Retweets: Official Vs Old School

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cliff Ravenscraft @GSPN on August 9, 2012 at 2:57pm

I'm with you Erik, I prefer the old "Quoted RTs"  This way, when I see the RT in my timeline, I see that it is coming from you.  It carries more weight from me.   

When someone uses the Official Retweet, I read something and see a photo of someone I don't remember ever following.  Then I see that it is a retweet from someone I do follow.

About 9 out of 10 times, I click on the person's user ID and I choose to "DISABLE RETWEETS."

You mentioned that you will sometimes do an "official retweet" if it's the only way to get the full message without running out of characters.  There are FEW PEOPLE who I would allow to continue to put other people in my timeline with an official retweet.  You are one of those few people.

For me, I remember the original question Twitter used to ask... "What are you doing?"   And well... I feel in love with Twitter for that reason.  Originally, I had little concern about what great blog post or news story you just read and are linking back to.  I really did want to know what you were eating for lunch, what movie you were seeing, or what was simply on YOUR MIND.

While Twitter has changed a lot.  I still "FOLLOW PEOPLE" because I want to FOLLOW THEM.  To know more about them.  To get a bigger picture of who they are.

When someone does more than two or three retweets in a single day, consistently, day after day, well.... It's just not why I chose to follow that person.

Just so thankful that Twitter gave us the option to turn those annoying things off.  

Here's the thing.  Because the option is there..   At least I know that I'm not the only person who feels this way. :)

Permalink Reply by Crissy Maier on August 9, 2012 at 4:47pm

I do prefer quoted retweets.  BUT, Twitter makes is SIGNIFICANTLY easier to do an official retweet then to do it old school.  Some apps makes it easier to do it old school, like hootsuite but I find that half the time the original tweet is too long and has to be officially retweeted anyway. 

I've also noticed that some communities use the old school method primarily, while others primarily use the official retweet function.  Also, newer tweeters I suspect are more likely to use the official retweet, being unfamiliar with the old school method and the ease of the official retweet.

While It used to bother me a bit, I've decided to get over it and worry about something more important.

Permalink Reply by Cliff Ravenscraft @GSPN on August 9, 2012 at 5:02pm

More important?  What could possibly be more important than this?  LOL ;)

Permalink Reply by Erik Fisher @ErikJFisher on August 9, 2012 at 6:59pm

This IS the most important thing ever!

I hadn't actually thought of the fact that there are people out there who may not have ever known there was an old school RT function. In my day, we retweeted people the old fashioned way... and that's the way we liked it! Get off my Facebook wall lawn! :)

Permalink Reply by James Dibben on August 9, 2012 at 5:59pm

is reading gspn community and having an iced coffee.

Was that a good status?

I haven't been using twitter any where near as long as you too. The hootsuite type RT is all I've ever known. I didn't use Twitter before this new RT you guys are talking about.

I don't like the Twitter RT at all. It's too hard to keep track of. I have to get an email to find out.

Getting RTs of blog posts is what I'm used to getting from Twitter. I probably share 2-3 blog posts per day and then do 2-5 statuses as well.

Seems to work okay.

Permalink Reply by Cliff Ravenscraft @GSPN on August 12, 2012 at 5:03pm

Yes, James.. That's a great status update.  :)

Permalink Reply by Daniel J. Lewis on August 13, 2012 at 11:31am

Facebook dropped third-person status updates a long time ago, and Twitter never supported it. You can just say "I am …" instead of "is …."

Permalink Reply by Kim E. Landwehr on August 10, 2012 at 10:51am

I prefer the old tweet method, because i often want to add why I am retweeting something.  However I will use the new style some times if I see something I think is interesting but either I am not sure why or I can't explain it in less than 140 characters. 

Permalink Reply by Samuel Lewis @labtec7 on August 10, 2012 at 8:41pm

It depends on what the tweet is for me..if I have something to add to the tweet then I use the old style but if I just want to agree with it by sending it along then its the new style..the points on here however make me consider a few things..

Permalink Reply by Daniel J. Lewis on August 13, 2012 at 11:43am

I think this needs some clarification.

Traditional retweet: RT @theRamenNoodle: Good morning! [from @ErikJFisher]

New, official retweet: Good morning! [@theRamenNoodle, RT by @ErikJFisher]

Quote tweet: "@theRamenNoodle: Good morning!"

Of these, I hate "quoted tweets" the most because they're poor writing style (including the username and colon in the quotation), look like a reply, and they can contribute to comment confusion (where you place the comment and whose comment it is if your quoted tweet is retweeted or quoted).

I agree with Cliff's dislike of the official retweet. If something is too long for me to retweet, I either edit without losing meaning (with abbreviations, replacing triple-periods will elipses, omitting unnecessary parts with elipses, etc.), or I just won't retweet. Or if it's a link to something, I'll write my own compelling tweet, include the link, and then add "via @ErikJFisher" to the end.

And with traditional retweets, the comment should go before the tweet, or else this will cause comment confusion. For example:

[from @GSPN] RT @labtec7: @ErikJFisher: RT @theRamenNoodle: Good morning! // Yes, it is!

With the comment at the end, whose is it? Part of my original tweet? Added by Erik, Samual, or Cliff?

Instead, this comment is clear who made it:

[from @GSPN] LOL RT @labtec7: +1 @ErikJFisher: Yes, it is! RT @theRamenNoodle: Good morning!

Although this must be read backwards, it's now obvious that I said, "Good Morning!"; Erik said, "Yes, it is!"; Samual said, "+1"; and Cliff said, "LOL."

Permalink Reply by Cliff Ravenscraft @GSPN on August 13, 2012 at 12:15pm

Yep! What you just said. :)

Permalink Reply by Erik Fisher @ErikJFisher on August 13, 2012 at 12:31pm

Very good assessment via @TheRamenNoodle. :) 

I had meant to come back in here and mention the quote tweet method as well. 

Yes, sometimes reading tweets can be like playing Jeopardy! because you get the answer first, and the question or statement second. Part of why I love/hate Twitter is the fact that there are no rules, and there is no wrong way, other than SPAM. The problem comes in when different people have different definitions of what they consider to be spam, or pet peeves regarding practices on Twitter or other Social Networks for that matter. 

BTW, Daniel, have you seen the Forum Name Change work around that gives you a Twitter mention when you get a response on here? See here: http://gspncommunity.com/group/socialmedia/forum/topics/testing-som...

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page