One of the ways to be of value to people who follow you on Twitter is to Tweet interesting things: cool apps, new plug-ins, interesting facts, helpful blog posts. However, it takes time to always be finding interesting information.
One way to ensure you have a ready supply of interesting material to pass along to your followers is to retweet.
What’s a retweet? It’s when someone you follow says something interesting so you pass it along to your followers by putting an “RT” in front of their Tweet and sending it out.
Occasionally there are people who will just take the interesting information, copy it and send it out as an original Tweet of their own. However, this is not done in the Twitterverse. Here’s four reasons why you should always attribute retweets:
It’s rude not to.
Basically, if you copy someone’s Tweet and resend it without acknowledging where it came from, you’re guilty of plagiarism. Now it’s unlikely that the copyright police are going to hunt you down for the infraction, but if the reason you’re on social media is to get people to know, like, and trust you, then don’t you think you should be trustworthy?
It adds to your credibility.
Seriously. By showing your followers that you get your interesting tidbits from a variety of trusted and smart sources, it makes you look trusted and smart by association. Plus, it shows you’re not just making stuff up.
Builds Relationships
People love to be acknowledged. When you retweet, you’re telling the world (or at least your part of it) that this person has something to say that’s of value. And most of them will notice; I do. And people with good Twitter etiquette will send you an @reply thanking you for the retweet. Sounds like the beginning of a conversation to me.
Increases your chances of getting retweeted
If “what goes around comes around” then it is even more truer on Twitter. If you spread the word for others, they’re more likely to spread yours in the form of a retweet (assuming you’re interesting of course).
Why should you care? Retweets help you gain a targeted following.
How does it work? Say my friend Joe retweets something interesting of yours. If I liked what you said I will probably visit your Twitter page to see what else you have to say. If the other Tweets are interesting, I’ll start following you. I may visit your website. Then who knows?
So, don’t just send stuff out to your followers. Read what they have to say and share the love. That’s part of the power of Twitter.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Join me tomorrow when I show you how to retweet, what not to retweet and other options for sharing information from others.
