 Last night at a Tweetup in Dallas, a girl who I have become friends with through Twitter asked me why I tweet back a thank you to her when she retweets something I have posted. "Because I appreciate it!" I said honestly. "But you know me." She replied. Recently I have had more and more people asking why I thank them for retweeting me. And some saying that thanks for retweeting is not necessary. In case you live on a less technologically advanced planet than mine, retweeting is when you repost a message (or tweet) that someone you follow on Twitter has posted. You think that post is worthy of sending out to your network, which likely has many different followers than the original person who posted the item. You are in a sense saying, "this is quality stuff that I want you all to see." It is a great compliment to the original tweeter. And I was raised to always say thank you if I receive a compliment. Beyond that, I am posting to my network and yours that I appreciate the fact that you retweeted me. This exposes you to my network as someone who sees value in quality material and will help send that message on to others. People will follow you because of this. These are the reasons that I publicly thank you for retweeting me. Some people feel that kind of thanks is best sent in a direct message, one that only you and the recipient see. But that doesn't spread the love as much in my opinion. Does that make sense? I don't just thank people I am already familiar with. I thank new followers everyday. This further gets their name out and helps to build their network. Applications such as Twitter Grader track how often you reply to people both in your network and out of your network. And for good reason. People who reply and converse publicly, whether it is just to say thanks or to comment further, are more fun to follow. Its great to follow famous Twitter users who have tens of thousands of followers and provide good content on a regular basis. But after a while it gets a bit old if you never hear anything from them directly. And then, if you do hear something back, its only in a direct message. A direct message from a top Twit is great too, don't get me wrong. But it doesn't show your twitterverse that the Twitter celeb is actually acknowledging you. I know that sounds trivial, but unfortunately that's one of the things that gets others to follow you. Twitter cynics will say, "But I don't care if people follow me. I don't need big numbers." Well, good for you. But personally, I like networking with many people. It's sort of my job because I am a recruiter. And if you have a job, or a business, or anything else that networking is good for, then you should agree. The whole idea is to get to know new people. Some of my best resources on Twitter have come from the most unlikely of followers. So thanks to you all for retweeting me. Much appreciated. Cheers, CF So do you agree? Should retweeters be thanked publicly? Am I nuts? Let me hear from you. Labels: branding, MicroBlogging, Recruiting, Social Media, Twitter, web2.0 |
My experience is thank each Tweep 100% of the time until they ask that you don't. If they don't want it, fine. Until then, there's no real reason not to.