Should you or Should You Not - Using Twitter's new ReTweet Functionality

During last night's session we went over Twitter and it's evolving technology. ReTweeting has been done manually in the past, which enabled you to add commentary as you saw fit. Twitter has now created a new feature to allow for "effortless" ReTweeting but should you always use this function?

Ray at Ray's 2.0 had this to say:

My advice to new Twitter users is that you should not use what Twitter calls a "retweet".

Just pass it on by.

The true retweet is something Twitter's customers invented, and which Twitter stupidly never formalized. The true "retweet" is the life blood of Twitter, and what has set it apart from other similar "microblogging" services.

Here's how to do a traditional retweet it if you're accessing Twitter on the internet:

1. Copy and paste the message and name of person sending it to you.

2. Precede it by "RT @" [i.e. you type "RT", then a space, then a @. It's important that the @ and the name NOT have a space between them].

How true retweets work in Twitter "clients" -- i.e. applications.

If you're using Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or any of the myriad "clients" and applications which support Twitter and other microblogging platforms, they almost all provide "retweet" buttons which simply automate the above 2 steps.

If the makers of these programs are smart -- and they certainly appear to be -- they will preserve the true retweet function, even as they are forced to add Twitter's bastardized version. Also they will quickly start adding on other sites, in addition to Twitter.

What's wrong with the thing Twitter mislabels a "retweet"

I don't have time to list all of the many things wrong with it; every day there are new, excellent articles coming out describing the stupidity of the product, and every day I learn of some new moronic aspect of it. My chief objections are: (1) you can't insert a comment; (2) you can't edit; (3) instead of showing your avatar, it shows the avatar of the original tweeter, which might be someone the recipient doesn't know or have any relationship with; (4) it prevents you from seeing multiple versions with different comments from different people; (5) if someone retweets you, you will never know that they did; (6) if you retweet someone, they will never learn that you did.

I.e., it takes the "social" out of "social media". It eliminates conversation and interaction, insists on blind rubber stamping, prevents you from letting your friend know you've honored them, and prevents you from knowing your friends have honored you. And it removes any clear indication of your identity to your own friends. Idiocy.

What about other microblogging sites?

Since Twitter has basically given up its competitive edge by ruining the retweet, I recommend exploring the many other microblogging services, such as identi.ca, friendfeed, etc. I personally am looking closely at identi.ca at the moment.

Right now we can do what I mentioned for the internet interfaces in those microblogging services as well. I.e. just copy and paste, precede by "RT @".

Most likely some of those services will be smart enough to recognize Twitter's huge misstep, and will quickly implement formal "retweets" of their own, retweets which will embody the attributes of the true retweet rather than Twitter's joke version. [Note: Twitter, like all companies which are poorly managed and then try to make up for their business mistakes by resort to litigation, will no doubt try to force their competitors to use terms other than "retweet", probably claiming some trademark although Twitter itself has never even used the term until now. So just be on the lookout for the other microblogging services to use some alternative terminology for it.]

Also the desktop applications makers will no doubt be supporting more of the other microblogging services as well, and will be adding retweet buttons for all of them.

Conclusion

This is my advice:

1. Don't use Twitter's so called retweet function.... ever. (Unless you want to disappear into a black hole, in which case it would be easier to just stop "microblogging" altogether).

2. Use genuine retweets only.

3. Explore other microblogging services, and do traditional retweeting in them. If those sites or applications develop traditional retweet capabilities, then use them.

4. Use the hashtag #saveretweets when tweeting about this subject, and let Twitter management know that they should have spoken to their customers before ruining something.... just so they'll have a better understanding of how things work in the business world when they report for their next jobs, after Twitter has gone out of business.

[Note: I've been advised that Tweets posted using the new RT function don't show up on Twitter lists or on Tweetdeck, and that you can't see people's retweets of your tweets. -R.B.]


How have you ReTweeted and do you see this as an improvement or poor execution. I personlly think it has pros and cons depending on what I am trying to share? I will doing a mix of using the new button and the manual process.

How to Speak Twitter

A TWITTER GLOSSARY

At Reply, or "@reply": A direct tweet sent to another Twitter user.

Dweet: Tweet sent while drunk

Hash Tag: The "#" sign. Allows Twitter users to group tweets by topic, making it easier to search particular conversations using Twitter Search.

Link: Including a URL in your tweet.

MisTweet: A tweet one later regrets.

ReTweet: To repost something that's already in the Twitter stream. Usually preceeded by "RT" and "@[username]," to give credit to the original poster.

SnapTweet: A tweet that includes a photo taken with a cell phone, uploaded to Flickr and posted to Twitter via snaptweet.com.

Twittcrastination: Procrastination brought on by Twitter use.

Twadd: To add someone as a friend or follower.

Twaigslist/Twebay: To sell something on Twitter.

Tweeter/Twitterer: Someone who uses Twitter.

TwinkedIn: Inviting friends made on Twitter to connect on LinkedIn.

Twittectomy: To remove someone from the list of people you follow.

Twitterati: The A-list twitterers everyone follows.

Twitterfly: Twitter's version of a social butterfly, marked by the extreme use of @ signs.

Twitterlooing: Twittering from the bathroom.

Twitterpated: Overwhelmed with Twitter messages.

Twittfeinated, Twigged Out, Twired: To be so hyped up on twittering that you cannot sleep.

Week 4: Social Media & Marketing

Below is a list of links to social media topics discussed in last night's class on social media and marketing:

• RSS Search Engines: Many people mistakenly refer to RSS search as "blog search." While it's true that many blogs offer RSS feeds (automatic feed creation is a feature of most blogging software), not all blogs have feeds. Furthermore, RSS can literally be used with just about any kind of web-based content. RSS fundamentally is a relatively simple specification that uses XML to organize and format web-based content in a standard way.
  
• Breaking Through: Do not adjust that dial! During this excellently executed advertisement, your YouTube browser window may start to tremble and shake and seemingly implode, but it's all just a part of the very clever campaign for Acciona, a sustainable development firm based in Spain. View Video Here. Set to the song “Pure Imagination” (made famous by Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory), the 80-second clip was the result of two months of labor by director Marcel Burgos for McCann Erickson Italia (we’re still not sure if we understand how he did it). Of course, it’s not just the novelty of the advert that makes it so fun and effective: Breaking through the old to make room for the new, it could not have done a better job of illustrating better solutions. Plus, the company chose not to use traditional media but to air Re exclusively online to fund its production costs—proving that every medium can stand for a little “re”-thinking.
• Ad Age: Brands on Twitter, 76% of Accounts Are Infrequent Users: Most companies fail to realize Twitter's full potential as a market engagement platform. While 73% of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts, effectiveness based on level of activity, interaction and engagement were off the mark. Brand-squatted accounts, as reported last week in Ad Age, remains an issue for many companies. For those that are on board, many more are largely tepid accounts with limited activity and interactivity (76% of accounts tweet infrequently). Even more telling is how companies apply currently traditional marketing practices to this new media channel.
• LinkedIn and Twitter Partnership: Do's and Dont's for Users:

• Social Media Lessons from Bill Cosby: has taught us about a lot of things over the years, like parenting skills, how to pick out snazzy sweaters -- and now, how to succeed at social media. Cosby held a "virtual town hall" on Oct. 19 to discuss issues that face the African-American community and support his latest album, "Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency." It features rappers Jace the Great, Brother Hahz and Super Nova Slom.
• 5 Tips For Creating Compelling PPC Ads: Search engine marketers are always looking to capture a valuable and relevant click throughout their pay-per-click campaign. Here are five ways to help target those all-important searchers through compelling and effective ad copy.

And last but not least, Tips to help you optimize for success on Facebook. Top 10 Ad Creative Tips:

Listening and Learning from your Customers - Twittovation

As reported by Reveries - Cool News of the Day:

There was a time when Twitter's founders objected to users referring to their posts as "Tweets," reports @claireCM in the New York Times (10/26/09). Those days ended just a few months ago, when Twitter "applied for a trademark on the term." That's just one of the many ways in which Twitter has followed its followers. "Twitter's smart enough, or lucky enough, to say, 'Gee, let's not try to compete with our users ... let's outsource design to them," says Eric von Hippel, author of Democratizing Innovation.

Twitter ceo Evan Williams agrees: "Most companies or services on the web start with wrong assumptions about what they are and what they're for," he says. "Twitter struck an interesting balance of flexibility and malleability that allowed users to invent uses for it that weren't anticipated." Among other things, Twitter users invented the idea of putting the @ symbol before their user names (e.g., @cool_news). They also picked up the idea of using the # symbol to categorize topics -- another innovation Twitter initially resisted.

The # idea came from open-source advocate @chrismessina, who says Twitter thought the # concept was too nerdy for mass appeal. Well, now Twitter "hyperlinks the hash tags so readers can click and see all the other posts on a topic." Twitter is now also about to formalize the RT, or "retweet," feature, which users have long used to "send a post by another Twitter user to their own set of followers." Evan Williams says Twitter's plan is to keep following its followers. "You get a bunch of users interacting and it's hard to predict what they're going to do," he says. "We say, 'Why are people using this and how could we make that better?'"

Always Something New

As Brad mentioned in our first class, what you learn today will be changed or new or even obsolete very soon in the future.

We will be learning more about Twitter in our Social Media session, but I wanted to share a "so-new-it's not-even-fully-available" feature called Twitter Lists.

Twitter lists is a new feature currently being rolled out over the Twitter-verse which will let people "curate" the real time web. People will be able to make lists of Twitter users into the categories they choose.

There is even a site created for sharing these lists already created called Listorious.

Listorious aims to make finding these lists easier. The lists will be an interesting look at what a person you follow finds relevant too.

I'm sure Google and Bing will also be very excited to see how users index Twitter users and their content.

Make sure to follow DMBootcamp on Twitter and connect with our speakers via Twitter as well.

A Better Way to Discover Twitter Apps

In today's Jumpstart session of the Digital Marketing Bootcamp, someone asked for a list of twitter resources. We asked via twitter for recommendations and someone suggested we check out oneforty.com and we now suggest it to you! oneforty.com (the name comes from the # of characters allowed in twitter, 140) claims to have "tons of resources for all things Twitter" and Currently tracking 1890 apps that make Twitter even better. Happy Tweeting!