Now that Twitter’s Retweet feature has been out for a while I’ve had a chance to really get into what it means to Retweet somebody by pressing the Retweet link or to RT somebody by copy/pasting their tweet into the update box.
Twitter has made a lot of improvements based off of what its user’s seem to be doing naturally. Mentions and replies were created by users as a way of having a conversation or giving someone credit. Location identification was most likely created because of the growing trend of users using Foursqure, GoWalla, or Yelp and tying it to their accounts. Even the “Block and Report for Spam” feature was originally user’s wanting to report accounts that were spammy in following people, mentioning them, and updates/bio url link.
So why am I talking about this feature that’s been out for quite a while?
I have had a few conversations with people who have noticed that their retweeted updates aren’t displayed in their mentions area. This goes for both the web version and most applications.
When Twitter created this new feature they added a new area: Retweets. They also added a new API (Application Programming Interface) call that applications would need to use in order to access that information. Therein lies the problem with people not getting notified. I’ve had the same issue myself. I’ll forget about the Retweets area of the website and mostly concern myself with the replies/mentions search. My mobile app (Seesmic) does the same thing.
Each user account is allowed to use up to 150 API calls per hour. The default options in Tweetdeck cover the usage of these 150 calls without calling for retweets. This means that you have to change the settings in order to use a mobile application at the same time you’re using your Tweetdeck application otherwise you’ll hit the limit and Twitter won’t provide any more updates to you until the reset time. If you do happen to hit the API limit and still need updates you can always check the web version of the page since that doesn’t use any API calls.
Let’s look back at where the ‘need’ for a retweet feature took hold. PersonA would update their status, PersonB would want their own followers to see the status and add a “RT @PersonA” to the beginning of their own update. Usually in front or after the retweeted text PersonB would add their own thoughts about the post to give it a more personal feel and contribute to the conversation. PersonA was then able to see the retweets in their replies/mentions area. The problem that happens with manual RT’s is that sometimes PersonA’s update is too long to add the RT @PersonA and some of PersonB’s thoughts. This often lead to paraphrasing of the original tweet.
Most people tried hard to keep the original thought of the original tweet intact when paraphrasing an RT. Also, most people reading an RT would know that it was manually entered by PersonB and should check back to the original author for the original words used if they felt the need to. The best part about an RT is that it allows PersonB to put their own thoughts into the idea and still give credit. The Retweet feature doesn’t allow this input. Agree or Disagree you only have a choice of Retweeting to your followers or cancelling the request.
For businesses that are trying to track conversations around their brand or just conversations it becomes more problematic. RT campaigns are still popular when running contests or giveaways. Telling your followers “RT This post to get a coupon” is one example of businesses interacting with their customers (obviously not the best example, but you see what I mean).
Like it or not, it looks like the Retweet button is here to stay. Eventually applications will integrate this feature into their core set and most likely they will add retweets into the mentions/replies area of the application or they’ll separate it and give the area it’s own notifications. The applications that I use haven’t added this feature yet, but I don’t really think it needs to.
What is your take on the Retweet feature or RT’s?
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