Retweeting

In our last Twittery article, we talked about how your business can benefit from being active on Twitter and gave you tools and tips to establish your Twitter presence.  Let’s explore another Twitter functionality that facilitates the exchange of information while broadening your business’ scope: Retweeting.

You Can Quote Me on That

Retweeting, or "RT" in tweetspeak, is simply a means of sharing an existing Tweet with followers.  Think of it as forwarding a quote you like to all of your followers.  It can be a powerful all-in-one marketing and networking tool in that it lets you share readily available information while keeping yourself visible as a contributor.

Breaking news or updates, original/funny quotes and resources are examples of some appropriate retweet candidates.   Short, catchy and singular items will grab their attention and merit forwarding, especially if they mesh with your interests or brand.

How to Retweet: (from Twitter)

1. Hover over a Tweet
2. Click the retweet link, highlighted below
3. The Tweet will then be "forwarded" to all of your followers

Most Twitter applications now have an automatic retweet button that inserts the "RT @ username" prefix, crediting the original author.

Keeping your tweets short and current also improves your odds of being retweeted yourself.  If you feel you’ve posted something of particular interest, you can ask followers to retweet by adding a “Please RT” or “Pls RT” to your tweet.

Hey Thanks!

Note that the originator will be notified of your retweet by message, and that the social media etiquette of reciprocity applies here as well.  Giving that approving nod boosts his visibility and in return increases your own chances of gaining followers and getting retweets of your own, therefore enhancing your presence.  There is some debate over the redundancy of responding to retweets but it can never hurt to be polite, especially in business relations, with a thanks.

Here are some ways to do just that:

• Become a follower of theirs (if you’re not already)
• Find some interesting content from their page to retweet
• Recommend them to your followers and/or add them to your Lists
• Post a link to their profile/blog/website
• Leave a comment on their blog/website

Avoid muddling your content and irritating followers by posting generic thank you tweets which will more often than not exclude them.  Including a link to the original content that was retweeted "@ username Thanks for the RT of http://link" will at least provide a context and information that may be relevant to your followers.

Tracking

Keeping track of retweets is easy by clicking the designated "Retweet" tab on your Twitter homepage where you can view items retweeted by you, others and your retweeted tweets.

Sites such as Retweetist posts the most retweeted messages and you can even pay for retweets through an exchange service like reTweet.it where users with a minimum of 50 followers can earn credits by retweeting other member’s links or buy retweets in bulk.

We hope we’ve given you new ideas on how to use another simple social media tool to further market the extent of your business presence on the social media scene.