I still feel that I was quite late to find Twitter, it’s something that I put off for a long time but as soon as I joined I was hooked. It’s still possibly my favorite network, I love scrolling through it, getting into conversations and discovering great content on it.
When I started on Twitter users still had to do the really long winded RT method. We had to physically copy and paste a tweet and type RT @username before the content. It seems like hard work now that we can just click the RT button underneath a tweet.
There were however some great advantages both for the user and the original tweeter to the old fashioned method. So much so that when I use Hootsuite I have it set to send my RT’s automatically in that format.
1. When you send a ReTweet via the old fashioned method your followers are going to be more interested in it. They choose to follow you because you share good stuff, when they see a link from you, with your name and picture next to it they are more likely to pay attention than if it comes from a stranger. If someone uses the old method to share your content you will usually get more click throughs than via the new method.
2. The person you are RTing will be aware that you have shared their tweet. When you write a popular tweet that gets shared over and over again it’s easy to loose track of who has shared it. If you share the old way the RT will appear in the @ replies of the original tweeter, they will be less likely to miss that you have shared.
3. You can add your own comment to the end of the RT, telling users why you are sharing it and personalising it.
On mobile devices we already have a version of this old RT method ‘Quote tweet’ which essentially does the same thing but on the web there isn’t this option. Even knowing the advantages of the old method it still seems like hard work if you are accessing Twitter via the web it’s much easier just to click that ‘Retweet button. That’s where this weeks cool tool comes in handy. It’s a browser plugin that works for both the Firefox and Chrome browsers.
Here’s How It Works
- Visit the add on page. For Firefox, or for chrome
- I’m going to be demonstrating the Firefox version
- Click the ‘add to Firefox button’
- Click install now on the window that pops up
- It’s as simple as that, it’s now installed.
- Open Twitter and hover your mouse over the tweet you want to share
- Click ‘classic RT’ and a window will pop up showing the tweet
- Just click ‘Tweet’ to send it.
I’m delighted to have found this as although I use Hootsuite for most of my tweets this will prevent my lazy RTing from the web browser.
If you are a Twitter newbie or are nervous of getting started sign up for my A Beginners Guide To Twitter online course starting on 10th of June. More info here.
