To Tweet is Human; to Retweet Is Divine
Posted on Mon, Nov 22, 2010
By Peter
The power of Twitter can no longer be underestimated and it has been this way for some time now. Once considered nothing more than a mindless fad, Twitter is now viewed as the go-to source for real-time information gathering. CNN.com is even reporting it aggregated more than 100,000 tweets about November's elections alone. But most people who use Twitter have no idea why they are using it and a large percentage of new users stop tweeting within a few days. For this reason, Twitter has hundreds of thousands of inactive accounts. One way to make the most of your time on Twitter and to keep this inactivity from happening to you is to engage beyond your own circle.
The power of social media engagement – and of retweeting – helps build a following and a reputation on Twitter. I tripled my followers in one day just by engaging Chris Brogan regarding a presentation he gave at a conference in Boston. It was a simple message, complimenting him on a comparison he drew during his talk. He retweeted and replied to me, much to my boss’ jealousy and excitement, with an appreciative “thank-you.” A few weeks later Boston TweetUp founder Joselin Mane retweeted a small message I wrote regarding the Chilean miner rescue that was going on at the time. Boom! Ten new followers in an hour. In a service where millions of messages are posted each day, it feels good to know someone is listening and that I have an opportunity to talk with people I really admire and respect who might not otherwise get a chance to talk with me.
Now I try to take the time each day to engage industry thought leaders, retweet things I find important or amusing, and mention certain people when posting tweets of my own if I think it pertains to them. This has helped me build my following even further, and it also provides a sense of self-satisfaction when I see people responding to me. It’s nice to be noticed every now and again.
Now go out into the world and tweet all that you can, we’re dying to hear what you have to say!