Small Business | Forum « Twitter Question: Should You Ask for the Retweet?

Twitter Question: Should You Ask for the Retweet? (10 posts)

Topic tags: promotion, retweet, RT, social media, Twitter

Joan Muschamp (Fagnani) said
1 year, 3 months ago:
Do you ever add “please retweet” to your Tweets? Have you found it effective?
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Melissa Agnes said
1 year, 3 months ago:
Hmm… Good question Joan!I haven’t ever tried this strategy for a couple of reasons. It kind of goes without saying that we’d all love our tweets to be retweeted, so asking for it (in a tweet) kind of seems to take out the authenticity of the action… Also, when you retweet you can’t remanipulate the tweet’s text, so it would stay there within the tweet… Maybe others have had success with it though. I’m interested to know!
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Joan Muschamp (Fagnani) said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@melissaagnes I agree about the lack of authenticit. It seems to me that if a Tweet is worthy I will retweet. But, I do realize time is essenntial and many Tweets get missed, so part of me gets it. Hopefully we’ll hear from some who have.
By the way, if you use HootSuite, you can manipulate a re-Tweet- sometimes it’s necessary to meet the 140 character limit.
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Melissa Agnes said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@joanmuschampfagnani Thanks for that HootSuite tip! I haven’t used them in a while, so I didn’t know
I can see using the “please retweet” strategy for perhaps more urgent or really important news updates, during a crisis, or something like that…
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Debbie Lynn Butler said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@joanmuschampfagnani TweetDeck also allows you to edit/resize a RT. I have seen this “plz RT” used successfully by other people who are drawing attention to a cause like helping a victim of a crime, a cancer patient, or parents of a missing child.
@debbielynnava | # | Top
Melissa Agnes said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@debbielynnava those are exactly the situations where I see them as being, not just a good strategy, but encouraged.
And if everyone did this, it would take away from those worthy causes that really should be retweeted and blunt about asking for it.
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Rich Brooks said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@joanmuschampfagnani @melissaagnes @debbielynnava
What happened to “ask and ye shall receive?”
I’m a big fan of the “please RT!”
(Silence.)
Actually, Hubspot or some similar group found that when you ask for the RT you get it at a much higher rate. That needs to be balanced with overdoing it, or looking desperate.
When I want to get the word out about an upcoming Maine Tweetup which I often organize I always end w/Please RSVP and RT!
As far as authenticity goes, I’m authentically asking for people’s help to spread the word.
Just my .02.
@rich-brooks | # | Top
Frederic Gonzalo said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@joanmuschampfagnani Indeed, @rich-brooks is right yet again on this one. I have read various articles and research that confirms the effectiveness of adding “please RT” at the end of a tweet. Of course, the message itself needs to be somewhat interesting – anyone trying to shamelessly get some RTs for a sales pitch or a lousy tweet is likely to fail.
But I recall a case with the Japan earthquake last year, where Red Cross used the “please RT” in the tweet, and it was super effective. More so than in previous cases when they had not used the “please RT” mention.
As for the comment regarding length of the perfect tweet, usually the shorter the better, since you want to maximize readability and retweetability. Check this interesting article on the topic: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/the-perfect-tweet_b5602
Cheers,
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Debbie Lynn Butler said
1 year, 3 months ago:
Just remember to keep the “please RT” message short so those who RT actually have enough characters left to do so. I’m amazed how many people overlook this.
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Joan Muschamp (Fagnani) said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@fredericgonzalo @rich-brooks I think your points are well taken, and like most other things, it is situational. For meetings, causes, important news, events, etc. I do see the value.
I guess my struggle is when it seems to be shameless self-promotion with nothing particularly significant…maybe I still do hide my light under a bushel too often.
And @debbielynnava is spot on; many like to add a comment with a RT
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