«
»

My Observations on Your RTs

There are many people who will write blogs about how to get your tweets retweeted or how to form relationships with people using RTs. I think that information is all well and good, but I’ve  learned some lessons by taking a deeper look at what I retweet and what others retweet from me. Here, I’ve listed the five observations I’ve made how the way you RT can really be improved. to form better relationships with your followers and those you retweet.

1. Too many people RT without reading.
I am one of those crazy people who keeps track of my statistics. I pay a lot of attention to the RTs and clicks that I get and I’ve noticed that many people RT without ever clicking on the attached articles. How do you know that you want to RT it simply by looking at the title? All too often, I’ve clicked on what I thought was going to be an awesome blog only to find that it was boring, unintelligent or simply offensive.

2. Too many people RT without considering their audience.
Once you’ve read a tweet thoroughly, you need to determine whether your audience would appreciate reading it. If you are followed by event planners, consider whether they would care about reading an article on rugby. While mixing these tweets in once in a while is okay, you need to make sure that your tweets are interesting to your followers so that they stay engaged and see what you are passionate about.

3. Too many people RT without making a comment.
If you’ve read a blog and you want to share it with your friends, please let them know WHY you think it’s important. A simple “Great info” is fine. Or, take a one step futher and say “Love the 2nd point they make”. Call attention to what you like/dislike about your tweets so it grabs attention.

4. Too many people RT with too many hashtags.
Hashtags are great in that they gather communities. However, I always suggest that you take a look at how often a hashtag has been associated with that tweet. For example, I’ve noticed that people will RT the same (great) article many, many times keeping all the hashtags. If you were to look at the stream for that hashtag, you will see that the other great information is being drowned out by an overload of the same tweet. If your information has already been shared with the community recently, consider RTing without the tag so that just your followers see it.

5. Too many people RT without acknowledging the author.
This is the cardinal sin of RTing. It’s like plagiarising. It really is that serious. If someone has taken the time to write a blog and you know their Twitter handle, it’s only right that you acknowledge them. Sure, you aren’t “claiming the work as your own” but you are removing the content from the writer in a way that does not respect their work.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Liz

Liz King is a social media-integrated event planner and award winning blogger. As the owner of Liz King Events, she runs an innovative firm that creates dynamic branding events integrating the use of social media. Planning events from soup to nuts, she works with her team to create and sustain your event brand and enhance attendee engagement. Liz is also a co-founder of the Event Technology Showcase PlannerTech. As the owner of Liz King Events, she has been featured as a speaker at the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, National Association of Colleges and Employers, ExpoWest/Supply Expo and several other events as an expert on the topic of social media and events. She has also been featured in Connect Meetings Intelligence and Convene Magazine, among others.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

Related posts:

Tags: , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 10:53 am and is filed under Event Professionals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://www.planetplanit.biz Paul Cook

    Hi Liz – Another very insightful post. I think the other skill (that is difficult sometimes) is to allow enough room for the tweet to be re tweeted. This is one of my challenges in being able to make comments as per your point 3. I think we all have to be even better at being more concise.

  • http://www.twitter.com/theexpogroup Dana Freker Doody

    I agree, especially with No. 1. I appreciate the use of the judicious RT. Also, in considering your audience, think about how much cross-over there is with people who already have tweeted or RT’d the info. EIR is great, but why RT if your followers have already seen the info?

    • http://www.lizkingevents.com Liz

      That’s a great point, Dana. Especially in smaller communities, the same information is being passed around over and over in the same small period of time. Instead, perhaps we can save the article and retweet it at a later time to catch a different audience or remind people of a great tweet.

  • http://www.imprintedoriginals.com Deborah Elms

    #4 is key in keeping things interesting and getting information “spread out” vs repeated. My goal is often to “mix up” the #hashtags, to cross-polinate between different types of followers and hashtags groups.

  • http://www.tradeshowinsight.com Eric Lukazewski

    Great post Liz. I’ll admit that I’ve been guilty of a couple of these, but have realized that there are no shortcuts when it comes to RTing and SM in general. When you decide not to read an article or are simply skimming through the content, you’re simply damaging your own process of learning and possibly your reputation. If you RT content, though you aren’t the original author, you’re standing by its value to your own followers.

  • Dana Freker Doody

    How do you feel about the RT of someone who RTd you? Or who RTd your partner, client or company account? Makes me uneasy if the purpose is clearly to brag.

    • http://www.lizkingevents.com Liz

      Dana – Thanks for your comment. Can you clarify what you mean by bragging? Are you talking about people who just RT to make their account look “busy”?

  • http://www.backdropsbeautiful.com Jose Ramirez

    Great outline Liz on the rules of RTs. I think it is important to consider your audience and be aware of when a posting has been RT within the community. The question is how do we avoid this from happening with scheduled RTs?

    • http://www.lizkingevents.com Liz

      Do people really schedule RTs? I guess they must! It is hard, but I guess the best we can do is try to watch out for it~ Thanks for the comment, Jose!

  • Anne

    You have made some excellent points as usual Liz but I think you’re missing one point. “Too many people RT without reading” There is a good explanation for why this sometimes happens. We all live busy lives and have very busy days. Sometimes, when we pop onto Twitter, there is an aritcle that looks interesting but we don’t have the time to read it. Since Twitter moves so fast, one of the best ways to “bookmark” the article is to re-tweet it. Especially if the article was tweeted by someone who has great content, you can return later on when you have more time and read it when you’re not rushed. If you don’t take the time to re-tweet it, when you return, it may be impossible to find the tweet. It’s happened to me many times. So, I wil retweet when I am busy and then if something doesn’t end up being as good as I thought it would be, I delete it. I suspect that others do the same thing.

    • http://www.lizkingevents.com Liz

      Anne – I think you have touched on something important here which is that there are no “rules” for social media tools. There are only guidelines and preferences. I agree that there certainly are people out there who you can RT and read later because they always deliver high quality material. The way I do it is to favorite those tweets that look interesting so I can go back and read them when I have time. This works for me as a way to quality control. Thanks for your comment!

  • http://twitter.com/GreenA_V Midori Connolly

    Interesting – #5 – I wouldn’t think it’s a foul for someone to tweet my blog post without using my twitter ID. You’re still driving traffic to my blog and I will see the results…it could even be strategic if someone had any preconceived opinions on the work of a certain person :)
    Plus, as with syndication, it’s more than likely that we’ll frequently tweet someone’s work without reading it (ie Triberr). Mostly it means that we trust that the work of a certain blogger/writer will be of interest to our followers.
    Midori

    • http://www.lizkingevents.com Liz King

      Hey Midori – Thanks for sharing. I think you’re definitely right that not all authors mind not being credited via Twitter when their work is being shared. I think it just makes it easier to ensure that people know where the articles come from. I know I’m often thanked for writing an article that I didn’t even write – just shared via sm. But, ultimately there’s only so much we can do! I also think you’re right about the rare cases (which are becoming less rare) where people syndicate the work of those they really trust. I definitely think this is fine as long as it’s used carefully!

      Thanks again for sharing! You always are right on the money!!