I joined Twitter on my 28th birthday – that is on May, 14, 2008 – but unfortunately, or fortunately, I fully adopted it just 6 months back… now don’t ask me where I went all those months! Let me come straight to the point. If you are a regular Twitter user then you must know what are re-tweets or RT. Simply put, it is your shout which is heard by those who follow you and they shout it out in turn and hence, it spreads to a wider audience.
This article is a summary of my six-months’ experience on Twitter and an understanding of the concept of RT. I answered Simple What, Why, Who and How of Re-tweets
Who will RT your tweets?
To answer this question, I analyzed my own tweets, my Twitter followers and those whom I am following. It is noticed that generally there are 3 types of Twitter users who might re-tweet (RT) your tweets.
- Your friends: You need supporters all over your social media circle.
- Your friends’ friends: Your friends should have a trustworthy image among their own circle.
- Those who are concerned with your tweets: If you’re a guitarist and you tweet everything about guitars then expect other guitarists to re-tweet your tweets.
Why someone will RT your tweets?
Now that’s an important question. Why do you think that your tweet deserves to be re-tweeted? I got the answer from my own experience. RTing a particular tweet is quite possible if:
- It is breaking news: People of Iran tweeted about the latest political turmoil in their country straight from its place of origin. This was breaking news for even the world media.
- It has rich, authentic and resourceful information: If you think that people just re-tweet without reading the whole story then it’s a myth. So post something meaningful and useful.
- It has a short, creative and catchy presentation: Long tweets cannot be re-tweeted easily. So use short sentences but make them attractive and catchy. After all, appearances matter a lot.
- If you re-tweet others’ tweets quite often: You very well know the policy of give and take.
How to get your tweets re-tweeted?
That’s not as easy as it may sound. You need to prove your credibility, importance and friendliness with your Twitter followers to get more out of it. To get your tweets re-tweeted you should
- Tweet often with best and useful content you can find on the web: Show your presence and be valuable to others.
- Be quick while selecting content to post on Twitter: Grab the latest and hottest article as soon as it is published. Nobody wants an old story told over and over again.
- Re-tweet others’ tweets and always thank those who re-tweeted your tweets: I mentioned this before.
- Use Google alerts, alltop.com, digg.com and other sites to get good contents: These are a solution to Point #2.
What to do when no one is re-tweeting your tweets?
It happens to everyone except @Mashable, @ChrisBrogan, @Problogger and @KimKardashian. So, no worries. Remember:
- Don’t say ‘please RT’: It looks despicable because if your tweet deserves to be re-tweeted it can get more than 100 plus RTs without requesting.
- Keep tweeting good content: Don’t stop tweeting, keep on serving your audiences. You tweet because you love to learn and share your knowledge with others.
- Say Hi and Hello: While waiting for others, you take the initiative and start a conversation.
- Think and analyze what went wrong: It’s obvious that you cannot clap with one hand, so check what’s wrong with the other hand.
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