I used to think that retweeting something that someone who had a lot of followers tweeted was a waste of time. After all they reach many more people than I do. Plus many of the same people follow both of us so I’d be duplicating things. Then I started to look at statistics that twitter provides. Mind opening.
For starters even though I have something around 5,000 followers it seems from the statistics that only between 150 and 250 people actually see the average tweet I make. Still an ego boosting number but it made me realize that just because I see a tweet doesn’t mean that all the other followers of a tweeter see it. In fact only a small percentage of followers see each tweet. So if I see someone tweets something really good then there is a chance someone who didn’t see the original tweet, even though they follow the other person, will see my retweet. And that is a good thing.
For me much of the value in tweeter is what people share with me. Sharing things with others, original to me or from someone else, is what keeps the whole thing working. This is also why I include links from people who have many followers on Twitter or on their own blog BTW. If information is good then it should be shared.
Linking from a blog or retweeting on Twitter also helps bring new readers/followers to people sharing good information. Since many of the visits to this blog come from search engines there is always a chance that someone will find a blog, a twitter person, or a piece of information that they were not looking for because they didn’t know it was our there.
So I retweet things I like no matter how many followers the person has and link to blog no matter how many readers they have. It’s what makes the web work.
I totally agree with your summary, Alfred. I think that retweeting shows your followers that you're constantly learning and sharing what catches your eye. It's not always that you totally agree with a premise - it's just something that makes you think. That's the important part.
ReplyDeleteYes Alfred! Retweeting is like a vote in many ways as many leading sites look for content that is heavily retweeted! It is like saying "ditto" or "I agree!" Our retweets matter! Great thoughts!
ReplyDeleteAffirmation is valuable, both in terms of from the perspective of the person retweeting or "like"-ing on FB or other. We learn socially, so we may as well take advantage of SN benefits.
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