May 20, 2009
Seventeen things that people are actually saying when they retweet others
Retweeting (that is, repeating someone else’s tweet, with attribution) has emerged from daily twittering habits and has become part of Twitter’s cultural vocabulary.
The idea of rebroadcasting something interesting/funny you’ve spotted isn’t new, and the custom of acknowledging your sources isn’t particularly revolutionary either, but what is interesting is that not all retweets (RTs) are alike.
In fact, long-term observation of RTing on Twitter reveals that there are a number of different objectives which could inspire a retweet, though of course the actual motivating force can only ever be known by the author of the retweet themselves.
To that end, I’ve identified what I consider to be the seventeen things that people are actually saying when they retweet others on Twitter:
1. “I wish I’d said this.”
Other people say clever/insightful/funny stuff. User wishes they’d said it first.
2. “I was going to say something, but this person said it better/funnier/faster than I could.”
Other people are better/faster with words. This type tends to come up a lot in Twitter memes, where the repetition of someone else’s (funny/clever) response is a way of participating without actually needing to find something to say.
3. “Spread the word/pass it on”
Breaking news and/or requests for help. Often contain an explicit request for readers to retweet the message.
4. “Everyone should see this because it’s important (IMHO).”
News, revelations and links which inform or contribute to a user’s core values. User wants to get this important thing in front of as many people as possible, because not knowing or caring about it is unimaginable.
5. “I found this tweet funny/interesting/clever and want to spread it.”
Not necessarily related to any particular topic, but user liked what someone else said, and want to expose it to their followers in the hope of getting it retweeted further.
6. “This is interesting and I have something to add to it.”
User found something interesting and wants to add a comment to it – though warning: too much editing/addition to a RT can make it significantly different from the original.
7. “This person found this good link, so I’m hat-tipping them.”
Credit where it’s due.
8. “Everyone else is retweeting this, so I am too.”
User wants to be in on a trending rebroadcasting of something interesting or important.
9. “Just in case you didn’t see this, it bears repeating.”
Repeating something which someone else said, because user thinks it unlikely that it will have had sufficient audience from the original author. This also happens over time, i.e. retweeting something that was said earlier on (and someone people even retweet themselves, which shows an alarming level of self-disaggregation)
10. “I’m plugged into a particular network that I don’t think too many of my followers are, so here’s something you won’t have seen.”
Having access to a wide variety of obscure sources makes the user seem like they’re plugged in to all sorts of interesting networks. Repeating something from someone relatively obscure reveals this.
11. “I want to belong to a particular club: retweeting this is our badge.”
Used in conjunction with hashtags, this type is usually sandwiched by a conditional (“if you believe…”) and an imperative (“…retweet this!”). The Twitter equivalent of “Honk if you had sex last night”
12. “I spotted this.”
User retweets as a substitute for having to create anything new themselves. Retweeting is an acknowledgement that something has been consumed. A human RSS reader.
13. “This person said something nice about me/us/project/company, but it would be terribly gauche to say it myself, so I’ll just refer you to what someone else said as a way of introducing a modicum of modesty.”
This is just weird. And it’s still gauche.
14. “I love this user. They always tweet great stuff. You should follow them.”
Trying to increase social capital of another user via retweeting their stuff to a wider audience in the hope that this will gain them new followers.
15. “My followers expect me to bring them the latest stuff (news, gossip, games, insight, links and more), which I source from a variety of places.”
User retweets to provide new value to their social graph. In the old days, this is what blogs were used for. But Twitter is a much more immediate way of thrusting one’s latest discoveries in front of a waiting audience.
16. “My social graph includes lots of great people, like this, and repeating what they said makes part of their greatness rub off on me.”
Reflected glory via mild sycophancy.
17. “I hope the person I’m RTing this from notices and follows me back.”
Slight fawning may produce social benefit to user, but potentially little value to anyone else.
Can you think of any others?
I wish I’d thought of that.
The only one you have missed is retweeting of multiple accounts owned by the same user.
This is often seen when people have a personal and a work account and will retweet the work message on their personal account. I’m guilt of doing that occasionally on the @vzaar account, but no where near as bad as some people.
Extension of (and reverse of) 5 – “Look at what this idiot tweeted!” (generally in relation to inane self-unaware celebrity tweets). If posted without addendum, the retweeter is relying on followers understanding that the RT is not an endorsement of the original but is pointing up its stupidity.
Extension of 17 – “I am selfless/community spirited enough to RT, will you do the same for me?” ie not simply trying to encourage mutual following, but showing a willingness to RT others tweets in the hope that both they and your followers will be more inclined to RT yours. Retweet others as you would hope to be, er, retwet yourself.
Another one is:
“I’ve asked a question and I want to share the best or definitive answer(s) that were @ replied. This answers the question for any followers who might care. It may also signal that no more answers are necessary.”
It overlaps with some of the above. Useful at times because most Twitter clients (including the default web client) display individual tweets instead of conversation threads.
[...] "Retweeting (that is, repeating someone else’s tweet, with attribution) has emerged from daily twittering habits and has become part of Twitter’s cultural vocabulary. The idea of rebroadcasting something interesting/funny you’ve spotted isn’t new, and the custom of acknowledging your sources isn’t particularly revolutionary either, but what is interesting is that not all retweets (RTs) are alike." [link] [...]
A slight variation to Carl’s response, I use Twitter to ask questions, as in “Does anyone know how, where, why, etc?”
That’s brilliant.
I guess there are similar motivations behind why people don’t explicitly RT (with the added point that RT@user_name uses up characters) – people *not* wanting to publicly show connections to others and *not* wanting to build other’s social capital.
I think a lot of this probably depends on the genre* of tweeter. For example, there’s a civil servant I follow who tweets as herself but mainly RT government or newsmedia feeds. In contrast, these generally less-personal and more-institutional feeds are more likely to showcase original content (at least as if it were original). Though maybe that’s to do with people feeling less sociable when they are tasked with tweeting in role as The Science Museum or bbc_education, and as a consquence less likely to feel the need to show off/ construct social connections (even whilst participating in social media).
Or maybe they are just shy.
* Ignoring for a mo that use of ‘genre’ can’t at the moment think of a better way of expressing the point. Type, community and reason for using (PR, news, social life, porn…).
Being a snarky bitch. I think my sole RT was someone calling me an idiot for a tweet that everyone else realised was a joke. It was also the only tweet from his account and just very peculiar.
You left off, retweeting because I can.
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I re-tweet stupid things that people say. I found this girl who was OBSESSED with McFly and I knew my followers would get a kick out of reading her tweets to the band members so I RT’ed a few. ;)
im yet to know all the ways of the twitterati but how about this -
“i scratch your back, you scratch mine” or “im just returning a favor” :p
i haven’t done that but have got feelers enough to know that this exists, especially as an extension of “I belong to or want to belong to a particular club, so I will try to get more followers for my club-mate and hope she does the same for me”
“Someone said i could get something free (or get a chance to win something) by RT-ing, so here’s your twitter-spam” – i’m not necessarily ragging on the twitter spammers since i’ll do it if it’s something i want …
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You forgot to mention the DeTweet – the twitter way to disagree: http://www.clickequations.com/blog/2009/02/introducing-the-detweet/
One thing I’ve noticed is some people will RT insults and criticism from their detractors. Celebrities seem to do this frequently, and I’m torn about how to think about it. At first glance, my thought is- That’s cool. They’re saying ‘Hey, guys- I’m not perfect. I’ve got haters just like everyone else.’ But, then I’ve seen it turn into a follower-led attack on the person and can’t help but wonder about the original intent of the RT. Was it really ‘Hey, look at what this person said about me. Go, get ‘em, guys!’
I’m going to get on Twitter and post the following.
“RT: CHECK OUT THIS TWITTER ARTICLE. IT’S ABOUT TWITTER. OMG I’M TALKING ABOUT TWITTER ON #twitter, PS: #swineflu #cnn #obama #topuser #OMG”
Here’s another.
“Ignore this if you saw it already. But it is good.”
It’s not always an intentional message from the retweeter. But sometimes it is.
It’s perhaps a consequence of favourites not being given much attention by most clients; the lack of a public “like” akin to FriendFeed’s.
“Passing on the pointer rather than the value.”
I write a regional (Midwest U.S.) travel blog, so I often RT when I see something about an interesting destination in the region–something I’ve done in the past and enjoyed, or something that sounds like I’d enjoy doing sometime.
RT can help me establish new story sources or meet folks I might be able to ask a question of later if I need info or a source in their particular area.
If I (re)tweeted this post, it would totally be a #1.
Like Adrian, I definitely RT between accounts. I tend to tweet mostly design related comments in my personal account. I then RT them to my business account. I do also RT others’ relevant tweets generally for your reasons: 3, 4, 5, 7, and 14.
I like retwitting mostly on techno related things.
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8 is funny :D Cheers!
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