Intro:
In Twitter, ‘Retweet’ (or RT) is a method of re-posting (or) sharing other’s tweet you find interesting (whether it’s newsworthy, informative or even just really funny… basically anything) to your timeline or stream.
Image Credit
Twitter newbies may find this video clip useful (by ‘Twitter Help Center‘) to understand a little bit more about Twitter’s Retweet functionality.
Now, let’s turn our focus to the core of this blog post…
Tweet / Retweet Stats:
Recent Twitter analytics team’s stats chart shows us the staggering fact that Twitter users now send out more than 50 Millions tweets per day.
Image Credit: Twitter | Article
Out of these 50 Million tweets per day, only 3 to 5% (apx 2.5 Million) are likely to be retweets – Says this research paper done by Microsoft team (Danah Boyd & Co).
Facts/Stats aside, what drives (or motivates) you to retweet?
What will be your answer if someone asks the above question? You may reply instantly “I found the tweet / tweet link to the post interesting. So I retweeted it.” Not a big deal, isn’t it? But apart from this common fact behind retweeting, there exist plenty of things (and obviously not applicable to all). Let’s delve further!
First of all, as you see in the above mentioned stats – let me tell you ‘Retweeting’ (or RTing) is not a unanimously embraced practice on Twitter and those who do retweet are not essentially representative of all types of Twitter users. There are many unique catalysts for using Twitter and those who are using Twitter for “daily chatter” are less probable to be retweeting than those who are trying to enthrall in conversations or share information. However, among the group of people (3 to 5%) that do retweet, there are various drives for doing so.
11 Things That Drives You to Retweet in Twitter:
A non-meticulous list of retweeting drives (in which you could see yourself in one or more drives), loosely based on the Danah Boyd & Co’s research paper (mentioned above) – includes:
1. To augment or extend tweets to new audiences in the public timeline.
2. To captivate or update a specific audience, or as an act of curating/managing information in the timeline.
3. To comment/review/praise or even criticize on someone’s tweet by retweeting and adding new content, i.e. put in one’s two cents’ worth – generally to initiate a conversation.
4. To build one’s existence as a friend/follower (even would be) visible.
5. To openly consent / cut a deal with someone.
6. To authenticate others’ views.
7. As an act of friendship, dependability, or respect by evoking attention, sometimes via a retweet request either through Direct messages (DMs) or @ mentions.
8. To distinguish or turn over to less approved people or less visible content/trending topics – put them under the spotlight, for a change/good cause.
9. To one’s own advantage, either to get more followers or reciprocity/mutuality from more visible participants – by frequently retweeting theirs.
10. To put aside/favor (re)tweets for future and personal use.
11. To help as an efficient way to crowdsource information.
Conclusion:
While some merit retweeting, others may criticize it for users’ selfish motivations. Retweeting in Twitter can be both a fruitful communicable tool and an egocentric act of spotlight seekers (like driving visitors to your blog, promotional offers, affiliate links etc). I must confess that I’m able to balance both sides quite well (Communicating with my friends and driving visitors to my blog) and at least found myself on half of the retweet drives listed!
As of now, out of my 33000+ tweets , I did retweet about 80% and tweet about 20% (which might include 10% of links to my own blog posts). In return I got above 20000 retweets from my friends/followers, even anonymously. You may check my RT stats on Chirrps. Not bad for 18000 followers tweep, Right? So you may be wondering (after seeing my profile / timeline / stream, if you don’t know about me) I’m not communicating with my friends at all and all you see is – plenty of RTs sandwiched between my own tweets. And you may ask, “How are you balance both sides quite well (communicating / promoting) then?” Well, I do interact with my friends and reply to their queries through Direct Messages (DMs) frequently. Most of my close buddies know that. I’m doing this specifically to reduce the clutter in my timeline as I do Tweet / Retweet number of times in any given day.
To sum it up, unless you’re the mega celebrity, the way you (Re)Tweet / communicate is all that counts. As the ‘Golden Rule’ saying goes, ‘Treat others as you would like to be treated’ – Always (Re)Tweet others how you want to be (Re)tweeted.
Let us know “What really drives you to retweet? / Is this list include your drive(s)?” – in the comments section along with your precious feedbacks / critics.
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Great post A.R. Twitter is all about giving, in return your followers will help you out.
Great post, and it offers many varied views on why some of us tweet how we do! Thanks
I Like the way you took you time to put it simply.
There are different reasons why people RT, as you have rightly noticed.
In my own case, I RT what I find interesting. however I have re-positioned what I share now to include what my audience would find interesting. I took my time to monitor them and I am still monitoring them.
This post would help me with new tips I can try out. Most of all i like the fun of sharing and connecting.
Jesse Oguntimehin recently posted..How Failing Fast and Smart can GROW your Business
Thanks for dropping by Jesse. Glad you liked the reasons! To simply put, Twitter is a n’ way communication tool. The more you care to share, the better it’ll be for your influence. Cheers!