Be a Twitter Ninja: Understanding Retweets

Image: mfinleydesigns

ONE OF THE best ways to move information around Twitter by “retweeting.” Retweeting allows you to echo the tweet of another user, plucking the message from their home feed and sending it out to their followers.

Retweets are sweet. But retweets are also sloppy and cumbersome.

OLD RETWEETS

Since times unremembered, retweeting has been a laborious, manual task. One has to copy and paste a tweet and add the “RT” and “@username” attributes. Because of the 140 character limit for each tweet, retweeting content can mean editing the original tweeters text so you can include “RT” and “@username”. Retweeting took time if you weren’t using a RT button, and follower overlap can lead to scores of redundant RT’s in your home feed.

NEW RETWEETS

In the spirit of progress, Twitter revealed a completely new retweet system to make for easier, cleaner RT’s.

RT’s now have their own special icon and come straight from the original tweeter’s feed. This makes retweeting as easy as a mouse click, no more “RT” or “@username” required. Each tweet has a RT icon to the right of the reply button. Whats more, the new Retweet feature groups together identical RT’s, so if many of us RT the same tweet it doesn’t show up a million times but rather has a list of who retweeted the post.

HOW IT WORKS

Now, if you mouse over a tweet a “Retweet” button will appear next to the “Reply” button. To retweet the tweet, all you have to do is click on the link and then click update. Then the tweet you just RT’d will post in the timelines of your followers, whether they follow the original tweeter or not.

In your right hand nav bar there is also a “Retweet” link that opens page with 3 tabs: Retweets by Others, Retweets by You and Your tweets, retweeted. This new feature easy allows you scan all the RT’s from your followers, check your own RT’s and see who retweeted your tweets.

OK Twitter ninjas, get out there and RT all your favorite Matador tweets!

For more Matador / Twitter love check out:
Be a Twitter Ninja: Twitter Lists
20 Interesting Expats To Follow On Twitter
Twelve #Travel Tweeps Twittering

For more