Retweeting is a beautiful example of how social media community creates its own rules and traditions. Retweeting has emerged organically from Twitter users and blossomed into an effective way to express one’s feedback and build connection. Retweeting has it ethics and emotional coloring. It is also a great way for a newbie to get accepted by the Twitter community and find followers.
However, it may seem confusing for the new-comers because there actually exist two possible ways to retweet and they work very differently.
This post hopes to shed some light on the differences between both the ways to retweet: [RT @username] (also referred to as “traditional”) and official Twitter retweets.
OLD “RT @username“
Traditionally a Retweet (or “RT” to save on characters) has meant sharing someone’s news with the credit to the source. By retweeting you have long been able to:
- Share the news you caught on other user’s stream (and thus demonstrate your (dis)approval / appreciation / excitement / (dis)agreement);
- Give a credit back to the source (and you can even track the original source down because using the “chain of Retweets” is a common practice)
- Edit the original retweet for it to fit the 140-character limit (especially when you have the chain of RTs already) or to include your own take.
The traditional type of RT allows thus:
- To express, track and analyze the sentiment (as people are able to edit the Tweet using smilies and words expressing bias, (dis)agreement, etc);
- To effectively track the news spread (you can even make some conclusions as to the variety of sources: are Retweets being shared within one network of connections? who was (one of the) first to share the news? who in the chain of Retweets was the most powerful in terms of making the news hot? etc)
Most importantly, an “old RT” is a separate independent tweet:
- It has a separate page;
- It is reflected in every participant’s stream;
- It is editorial and emotional;
- It is caught by Twitter search and consequently by all Retweet counter buttons (Tweetmeme, Topsy, Official Twitter button).
The Official Twitter Retweet
Introduced back in 2009, the official Twitter Retweet functionality was received with much critique for one main reason: why would Twitter interfere with the community-built tradition and call its new “voting” feature a “Retweet”. This was doomed to arise lots of misunderstandings and confusions (here’s why from the Twitter co-founder, but that’s not the topic of this post).
But this post is not yet another criticism – it’s aimed at giving an easy-to-digest explanation.
If you are familiar with FriendFeed, Twitter official RT algorithm works similarly to their “like” feature (therefore, by the way, many people believe that with a little bit of tweaking, Twitter “Favorites” feature could have turned into what is now “official” Twitter retweet):
- To Twitter-Retweet something, you should use a tiny icon below each tweet;
- Your Twitter-Retweet gets into your followers’ timelines (unless they have blocked your account from sending the retweets to their timelines using the icon on your profile name). Yes, it is possible to follow someone without seeing his retweets.
- Your followers WON’T see your avatar and name as the tweet author: instead of showing your avatar, Twitter shows the avatar of the original tweet author (which, even according to Twitter may be somewhat confusing):
If you see a message from a stranger in your timeline, look for the retweet icon – the retweeter should be someone you follow.
- You can also access all Retweets by your friends in “Retweets”->”Retweets by others” section on your Twitter homepage. Similarly, you can see who retweetd what of your tweets by going “Retweets”->”Your Tweets, retweeted” column (many good Twitter clients like Tweetdeck serve these retweets as public mentions of your profile)
- Your retweet is not treated as a separate tweet (it doesn’t have a separate URL which means it can’t be found using Twitter search, cannot be referenced, etc). It’s rather a vote.
- You can see who retweeted any tweet looking at icons below “Retweeted by” subheading:
Let’s Make It Even Clearer
Now, both types of Retweets are treated as “votes” (that help some news to become hot). But in essence, the two retweets work absolutely differently:
| Traditional (user-built) RT | Official Twitter Retweet | |
| Has a separate page (and thus can be found using Twitter search and reflected in twitter counter buttons) |
yes | no |
| Is shared as “yours” with your name as author | yes | no |
| Can be edited before sharing | yes | no |
| Is shared to the followers’ timelines | yes | yes (unless set otherwise) |
| Can credit multiple users | yes | no |
Most Popular Desktop Clients that Allow both the RT Types (and HOW)
Seesmic: Unlike what most Seesmic users may think, the app does support both the types of retweets. However Twitter Retweets are easier to do there. All you need is to click the Retweet icon and select the profile:
However it does allow “Quote (old RT)” option under “More options” icon:
Tweetdeck: The tool allows you to choose which type of a Retweet you feel like doing (and also you can remember your choice if you always use one way to RT):
Have I missed any important difference between the two? Please let us know!
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I use both depending on the circumstances, such as using the official retweet button to retweet both the face and text of a Japanese gentleman I follow who occasionally tweets in Japanese. I find the official retweet function rather annoying and controlling, just as I find Google’s rules that they demand SEOs obey (even though Google wasn’t even around when we set up the internet wit our sites and found each other using the dictionary). Nice of you to show us a side-by-side to help keep everyone alert and aware of what our own organic RTs ( hey, we grew them ourselves, that makes them organic
vs those from the machine are worth. No wonder some people absolutely hate them and refuse to use them.
Nice comparison to Google. Yes Internet giants do force their rules on us – I just hope the community will win in this war with Twitter!
…Just went into my Twitter followers and removed the ability for anyone’s machine generated retweets to show up in my timeline.
I hate, hate, HATE the “new” style retweets. I don’t like seeing random strangers pop into my stream and Twitter doesn’t even bother to show both avatars (the original tweeter & retweeter) like Tweetdeck does so it’s even more confusing.
Plus, as you mentioned not being able to be tracked, not showing up in your timeline as mentions, and not having it’s own URLs are all major issues IMO.
I block almost everyone’s new retweets, but welcome the old. Wish Twitter would figure out that their new style isn’t helping anyone.
Hey Ben, I hope they are going to learn by their mistakes: never interfere with and try to change the community traditions!
I use twitterwidget on a few different blogs (both mine and clients’) because I discovered that Google indexes the content, so it adds whatever keywords I’m focusing on to my sites. For that reason alone I have less than no use for the newly added in tweet function – unless it’s to retweet something so meaningless that I wouldn’t want to RT it in the first place. I’m glad HootSuite uses the traditional RT function. If they ever update it I do *not* plan on installing the updated version.
Hey David, do you mean the official Twitter Widget? I just thought your observation that Google indexes its content is intriguing.
Hello Ann. Sorry for just getting back to you – no, Twitter Widget Pro is what it’s called – http://xavisys.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-twitter-widget/ – Not sure if that’s what you’re referring to as the official one.
Thanks — I typically use the old RT. I like being able to track and see if people are RTing what I say, even if I’m only RTing myself. I just don’t see much benefit to the “new” or official RT. I also hate seeing people in my timeline, who I know I’ve unfollowed, but they’re being RTd by someone I do follow.
Hey Jami, yes, I tend to use old-school RTs as well.
However I do notice more and more of my friends using twitter-developed retweets as well!
I have the opposite problem. When someone I follow retweets a message using the old RT, it doesn’t show up in my Home Timeline. But it they use the new RT button it does show in my Home Timeline.
I discovered this by accident as I followed a tweet thread and discovered that several RT’s by that person were not in my home Timeline, while others using the new button were.
I’m using Firefox. I also use HTC Peep on my phone and the old style RT’s don’t show up there either. However, the Retweet function on the phone allows me to edit a RT before sending it.
Any Idea why old style RT’s not showing in Timeline?
Hey Kris, it sounds like you may be misunderstanding something…
If you are able to edit the RTs, these are “old-school” retweets – that’s for sure. Twitter won’t let you edit anything using their algorithm.
So chances are you were using old-style retweets on your phome.
As for your timeline, I honestly don’t know what to say. Old-school retweets are regular Twitter updates – there is no way they can be filtered out of the timeline…
Awesome difference though i prefer the old RT as i can add my freedom of speech in it
but for RTing Quotes or any saying i prefer the Twitters new RT system…
I don’t think its just me but on web twitter do show a description box to tell user that this picture of stranger is not bot or machine but some other user on twitter RTed by some one you follow.
From my experience, many 3rd party Twitter clients do not show official Twitter RTs in your feed. If you are not using the Twitter.com interface, you will likely miss official Twitter RTs. Many people don’t know about this and it is often a very overlooked issue.
Hey David, thanks for the comment! I haven’t used all of them – I can only say that Tweetdeck does show Twitter RTs as replies; whereas Seesmic doesn’t show them at all.
i use tweetdeck so it does not matter for me what’s come or what not??
We (Twoolr) make the difference between RTs and ReTweets when we count them because, yes, we think there is a difference
Great post btw, a lot of new twitter users don’t know the difference…
Wow, great way to put a little light in the darkness of my twitter knowledge (I’m a newbie, guess you can tell). Thanks for this post. Was using the new retweet button so far but will use the old one from now on, cause it will suit my needs better. Thanks again.