Passing on Messages with the Retweet Function and Traditional Method
Mar 19, 2010Zoe Robinson
Twitter’s retweet function allows fun, amusing and important messages to be passed on quickly between groups of followers. However, the method behind it can be confusing to both newcomers and those who know how to tweet but are unfamiliar with other Twitter functions.
What is a Retweet?
Retweeting is, basically, copying what another Twitter user has written into a new tweet, so anyone following the new Twitterer will see the message. in order to avoid plagiarism, the original twitterer’s name is usually added to the start of the new tweet; along with a statement that the message is a retweet.
As with much of Twitter culture and etiquette, retweeting began as an informal process where Twitter users would simply copy and paste tweets they liked into their own twitter feed; usually preceded by a comment of their own and “RT @username”, where username is the name of the original messenger. “RT” is simply Twitter shorthand for “retweet”.
However, the coders at Twitter have developed a more streamlined system now that retweeting is fully supported by the Twitter website. this new system has not rendered the old style obsolete however, so it is still possible to retweet in the traditional style for those occasions where adding a comment to the message is needed.
How to Retweet from the Twitter website
Because there are now two versions of the retweet function, there are two ways to retweet from the Twitter website. the simplest way is to use the new, hard-coded retweet function developed by the Twitter coders. this will do all the retweeting with one click of the mouse.
When a user moves their mouse pointer over any tweet, the background will darken and two options will appear after the tweet, to the lower-right: reply and retweet. Clicking on the retweet option brings up a confirmation box and once “yes” is selected, the message is automatically retweeted.
The traditional method is slightly more long-winded. Here the user copies the text of the original tweet into the “what’s happening?” box at the top of the website and pastes it as if making a new tweet; then adds “RT” and the “@username” for the original Twitterer to the front of the message.
The message may need a little trimming to fit into the 140 word limit with this method but it does have the advantage that a new comment can be added along with the retweet, if desired. the new method requires comments be added in another tweet.
How to Retweet using TweetDeck
TweetDeck is one of the most popular applications to make Twitter more user-friendly but it handles retweets in a slightly different manner to the website. to retweet in TweetDeck, move the mouse over the picture beside the message to be retweeted. this will bring up the options menu for that tweet; which comes in the form of four symbols.
Click on the “right arrow” symbol (which is the one in the bottom-left) and TweetDeck will bring up two options: “Retweet now” and “Edit then retweet”. the “Retweet now” option is the same as using the new retweet function on the website: once clicked, it retweets the message and any comments will have to be made in a separate message.
The “Edit then retweet” option is the traditional method for retweeting messages. TweetDeck will place a copy of the tweet into the edit box, complete with “RT @username” already in place. the tweet can then be edited for length or added comments before being sent in the normal manner.
Although it can seem difficult at first, retweeting is a simple process that helps to streamline the information-sharing process on Twitter. the different methods have their advantages and disadvantages but with practice, the value of each method will become obvious very quickly.
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