Twitter has recently launched a new retweet functionality intended to solve tweet attribution confusion, the repetitive nature of retweets, and messy editing of the original tweet. Since the functionality is still in BETA, not everyone has access to this feature yet. But Twitter is gradually rolling out the feature, so you should see this soon.
How the New Retweets Work
You can now retweet with a single click; just click “retweet” below someone else’s tweet:
Twitter then makes sure that you actually want to retweet this tweet:
After clicking “yes,” you will appear below the tweet you’ve retweeted, along with whoever else has retweeted this tweet. There’s also the option to undo the retweet:
The original tweet will then appear in your own Twitter stream, attributed to the person you retweeted:
When the people you follow retweet others using this new functionality, the users they retweet will start appearing in your Twitter stream. So instead of seeing the person you follow tweeting “RT @JohnSmith blah blah blah ,” you’ll see John Smith in your twitter stream with his original tweet. Under the tweet, you’ll be able to see which person you follow has retweeted his tweet:
There’s also a new item in the right-navigation, where you can see all retweets. You can now see retweets by everyone, retweets by you, and your tweets that have been retweeted.
The Pros of the New Retweets
There are several benefits of this new retweet functionality:
- Cleaner retweets – When retweeted by person A and then re-retweeted by person B, it’s no longer confusing who wrote the original tweet
- The retweet page – It’s nice to be able to see retweets alone, including which of your tweets have been retweeted, and to refer back to your old retweets
- Less confusion for newbies – Many people have been turned off by the twitter lingo: “What on earth is a RT @???”
- Others can’t edit you – Ever crafted the perfect tweet, only to have it torn apart when someone else “retweets” you? Now your original tweet will survive.
The Cons of the New Retweets
However, there are also reasons you might not want to use this new feature:
- Links may be cut off – Only users logged into the Twitter website can see the new retweet format. If the tweet would have exceeded 140 characters including the RT @username, this will cut off the end of the tweet for users without BETA, users with a desktop platform like Tweetdeck, and logged out Twitter users.Since URLs are usually at the end of a tweet, this will make the URL non-functional.
- Lack of commentary – Even if you don’t want to modify the original tweet, now the ability to comment before the RT @whoever is gone
- You can’t edit tweets – Even the most awesome tweets can have typos, and now you won’t be able to fix them before retweeting.
- Less visibility in others’ Twitter streams – Retweeting others doesn’t seem to have the same appeal now that your name and icon don’t appear as prominently
- Others can’t retweet your tweet – If one of your followers wants to retweet your retweet, now there’s no way you can get credit for finding the tweet first; your follower will be directly retweeting the original tweet.
If the cons outweigh the pros for you, you don’t have to use this new functionality at all; you can continue using retweets the way you used to (RT @). However, you won’t be able to turn off the feature where you see people you do not follow in your twitter stream.
What do you think of the new retweet feature? Will you use it, or will you stick with the old method of "RT @"? Let me know in the comments!
I originally wrote this post for my company Overdrive Interactive’s blog. Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that specializes in online media, social media, and search engine marketing campaigns and services.
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{ 10 comments }
I like the Retweet function and you Have gave a Good description on it.thanks for Sharing BTW I will Reteet this
Thanks!
Well, I must say I'm not a fan of the new retweet thing. The visibility being the biggest issue, I want to retweet something and have it be trusted by my followers. That's it, I'll continue using the old method. Great explanation by the way.
Well, I must say I'm not a fan of the new retweet thing. The visibility being the biggest issue, I want to retweet something and have it be trusted by my followers. That's it, I'll continue using the old method. Great explanation by the way.
I agree. Seeing someone unfamiliar in your Twitter stream might be confusing, and it isn't obvious that you are the one who retweeted it.
Yeah, the biggest downside for the heavy users. By the way, sorry for the double comment, Disqus is new to me.
A short answer to your question is that Replies are responses to what someone else has written on Twitter wheras ReTweets are when you want to share what someone else has written with others so you copy and paste it as a Tweet update.
A short answer to your question is that Replies are responses to what someone else has written on Twitter wheras ReTweets are when you want to share what someone else has written with others so you copy and paste it as a Tweet update.
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