Twitter Workshop
This information is designed to help you become literate Twitter users and to complete successfully the Twitter assignment.
On Twitter @replies and RTs
@reply/@mention
The @reply is the oldest of the user-created functions of Twitter (when Twitter was released it didn’t have the @reply). Twitter has made the functionality of the @reply quite complex but here are some samples to help us along the way: When you @reply to a follower (or click the “reply” arrow under a tweet) the tweet will only be seen by those who follow both you and the person you are replying to:
@thisistomwink This tweet will be seen by Tom & people who follow both Tom & me. People who follow only me and not Tom will not see it. — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
If, however, you have something you want to say that you think that Tom and all your followers would like to see, there are several options:
.@thisistomwink Note the . before the @reply. The period allows the tweet to be seen by Tom & ALL my followers. — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
.@thisistomwink Note the . before the @reply. The period allows the tweet to be seen by Tom & ALL my followers. — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
I’ve just posted “Awesome Blog Post Title”! http://t.co/f5610S4aKq cc @thisistomwink @authormentioned @otherauthormentioned #wecf13 — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
These tweets, however, will not be seen by all of Tom’s or any of the @mention’s followers. If you’d like those people to see the tweets, you can either cc all of them by going through the follower list (a pain in the neck) or politely ask the person to retweet (RT) the tweet to their followers:
I’ve just posted “Awesome Blog Post Title”! http://t.co/XTyG9NqUpk cc @thisistomwink Please RT! — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
Retweet/RT/MT/Retweet to Followers
You will see retweets in your feed in a variety of formats as different Twitter apps employ different means of retweeting. The web site asks if you want to “retweet to your followers,” which just forwards on the tweet and adds a little icon letting your followers know it has been retweeted. To retweet a tweet to your followers, all you do is click the little retweet link under the tweet in your timeline. A pop-up window will appear asking you, “Retweet this to your followers?” Then click Retweet. This functions allows users to filter the kind of information they send forward. Some tweets will have an RT in front of it. The RT was created by the users; though it’s functionality has been abandoned by Twitter many of the Twitter apps still use it because the users like it. It allows you to comment before the tweet so you’re not just forwarding something on:
Yes, excellent. #wecf13 RT @mhawksey: Great post by @readywriting looking at ‘How to Archive Your Favorite Tweets’ http://t.co/ciMNcr5vXy — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
Some tweets will have an MT where an RT might go. MT stands for “modified tweet.” This happens when you want to RT a tweet but doing so exceeds the 140 character limit. By writing MT, you are indicating that you changed some of the words in the original but are keeping the original meaning intact:
MT @stainwaynerook: Impostor syndrome is def my biggest fear in blogging. Not good enough/fresh enough etc http://t.co/U4q6fN7Rv7 #wecf13 — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
In other instances you might see a tweet hat has quotation marks around it. This is a retweet that says, basically, that you are quoting a tweet:
“@CMaxwell_: Excellent column about of the evolution of TV “fandom” from @EW http://t.co/9wyB5Y85gB #wecmondays” — Bill Wolff (@billwolff) September 10, 2013
All of these options succeed in doing the same thing: taking a tweet from a person you follow and sharing it with all your followers. Use each as needed depending on the goal of your tweet.