You would start with RT (retweet) then @ followed by the name of the original tweeter, such as:

RT @joebloggs The highest form of compliment on Twitter is the retweet.

If you don’t put RT before the @name, you will only reply to the named person, and it’s likely that only they will see your message.

Sometimes, creating your own “Retweet” can be more personal than putting a RT in the front. For example:

Check out @joebloggs site – he’s at it again – http://tinyurl.example

Then, assuming someone else sees the retweet and wishes to pass it further, they would slap another @name into the retweet chain like so.

RT @janesmith @joebloggs The highest form of compliment on Twitter is the retweet.

Since a retweet is a form of approval, it is common courtesy to thank someone who retweets you. They are advertising you and your work for free and that should be appreciated.

If you have something you would like to spread the word about using “Please retweet me” seems to be very effective!