Retweets, for those you who are unaware are when someone on twitter essentially forwards on a tweet (a twitter post) that you have tweeted onto their own followers. So I say “the next web rocks”, you may retweet “RT the next web rocks”.
Yesterday, as the Royal Pingdom blog highlights, the weight of these retweets became apparent as one of Pete Cashmore’s tweets sent a site LitmanLive to it’s knees.
Interestingly a site launched earlier this month devoted to tracking these retweets and it’s proved an interesting source for bloggers and avid link sharers alike. You can see a list of the most retweeted users here and check the number of your retweets here – Cashmore is rested firmly at the top.
This undoubtedly proves the weight behind a retweet, but we must also remember the value of the actual link title. For example, Cashmore’s tweet “How to use Twitter to find your next job” was clearly a winner because a) it was Twitter oriented and b) because lets face it, if there’s one thing people are looking for more than average, it’s a j o b.
This being so, Royal Pingdom are correct to wonder whether Twitter is on the brink of becoming a Digg or StumbleUpon in terms of traffic – I would say no. Why? Well, currently Twitter is a relatively short spike in traffic in comparison to sites like Digg. I believe it’s going to take a site like Retweetist, Twitturls, Twitterbuzz or Twitturly to earn “hit” status before we see the same levels of traffic.
What say you?
As a relative newcomer to Twitter, I appreciate a blog or two on some of the basics of Twitterology. RT = forward. Got it. Is it also the same as Reply? If there is a site that has Twitter abbreviations and a Twitter glossary on it, that would be awesome. Hashtags #, for example, have me a little stumped, but I’ll get there. It makes sense that RTs would contribute to the success of someone’s original Tweet which makes it that much more valuable to tweet something worthwhile in the first place. Thanks for a good article and good links!
@NatalieFriton
I totally agree that the reason Pete’s post was so popular was down to his choice of subject. The real beauty of twitter is just how easy it to get the link spread among followers.
For example I use tweetdeck, and all it takes is one click and I can retweet the link to my followers, and if they do exactly the same then it’s no wonder the original poster gets a traffic spike.
For reference I found this post via retweetist, so congratulations on your own retweet success.
Andrew
Owkej, that’s it!
When I first started using twitter, there were a lot of fun twitter tools coming up.
It hasn’t stopped since.
But lately, all the links are to: “hey check out that blogpost on how to get more followers!” or “retweet people so your twitter reputation gets higher”.
“You can see a list of the most retweeted users here”.. what about them… I follow people that I like, and if they retweet or @ people a lot, I might check them out, and follow, but I will not follow people just because they are high rated twitter users..
you are very true, retweet produce real results :)
Also rated your post