What is a RT (retweet)

Retweeting is a way to expand the reach of a thought, link or idea. If someone with a network of 20 tweets about something brilliant, I can retweet it to my own network of thousands and help get their idea heard. The intent is to save the retweets for the truly valuable, humorous or newsworthy items, and not for things like Magpie advertising links and the like.

You know you are seeing something being retweeted when you see RT (conventional abbreviation) at the beginning of the tweet. The reason the RT is at the beginning is both to clearly indicate up front that the idea is not original and to escape the cage of the @ reply. By prefacing an @username with an RT (or any other character, for what it’s worth), you allow your network to see it whether they follow that person or not. If you start your RT with the @username only those who already follow the person can see it, defeating the purpose.

As with anything, when an idea is working perfectly well as it is, people feel the need to mess with it and “make it their own” or “become a thought leader in their space” or whatever horse nugget reason is currently being brandished. To that end we now have a variety of ways to introduce a retweet in addition to the simple, and short, RT. You will also see tweets with the word “via”, “from”, “auth” etc in them. These are all fine, and also indicate who the originator of the idea was. They just waste more characters doing so.

RT Etiquette

There are a few traditions around the art of the RT. Mainly these are intended to give the author credit in a clear way, and to keep the content of the RT in its original context. The first and foremost of these traditions is to always keep the original author username in. Often, you’ll get a RT that has been passed on several times. Some people may want to get “kudos” from whatever “big name” tweeter who is part of the RT chain by leaving their name in instead of the originator. Not cool! If you find that you have to delete @usernames to make room, the one who said the original tweet is always the one you leave in.

Shortening a RT is often required. If you learn to tweet in 120 character nuggets, you are easier to RT, but often a thought is more comfortable when it takes up more space. To that end, people who RT you may have to do some abbreviating. When in doubt, always keep the context! Do not abbreviate a RT in such a way that it supports your view as opposed to the author’s. Not cool! Some suggested abbreviations: using the number 8 for the “ate” sound in a word; using TwitterKeys pictures in place of some words; using U (you), B (be), 4 (for), 2 (to, too, two) and other text message abbreviations in place of some words; using contractions where possible (and removing the ‘ if needed), etc.

A question I get often is “what is a ratio of RT to tweets”. My answer there is that your stream should feel engaging and conversational if possible – if it is a wall of RTs it looks like you never have an original thought in your head. Space them out a bit.

RT Problems

Recently, the popularity of Twitter has led to some interesting RT issues. A few to look out for:

The tendency for spammers and fake conference throwers and other nefarious characters to RT a fake RT as if it came from a “thought leader” or someone they think is an influencer for some reason, when in fact the person never said that at all. So far this has happened to me twice, to Chris Brogan a few times, and to a handful of others. This is done to give false validity to their site, which usually is selling something. Think about it – if you see one of these and know our usual tweet style, you’ll know if the person would have actually said that or not. Most of us watch for these and try to reply with an “oh I don’t THINK so” of some kind when we can as well, so watch for those also. Chris is the only one I know of who got a RT that he’d be a speaker at a conference before he even knew the conference existed.

RT spam. I hate this one. I have actually fallen for it once now in spite of all my time on Twitter because I’m so darn busy. What happens with this is a link will be prefaced with something in front of it that sounds like breaking news, and get picked up by someone in your stream. If you are like me, you have a small, small number of people whom you trust so explicitly you grant them your trust and may RT them without reading the link until later. In the case of my RT, it was “news” about the iPhone 3G S, which I follow as a Mac user, and it was in a very trusted friend’s stream. Turns out it went to a site selling some fly-by-night pills. YUCK. I am fortunate that I have an involved and active network who alerted me immediately to what had happened, generating an immediate take down and correction from me, but if you are just starting out, you may not have built up that help yet. To that end, read the links first.

RT flash mobs. This often, but not always, falls under the bitchmeme category. A bitchmeme is when a large number of people “pile on” to an issue without fully understanding the facts, then cause it to spread like a nasty little virus of negativity across the internet. Examples of recent bitchmemes include things like Motrin Moms. The RT flash mob is not always negative. Often, the intent behind it is a good cause, like the recent support for #iranelections on Twitter. You can see this in the many, many hashtags (and sub hashtags, now, which is a whole OTHER post coming later) and green avatars popping up.

Most of the time the RT flash mob is totally harmless – the first wave of unchecked information flies past, then about 12 hours later the second wave of corrected or enhanced information comes by, then you can expect at least two more floods to your Twitter stream as the correct information and the emotional reactions occur, all spaced out in 12 hour intervals, and varying global time zones. It tends to take about 4 – 5 days for the average RT flash mob to dissipate (a current example is Steve Jobs’ liver replacement, which I am affectionately calling the iLiver, and which is nearing the end of stage one. Expect corrected information to flow along today). For some reason, unless the RT flash mob is based on a breaking news story during the week, like the #iranelections, these seem to happen most often on the weekends.

In the case of #iranelections and other sensitive global events, the RT flash mob can cause problems. People were retweeting sensitive information without thinking, like the Twitter names of the people who were tweeting from inside Iran, for example. Then in the second wave, people on Twitter were changing their location to confuse Iran officials who were monitoring. This mainly served to confuse third party apps who depend on the Twitter location to work well. Then we had a wave of green avatars in support of #iranelections. Although these are intended to show solidarity with all of those in Iran seeking change, the color is party specific and has caused a stir because of that. You can see how each wave builds on the last.

I think the RT has value in drumming up immediate global awareness and support for both local and global issues as they occur. I love the attention and support the people of Iran are getting for their cause. My words of caution for the next RT flash mob is to do five minutes of research before you click that RT button in your Twitter client, or before you copy paste on the web. Just the briefest of pauses can help stop bad information from going out. Also, if you see a good RT flash mob happening, like the #blamedrewscancer movement (which has moved from “flash mob” to “meme” now, and will have a longer shelf life because of it), spread it around. We need more good things.

1) I have three tattoos (so far)

I love a beautiful tattoo, and I have three. I plan to get a few more before I’m done. I drew each of my pieces myself before taking them to the tattoo artists to have them done, and each symbolizes rebirth, forgiveness and second chances in some way to me. My first was a large butterfly on my ankle, my second was a phoenix flying out of a burning rose on my back (very large) and my most recent is one on my wrist that has the Gaelic symbol for Child, Woman, Crone repeated four times to form a cross with the Gaelic words for Kindness, Patience and Tolerance circling it on my inner wrist..

2) I lit my friend Brian on fire playing MacGyver when I was young

My friend Brian and I used to watch MacGyver then try out all the cool stuff he did on the show. One day we tried to make the fire retardant goop that stunt people used after watching an episode where he did it. Somehow I talked poor Brian into being the tester, and lit his arm on fire. Sorry, Brian! (He was fine, for those wondering, not even a tiny scar from the incident. Lucky us!)

3) I am a book junkie

I don’t get to read as often as I like anymore, but if left to my own devices, I will turn off the computers and cell phone and devour three to four books in a day. Books are candy for my brain. I like everything from the classics or non-fiction to brain candy like horror, thrillers, or series like Harry Potter. I learned to read very young, and haven’t wanted to stop since! My most recent guilty pleasure were the first two books in the Twilight series, though I haven’t read the last two yet so don’t spoil them for me in the comments! My books are stacked floor to ceiling in my house. I’m about to do a major purge, too, so if you love to read and want some of the many hundreds of books that will be about to go, or have a senior center in MA or NH who wants boxes and boxes and boxes of books – let me know. I purge like that once every 5 years, and still they pile up.

4) I used to tend bar

I was a bartender for 14 years. I bartended while I was in college, after college, while I worked at a financial newsletter as Managing Editor, and then part time when I started my own business. It allowed me the freedom to travel, to try new things, to meet interesting people and do interesting things. It also fit in with my natural tendency to stay awake until 4 AM and then sleep until 10 AM. These days I still stay awake until 4, but I am busy enough I tend to wake up and get going by 8 or 9.

5) I can’t imagine my world without music

I listen to music fairly constantly, always seeking out new music, and new musicians to help/promote using social media and the internet. I write lyrics, I used to play the piano rather well but after not having a piano or keyboard for a few years I’m pretty rusty from lack of practice. I also had a perfect soprano voice in high school but smoked until I have the throatier voice I have now. I am currently looking for a Casio PX-110 to play piano again – I have lots of lyrics waiting for music to finish the songs.

6) I used to be a reporter and then Managing Editor for a financial newsletter

Those of you who know how I am with money are laughing right now at this tidbit. In spite of my personal need to have an accountant manage my money at all times, I used to write about the stock market every day. For some reason I had no trouble seeing the big picture of stocks, just trouble with balancing my own budget. I was not very happy writing about stocks day in and day out, but I’m really happy I don’t have to write about them now. I’m much better suited for new media and technology.

7) I am the living embodiment of practice what you preach

When I say social media and the internet can translate to real world success and connections, I mean it. I know from personal experience. I have a few online success stories in my life, but the one that fits this last fact best is this one: I count my business partner Triston as one of my handful of best friends. I invited him on board when I started this business, and we have translated all that into concrete, real world successes and connections. The reason we are the embodiment of practice what we preach? We’ve done all of this friendship building and business starting and business running from two separate cities, strictly online and by phone. We have yet to meet in person. I think it is very cool that social media allows for success stories and collaborations like that to happen, don’t you?

The rules of the meme say I need to tag seven more people I’d love to know more about. That’s a tough call! I’d like to know more about all of you. Since I have to pick seven, though, I’m tagging some Boston-area rock stars in our industry: Maria Thurrell, Alexa Scordato, Rebecca Corliss (perhaps done to music, Miz Corliss, for added challenge points?), Mike Volpe, Mike Langford, Jamie Scheu, and Thomas Edwards. Since I’ve had the pleasure of meeting all of these people in person, I’m interested to know more about them. I’m also tagging an extra person, Triston, so he can tell you all a bit about himself. TAG, you’re all it!

Post your wish list item and tag it #wishlist with a link back to this post for the rules. If someone has it, they should reply to you with an open @ message, also tagged #wishlist. That way we can cross your item off our list of searches. Once you get that initial @ take it to DM to work out the shipping details.

If you successfully find an item or give and item, come back here and let us know in the comments.

I can’t wait to see what the awesome people of Twitter do with this idea, since you all usually take a simple idea and blow it out of the water with awesomeness.