More Retweets? Why Bother, Go For More Shares Across Platforms
May 21, 2009 
Author 
In Let me preface this by stating that I really do like Chris Brogan – I link to him frequently, share his posts across social media, and am a fan of what he does. But, if the blogosphere is great at one thing – it is bringing all sides to something, which I’d like to spend a minute doing.
Chris wrote a post yesterday titled: Spread Your Wings- Get More Retweet Action Today. I’m not sure why this rubbed me the wrong way, maybe it is because I think it is a better strategy to make good content that isn’t tailored to a specific platform than try and design something for one network.
After reading through his post/comments and thinking about how much has been written on Twitter-specific strategies as of late, I have a few points I’d like to remind everyone:
- Sharing content on the web is as old as the web itself, and is not new or exclusive to Twitter.
- Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, FriendFeed, etc. all have massive communities of people sharing content – Twitter is not the end-all-be-all of content discovery nor is it the best.
- Creating content for the sole purpose of retweets is missing the point.
- Other social sites actually send far more traffic than Twitter, to focus purely on Twitter is shortsighted (I would never trade my Stumble traffic for Tweets).
- Google is still the most valuable source of traffic, in my opinion, because regardless of whether you keep up with the constant churn of real-time Google sends a stable amount of highly-relevant traffic daily.
Back to Chris’ post on getting more retweets, here is my perspective on his points:
- Make sure your post info has room for your original info plus a retweet. If your original post is close to 140 characters, the person retweeting has to edit your post to send it back out. Smells like work? People won’t make extra effort to retweet you if they have to edit your posts.
As a content creator, I disagree – people will share great work regardless of how long the title is. I have seen plenty of content with long titles go popular. Making your post titles shorter is not a guarantee of anything – it is just convenience for Twitter, but I wouldn’t tailor content just for one service. It’s like adding social sharing buttons to your site – they help a little, but if your content rocks people will take the time to share it regardless of if they exist or not.
Users always take the time to shorten a longer title if they thought it was worth sharing and it doesn’t fit in their social sharing site of choice. Think of how few characters you can put into a Digg story title – Digg titles get shortened by user submitters who actually take the time to write it “for” the network themselves because they want it to go popular. Reddit on the other hand encourages long titles. My point is that users know what they are doing and will share your content in the right way on their network of choice for you, but only if they dig it.
- Make sure you use URL shorteners like bit.ly or is.gd or ow.ly (there are dozens) to get back more of your real estate.
Twitter will shorten a long URL anyway if you forget, but everyone on Twitter you want retweeting your stuff knows to do this. If they don’t, it probably doesn’t matter much if they tweet it.
- If you’re going to tweet a URL, give folks a sense of what they’re clicking into. For instance, I use (video) or (youtube) when pointing to a YouTube video. And make sure you use (NSFW) on things that are Not Safe For Work.
This adds nothing for me personally – descriptive headlines matter more. If we’re going for brevity you’re just taking up space with this. Also, as an aside – don’t ever Tweet anything that is NSFW unless you want to kill your credibility.
- The more helpful or entertaining your tweet, the more likely people will take an action.
This is good advice, I’m with Chris.
- The more jumbled with @ names and multiple urls and hashtags your tweet is, the less likely it will be retweeted.
Also spot on.
- People will gladly retweet causes (unless you fatigue us).
Yes, but you should definitely have something in mind here other than just sharing a cause. Good content and the right hooks still apply.
- Starting a tweet with an @ means that a good chunk of folks won’t see it.
On the other hand, tweeting something to an influencer like @SteveRubel means he’ll see it and potentially RT it – so don’t discount that as a strategy.
- Retweet other people and promote other people 15x to every 1 time of your effort.
As a blogger, this isn’t relevant. Just write good content and people will share/tweet/stumble it. It’s as simple as that. If you’re using Twitter and not blogging – well, here’s 19 reasons to start blogging too.
- Don’t tweet every damned thing you write about or do. Folks will fatigue quickly.
Good advice – less is more.
- Befriend and add value to the best retweeters. It’s a live network, a human network, a give-and-take relationship.
From a personal standpoint, my strategy in Twitter is actually a lack thereof. I just share what is interesting and am myself. I don’t worry about ratios or retweeting or much of anything. Chris is right, Twitter is a live, human network – however I don’t necessary repeat things just because someone influential, interesting or important says something. I try and find my own way to say things to the world, and I think this is something that everyone should do. We’re not parrots, we’re human – be yourself and say things uniquely.
The bottom line? Don’t worry about Twitter or any one network, stop worrying about getting retweets, and just throw your passion/creativity behind what you are doing online in your own unique space. If you do this it will get noticed, I promise. That’s how to win long term.
Quick update – Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins weighs in on the discussion.
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Chris Brogan… replied | May 22, 2009 (6 comments)
Please always feel free to take issue. Your opinions are every bit as important, so I’m very happy you voiced them. No retort here. : )
Colored Opinions replied | May 22, 2009 (6 comments)
I agree with you on those valuable observations, credibility and content are important. I would however also add consistency to that. Consistency means in my view that bloggers should retweet only stuff that is linked to the subject or goal of their own blog, if they want to generate usefull traffic to their blog.
Adam Singer replied | May 22, 2009 (597 comments)
@Chris Brogan – thanks for dropping by – I feel the same way, feel free to debate me anytime :)
@Colored Opinions – agreed, consistency in sharing quality links will help condition people that you are a resource.
Lisa Hickey replied | May 22, 2009 (1 comment)
Ironically, the first time I met Chris Brogan he told me not to focus so much on Twitter. I took his advice to heart, it changed my life. That is not even close to an overstatement. : )
Big picture – I agree with a lot of what you are saying, Adam. Focus on content. Be useful. Relevant. Passionate. Unique. Entertaining. Creative. And get out there cross-platform. Twitter’s only a slice of the pie, “albeit a nice, tasty slice of the pie” as my friend @smashadv says.
HOWEVER: Making it easy for people to share – I don’t think that misses the point, I think it is a big part of the point. And I’m not sure why Chris’s article “rubbed you the wrong way”, when you agreed with lots of it. Not every suggestion will be applicable in every situation. Point taken. But by understanding how someone like Chris does RT’s with all the little nuances included helps people figure out for themselves how to do the little things easily so they can focus on the big picture. What I think Chris Brogan, as well as you with some of the point you make here, is to help people become “fluent in Social Media”. We learn together. We share our learning with others. We learn more. It’s good.
Pat Graham-Block replied | May 22, 2009 (1 comment)
I love Chris Brogan, love to read various opinions and loved reading yours as well. In particular, you had said:
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The bottom line? Don’t worry about Twitter or any one network, stop worrying about getting retweets, and just throw your passion/creativity behind what you are doing online in your own unique space. If you do this it will get noticed, I promise. That’s how to win long term.
~~
For me, I don’t worry about any of it because I know that when I throw my own passion out there, I will attract the perfect resources, people and experience to me ‘cuz that’s how it all works, anyway.
Thanks for your thoughts and ideas! It’s all good! :-)
Ken Kadet replied | May 22, 2009 (14 comments)
Adam, my reaction to stuff like this depends on my mood … They way I look at it, talking about “getting on Twitter” from a marketing standpoint is a case of a tactic looking for a strategy.
I appreciate the talk about best practices and great ideas for making the tactic work, and the legitimate technical debate you have hear on the best approach. But often, the lack of context and strategy rubs me the wrong way…because I’m not in the mood to hear one more bit of hype for the tactic — I’d rather talk about how…or if…all those RTs might fit into my strategy for getting the client to their goals. Reading about tactics brings up way to many “why’s” and “what ifs” and “yeah, buts”.
Sort of like reading a book on the best ways to use a table saw, when what you really want to do is build a house. But when you are ready to cut the wood, it’s nice to know the right way to use that saw…
Adam Singer replied | May 22, 2009 (597 comments)
Thanks for the responses everyone, lots of different perspectives and I appreciate all of them! Glad to get some discussion going.
I think the perspective I am trying to communicate lately is it’s not about tools or technologies, it’s about ideas. I may be biased because I am trying to write/think mostly from a platform agnostic viewpoint these days. But there is value to covering tools/tractics/tips/tricks too – point taken.
Angela Connor replied | May 22, 2009 (2 comments)
Great post and counterpoints Adam. I just read that post as I was catching up on my blog reading and I too disagrees with some of the points. What I like about your post is you indicate where you agree and disagree. I am a fan of Chris and even mention him in my new book but what is so great about all that we have before us is that we can apply it or not apply it. Take it or leave it. Ponder it or leave it where you found it. I love Twitter, and the way I use it is to provide value and build community. I am not interested in adding any particular strategies. I don’t care about retweets or number of followers, even though I get a lot of RT’s and my following grows daily. I just do me and at the end of the day that is what we all need to focus on a little more. Do you!
Angela Connor | @communitygirl
Danny Brown replied | May 23, 2009 (19 comments)
It’s one of these Catch 22 situations. There are great tips for people who aren’t sure what a RT is, and then there’s the side that says tailoring a tweet for a RT is being calculated, as opposed to just being you.
I recall a guest post over at Darren Rowse’s TwitTips blog going over similar things – how to tailor a tweet to be retweeted more, best strategies, etc.
At the time, I thought deliberately structuring a tweet just for the sake of it being retweeted kind of missed the immediacy of Twitter. But, then again, new users might see the advice as being spot on.
I guess, at the end of the day, it works both ways. Personally, I’d rather just share stuff and if it gets RT’d, great. If not, and it just encourages conversation instead, well, that’s actually even better (to me).
Have a great weekend, Adam – always a pleasure to read your stuff.