Among the many questions that I receive from other Twitter users is how to get retweeted more often. Retweets are a way to promote and pass along interesting and useful content to others.
Not all retweets are the same, however. While the thought of passing along a tweet to others is attractive, a Twitter user should be selective as to what updates are shared.
Here are five characteristics of great Twitter retweets worth passing along to your followers.
1. The tweet information is interesting.
The core of all good retweets is the actual content. Is the tweet information interesting? While this may be more of a common sense point, you would be surprised to see the sheer amount of content that is retweeted that is not interesting in the least.
It’s important to be selective—pick out content that peaks your interest that you believe would also interest your followers.
This is one of the most important reasons to pick out a niche on Twitter and fulfill it. If you tweet mostly local news links, tweeting a national entertainment story with under-the-radar actresses may not be the best idea.
2. The tweet is liked by others.
One of the great aspects of Twitter retweets is that they can be retweeted by others, and a good way to gauge general interest is through other users.
Have a variety of users retweeted the content? A general rule of thumb is that if two or more of your followers/following have shared the post, it is well worth checking out and potentially passing along.
Collaboration in sharing and retweeting with others is useful: retweeting is not something that you should take fully upon yourself. Comb through your tweet stream and find links that others have found interesting enough (with two or more usernames) to retweet.
3. The tweet is original (and not rewritten) content.
There are a plethora of websites and blogs that simply take content and re-report the same story, adding a link at the end of the story to cite their source.
Whenever possible, try to stick to original content. You may have to do some clicking through to see the original source, but you should be able to identify an original story when you don’t see a end-of-article cited link (in general).
Original content is generally richer in value and offers additional insight that rewriters may not necessarily note.
4. The tweet sparks creativity.
Not only should the tweet be interesting, but the information should be creative or unique. Boring retweets also tend to lack creativity, so share something other than the general mainstream posts that you could readily get.
For instance, instead of retweeting a link to a story about the iPad’s features, look for interesting posts taking a stance on the iPad as a useable long term gadget.
If I want to read about the iPad features, I’ll go to Apple—but someone elses’ opinion or stance will most likely be fresh, creative content that will help me approach the iPad differently than before.
5. The tweet credits everyone.
A good retweet should credit everyone who shared the tweet before you. There are several websites on the Internet that can help you identify users who have tweeted the post before you. Services like Tweetmeme and Twitter Search can help you identify tweets before the one you send so you can credit who needs to be credited.
If the tweet already has four or five usernames and characters are at a premium, make an attempt to shorten the title or the words in the post before you drop a username. The last thing that you (or any other Twitter user) wants to do is to send a tweet knowingly excluding someone who passed the tweet along to you.
As long as you make a conscious effort to include everyone who shared the post before you, the Twitterverse will thank you.
Are there any characteristics of great retweets that I left out of this post? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
