David Barnes @ Packt

Why you should switch to Old Style RTs

I’ve started using Twitter again after nearly a year of quietness, and one thing that’s really annoying me is the new retweet system. OK there never was an “old retweet system” but the new twitter with all its popouts and rollovers makes putting an RT together yourself all the more fiddly. The new style is convenient but just not as satisfying — you can’t easily see which of your friends did the retweeting and you can’t add your own remark as you pass it on. And if your retweet itself gets retweeted you receive no credit at all. Yeah we retweet out of kindness and all but let’s not pretend that we don’t want it to earn us some followers along the way. I have switched back to OLD STYLE RTs. You know, the “RT @coolguy” style, and here’s why you should to:

1. Claim your finders fee. The great thing about oldschool RTing is that they are WIN-WIN-WIN: the original poster gets exposure, your followers get better content, and you get “finders credit” — your own pic appears, your ID is prominent. Your followers know that you’re providing this stuff and will collapse with gratitude. The new RT system means that the finder gets far less credit and loses the selfish motivation to RT. I AM ONE SELFISH SOD. Reclaim what is rightfully yours. Use old-style RTs.
   
2. Add your comment. The old-style RTs mean you can add your own comment as you pass on the tweet, and that was always part of the fun.
   
3. Let the original tweeter know you tweeted them. Have you tried to find out who’s retweeted you recently? It’s hideous and you can never be sure you’ve got everyone. Half the time Twitter says “retweeted by 1 person AND OTHERS”. I want to follow anybody who’s smart enough to retweet me… it means they know good content when they see it. I want to thank them. New style RTing makes that a fiddle.
   
4. Improve your English. Editing other people’s tweets to keep the essence while staying below 140 characters was a superb way to make your own writing more punchy.

How you can do it It’s easy to do. Just as easy as the new style in fact. If you use Twitter.com and Google Chrome get this extension. If you use any other browser get this bookmarklet. If you use some other Twitter client then maybe somebody will post help in the comments.

Please old-style RT this post.

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