Retweetimization means saying the most with the least amount of words. It means leaving enough space for others to repeat it & you. It means doing a little extra work for a much bigger payoff.
Effectively when I retweetimize my statements I make sure to leave enough room for others to cite me as the original author. Specifically that means that since my twitter name is @damienbasile* [see below]. I need to leave at least 14 character spaces for my name, the @ symbol & a space (optimally +2 to that to fit in RT- ReTweet). Generally, this means that I am parsimg my words in such a way as to convey information to others in such a manner that they would want to share this with people that they know I’m shortening my statements to be shared with others. If I succeed at connecting with them on an intrinsic level they will naturally tell others that I’m the person who shared the information with them originally.
Retweetimization is about doing for others so you can do for yourself. It is about doing for others so they can do for you what only they can do- word of mouth promotion that no money can buy. Viral marketing of this kind is what PR companies dream of. By building a network organically- like a great affluencer of mine @acclimedia does- you can grow your influence and strengthen your base by leaps and bounds. Others may not be telling you that you are doing the right thing by them, but you are. They take a mental note of it every time that they don’t have to rewrite or resay your message in order to tell others. Giving just enough with a little room left over for your presence to live is exactly what people want. They want to be your champion. You need to give them a reason to do so. People are busy. They get annoyed when they have to clean up your mess.
This may be an article with the specific intent of pointing out the optimization of tweets but the reach is much broader in it’s applications. Are you getting your point across in the most effective succinct way as to convey the message’s poignancy and power? Are you thinking about others when you send out a message? Are you broadcasting or communicating?
*And no, that’s not a typo. An affluencer is a person who brings a great wealth of knowledge along with their influence.
*UPDATE: I’ve officially changed my Twitter name to @db. This gives me more room to say what I need to in a character intensive environment. For someone to cite me I now need to leave 4 characters. For someone to RT me I need to leave 7 characters. This is the ultimate thank you to my followers as now they ALSO have more room to write me a message- 136 to be exact.
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I agree! I feel icky editing someone else’s tweet.
Keep up the good fight in regards to the retweet. Alas, not everyone gets it.
Great post!! I am guilty though, Amanda, of editing retweets to fit the info in. I prefer most of the time to add something of my own… that I found it funny, or it’s a good link, instead of just RT verbatim so that my followers will know why I care to send it. By the time I do that, I sometimes have to alter the original tweet. But I figure they won’t be TOO mad, since I am sending out their message to a whole new potential audience. :-)
Kris C’s last blog post..The Art of the Signup
Succinct and so helpful! Having sliced and diced many a college application down to the required number of words, I accept your Twitter challenge (Twallenge) to make posts shorter and ultimately more likely to be Retweeted.
I am definitely guilty of editing retweets at times, because, like Kris, I sometimes like to add something so people know why I RT it. Because of this, I try to be more aware of my own tweets and keep ‘em short and sweet. Doesn’t ALWAYS work, but I try.
Meroko’s last blog post..Silly Senpai
Thanks for bringing attention to this Damien. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given up in frustration after feeling like I’ve lost the essence of a retweet by editing it to fit 140 characters. We’re really privileged to have free access to so many brilliant and interesting people within Twitter. It’s even more awesome if we all remember that others want to share that wealth by retweeting. I’ll definitely put your suggestions to use by trying to limit my verbosity (clearly, that’s going to be a challenge for me!).
Ghennipher’s last blog post..Motrin – An Avoidable Social Media Disaster
spot on! i have wished numerous time for people to make their posts that they want retweeted shorter.
thanks for speaking out about this.
This is a really useful tip. Optimizing your tweets so that they can be retweeted is really stepping up your usefulness to the Twitter community. After all if you really want to spread your reach you have to make it as easy as possibly for people to extend that reach for you.
Perhaps one of the tools could build that in as a feature, instead of just turning your tweet red when it hits 140, perhaps turn it amber when it hits 110?
Simon Salt’s last blog post..Twollow: SOLD
Good article and one of my favorite lines is “Retweetimization is about doing for others so you can do for yourself.”
Well done!
Pete’s last blog post..Boring Book Covers
With exception, such as breaking news that has an intrinsic viral nature, I view retweets as the Operator game. I may change some words, and may take out RT all together (replacing it with “h/t” or “via” or “from”) as long as the message remains clear and concise.
Ari Herzog’s last blog post..Mash Up Your Social Media Strategy
I am so used to maximising my tweets to 140 characters that I do often forget about the RT aspect.
Part of it is I dont always assume people will find what i say of interest and so therefore will not retweet it. SO my thinking is that if that happens I have lost out the message as I didn’t take full use of the initial character max.
Think this goes right back to when I was first on Twitter and you really were just talking to yourself most of the time and certainly did not have a crowd of cool people keen to pick up the batton and run the relay with you.
Some messages you just cannot simplify any further without serious loss of meaning. And I have always believed it’s important to make the most of the 141 characters first time round.
The trick is if there is a link you are referring to. Then this usually makes it easier, as the link will no doubt hold all the story, so the Tweet can be as short as you like. But no link, no further reference, then trying to create an important message in less that 140 characters can be problematic and cause more confusion than someone having to re edit a longer message to allow for the RT info.
Swings and roundabouts.
But very valid point which I will definitely bear in mind and implement as and where I can without loosing too much of the original meaning. For example like my various tips, hard to make these any shorter, yet i can see these are hard to RT. So where’s the balance for somthing like that?
Graham
ImJustCreative’s last blog post..Links for 2008-11-19 [del.icio.us]
I certainly AM an offender.
From now on, I WILL consciously make an effort to leave enough character spaces for the person retweeting my message to do it easily.
Thank you for writing this article. I was sent here to read it by http://www.Twitter.com/WarrenWhitlock. Warren tweeted about it.
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to All. I am truly grateful for our community and how we help each other to ultimately help ourselves become more expert!
Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com
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Awesome post. Not one thing I could say any differently myself. I have been wondering how I could do this better myself and with this post, I now know I HAVE to find a better way. :)
Mike Smith’s last blog post..How you can FAIL at email marketing in three easy steps
Don’t use seven words when four will do. ~Oceans Eleven. :-p
I do so agree. Very succinctly stated, m’dear!
Great post. We all need to pay attention!
River Girl’s last blog post..Best Gifts for Boaters and Others
Great post!
I actually advise people to try and keep their twitterID 12 chars and under for this very reason! :)
But it’s a great idea to make sure that if you want a post retweetable, you leave room for folks to do that!
Lucretia Pruitt’s last blog post..Even a Chatterbox like Me Listens…
Great post! I noticed @mayhemstudios doing this a While back, he’s such a trendsetter! LOL
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