Twitter is easy to use.

There is a simplicity in a tweet.

Being limited to 140 characters makes it easy for you to create a concise message and share it in the form of a tweet.

Why You Should Retweet

It’s also easy to retweet content.

A retweet is simply sharing someone else’s tweet.

Retweeting creates a viral effect and can cause some tweets to quickly take off and reach thousands of people or more.

So, there is a value in getting other people to retweet your content.

One thing to keep in mind is that you should consider how many of your tweets should be retweets.

There are two ways to retweet. The first way is to click on the retweet button. The second way is to copy and paste someone’s tweet into a new tweet. There are pros and cons to each strategy and limitations based on the tools you use to tweet and retweet content.

The Risk in Retweeting Too Much

Because retweeting is easy to do, sometimes that’s all some people do. They never create their own tweets. That is not a good strategy for small business owners.

Why? If you never post any of your own content in tweets, then you don’t offer anything for anyone else to retweet.

If you retweet someone and then a third person retweets your retweet, then they are actually retweeting the original tweet and therefore it doesn’t really provide you any benefit at all.

One reason to have other people retweet you is that it will attract new followers to you.

You need to develop a voice on Twitter. You need to develop a style in how you tweet.

You need to be consistent in how you communicate if you expect to build an enthusiastic following on Twitter.

How often should you retweet? I would encourage you to retweet daily. But don’t cluster all of your retweets in a short time period. Space them out.

You can use social media automation tools to schedule future retweets. So, you can discover content to retweet and then schedule it to post later in the day or on another day.

Last 10 Tweets

One of the concepts I teach clients is to look at their last 10 tweets. Analyze them to see if there is a variety and a pattern in what you are posting. Do this exercise several times per week.

If you look at your last 10 tweets and discover that all of them are retweets, then you know you have failed. You need to ensure that there is a variety in the messages you are tweeting.

Here is an example of a good mix of last 10 tweets (new to old):

• Quote
• Someone’s blog post
• Replying to a mention
• Retweet of a quote
• Promotional offer with a link to a lead capture page
• Quote graphic
• Retweet of a blog post
• Thanking someone for a retweet
• Sharing your own YouTube video
• Content-focused tip

You can apply the 80/20 rule to your tweets.

Notice out of that mix there are 2 retweets. 20% is a good percentage for retweets. The other 80% should includes your own tweets as well as public tweets to other twitter users.

Experiment with your Tweets

Hopefully, this gives you a good sense of how to retweet and why you should be retweeting.

I would encourage you to experiment. And see what you can do to get other people to retweet you. And then tweet them to thank them for retweeting you.

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer