Have you ever been in a conversation and you find yourself nodding your head to feign understanding, when you do not have a clue! I have found many a social media expert and native, yes Millennials included, that do the same thing! They are not posers, however, they just do not have the breadth and depth of the how-to!
It’s important to master the basics of something like Twitter, since it’s one of the key pistons in the social media messaging engine. Specifically, there are four key reasons why retweeting is important. They all focus on increasing the reach of your messaging and social media brand by increasing followers, promoting relevant content and helping to build authentic relationships with followers and content creators!
The most important advice I can give you is to avoid clicking on the oh-so-convenient retweet (RT) icon. Passing that will help build your brand and add value to your messaging strategy. In fact, 15% of your content strategy should be retweets (that’s what we do for our content marketing strategy at SAP).
Recent HubSpot research tells us:
- There is no significant link between the number of retweets and the number of clickthroughs
- 14.6% of retweeted tweets had 0 clicks
- Tweets that contained the word ‘retweet’ were retweeted more frequently but clicked on less often
- Tweets containing the @ symbol were retweeted less frequently but clicked more often
- Tweets including the words ‘please retweet’ are likely to be retweeted four times more than those that do not include that phrase
Your retweeting strategy needs to focus on adding your incremental value to the tweet. You just don’t want to be a “passer-alonger”. Rather, you want to put your curated spin on what you perceive to be relevant and valued content! This is important since it builds your brand and shows your followers and readers that you have a point of view and are not a parrot of sorts.
Like many things that are successful, the old-school approach to things always take a little more time, however, pay out in spades … but in this case Retweets!
So, quit talking about yourself and start manually amplifying the conversations of others! Here are five ways to get the most from your RTs:
8 Steps To Go Old School With Your Retweets
1. Avoid Clicking On The RT Icon! As Meatloaf’s romantic pursuit said in Paradise By The Dashboard Light … “stop right there!” You want your RTs to work as hard as possible and that RT icon does not give you the flexibility to customize your message! There is a reason that many tweeters do not use the entire 140-character limit … so you can retweet by adding your twist, which is why you have followers anyway, right?
2. Cut & Paste The Entire Tweet That You Want To Retweet. In one swift motion, capture the entire content of your retweetable tweet and copy it! This action works whether you are in Twitter or in another client like Hootsuite or TweetDeck!
3. Click On (Blue Icon With The Quill) Compose A New Tweet Button. With your retweetable tweet copied, click on your compose button to commence with the tweeting!
4. Eliminate Extraneous Name. First, delete the user name, while maintaining the Twitter handle of the tweeter. After all, this IS the key to retweeting vs. “stealing” … paying twomage (twitter homage) to the content’s author.
5. Add RT In Front Of Tweet. Now, the standard “RT” is inserted in front of the tweet. Using this formatting will let the author know that he or she has been retweeted vs. just being “mentioned”. Both actions basically give author acknowledgment and position you as a “good tweeter”.
6. Edit Extra Characters And Words From Tweet. You always want to be setting up the next “move” with your tweets to allow others to retweet with their own message. I see this activity all of the time with my tweets from MarketingThink.com generating retweets from retweets. Make sure you provide this extra room!
7. Make Sure Link Still Works! There is not bigger downer than a link that does not work. It puts two strikes against you! First, you obviously did not read what you are retweeting, which makes you a poser. Secondly, you are wasting your readers time and will likely never get clicked on again!
8. Add In Your Messaging And Keep Overall Message To 120 Characters Or Less. Now, make this message your own by adding in your insight. Me, I love to see “Great ideas” in front of my tweets. However, you may want to share how this applies to your experience or anything else that is relevant to your followers!
If you have some success stories to share on retweeting, please do by adding a comment to this blog, reaching out to me directly or tweeting me at @GerryMoran .
Please take my advice and don’t take the easy way out with retweeting by just being an echo chamber. Add your two cents and point of view, since that is why others are following you!