I know you’re thinking, “Really? Retweeting is a simple click– how could I really mess it up?” But before we get there, let’s start with the basics.
What is a Retweet?
A retweet (or RT) is someone else’s tweet that you share with your own followers. When you scroll through your feed and see a tweet you like, you can reshare it by simply clicking on the retweet icon.
Easy, right? Well, it’s little too easy, if you ask me.
Don’t Auto Retweet
Retweeting is simple, but will you spark up the conversation or engagement you want by simply clicking a button? Most likely not. By auto retweeting, you can’t add anything of value to the tweet, like why you thought it was interesting or why you shared it.
Instead of mindlessly clicking a button, put in a little bit of time and effort into your retweets by manually retweeting. You can manually retweet by copying the original tweet and pasting it into a new tweet, and then prefacing it with an “RT” to indicate that you’re retweeting. Then, add in your own comments. Not only will you be sharing the original tweet, but you’re also adding value to it, which will more likely garner more attention and engagement.
If the original tweet becomes too long when you manually paste it into a new tweet, go through it and edit out any unnecessary characters, spaces or URLs.
This extra step requires more effort on your part. You might be tempted to forgo it all and just hit the retweet button, but remember that these couple extra copy-and-paste maneuvers will make you a more interesting Twitter user. When people see that you’ve put in effort to express your own two cents to what they’ve said, they’ll be more likely to want to interact with you.
