Don’t Be A MeTweeter
The retweet is the backbone of the entire Twitter network. It allows messages (and, indeed, knowledge of users) to move rapidly throughout the system and it’s very possible for one tweet to reach millions of other users if it’s retweeted enough and by the right people.
What this means is that even if your network is relatively slight, because Twitter itself is open – everybody is connected through everybody else – your reach can still be significant.
What this also means is that retweeting mentions of yourself is really very foolish indeed. It looks completely egotistical (which of course it is) and accomplishes almost nothing.
I’m sure you’ve stumbled across some of these individuals:
- Those who seem to retweet every message they ever get sent. By anybody, about anything, and at any time.
- Those who retweet any mention they get that is even the slightest bit positive.
- Those who retweet every single #followfriday mention they ever get. (I still can’t figure this one out. WHY do it? The only people who will see this are people who are already following you and anyone else who was included in the inevitably grouped-together mass #ff post, all of whom are already aware of you thanks to the recommendation. And now you’ve just pissed them all off.)
- Those who retweet themselves. Yeah, because that last observation you made was so good, it would be nothing short of a crime to make double-sure that nobody missed it.
All of these actions attempt to accomplish one thing, and that’s to make the person doing it seem more important than they actually are. Look everybody – somebody else is talking about ME! Self-promotion in social media is very much par for the course, but trying to draw attention to yourself using these kinds of methods is entirely superficial. And to observers, blatantly so.
(You’ll notice that these practices are very common amongst the mass-followers/mass-marketers, i.e., those who can only get tens of thousands in their network by following tens of thousands themselves. Anything for more attention, even if it is an entirely futile attempt.)
If you want to thank somebody for a positive mention or #followfriday recommendation, you should absolutely feel free to do so. But do it properly, via a simple ‘thank you’ reply.
Don’t turn a retweet into a metweet by making it all about you.
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On the other hand…if you’ve tweeted something in the morning and it may be relevant to the American reader, why not retweet it? Judiciously and occasionally rather than incessantly, of course. But if you have something to say and aren’t sure people have heard…
Re-submitting information over different time-zones is a different thing (IMO) and something that is far more acceptable. It’s actually good practice for bloggers, and I’ve written about it before here.
Even then, doing it in a “RT @Sheamus Blah blah blah…” way is very bad form, and that’s essentially what I’m getting at in this piece: avoid RTing your own name.
A good piece Shea. Self promotion is inevitable on social media but you need to give a reason for someone else to care about what you have to say. “I’ve written something you may find interesting here.” is more than acceptable. “Hey everybody look at me, me, me!” is most definitely not.
Sheamus – Thank you for your blog post. I giggle slightly because you must not travel much in the “Twitter Love” community. There is quite a lot of that in some of the circles in my Twitterverse.
My perspective on it is, it depends on the who is doing it:
If someone telling me why I should never get my teeth whitened keeps MeTweeting there is a good chance they are getting blocked. But MomsofAmerica? I think it has perhaps just become the way people say thank you and keep the RT wave going as pointless as it may be. Is there really any harm in it? Watch a different Tweetdeck column for a while.
Many times in my experience, the people that do this kind of Tweeting are loyal followers, good RTers of content too, interact, and have a general positive Twitter spirit. So let’s be easy on the MeTweeters. Many of them are just trying to do the nice thing
Cheers – Perri
.-= Perri aka @bethebutterfly´s last blog ..The Hashtag Crash =-.
You’re quite right that @MomsOfAmerica wasn’t the best example, because while they very much fit the criteria there was no malice or ill-intent there, and I’ve now replaced them with a more worthy offender. My criticisms are mostly aimed at the mass-following, internet marketer types who do this on an irritatingly regular basis, but regular folk make these (what I perceive to be) errors in judgement, too.
That said, there’s good practice and bad practice and I don’t think we can make excuses for the latter just because somebody is trying to be positive. And I think there’s certainly the potential for harm in terms of how your network responds because I know I’m not alone in finding this kind of behaviour annoying. (And more often than not, certainly in my experience, it IS of the ‘look at me’ variety.)
Moreover, I have absolutely no knowledge of this “Twitter Love” community of which you speak, but I must say it sounds positively awful.
But I guess if the bulk of your community adopts (or expects) the same type of (otherwise frowned-upon) behaviour, then everybody goes away happy! Ignorance is bliss. 
Thanks for connecting and responding. Check out my list Twitter Love http://twitter.com/#/list/bethebutterfly/twitter-love-xoxo
You probably won’t like it. You don’t follow many as it is, so this will look like a jumbled mess to you, but to me it is a community I have built.
There is something for everyone on Twitter. That is the beauty of it…
.-= Perri aka @bethebutterfly´s last blog ..The Hashtag Crash =-.
I know quite a few people who do this and I’ll admit it does irritate me
I can understand retweeting something at different times and, yes, i’ve done it – but I never do it as a retweet, I generally write a whole new tweet so it’s not the same sentence.
Good post. Retweeting it
Those people have a belong a special place in my heart: The Block List
Good tips. The only time I Retweet tweets that include me in them, is if the host of a blog where I am doing a guest post, or if the host of an online radio show I’m going to be on, tweets about me being on their blog/show. I want to give the blogger/show host credit, an expose their show to my peeps, while letting my followers know whatI’m up to, in case they want to tune in.
Yes there is still a bit of ego involved, but it is just a part of my twitter stream, along with a mix of other useful tweets that I hope provide value to those who follow me.
This is a good article for newbie twitter users.
I have occasionally retweeted someone who retweeted me. This was usually when I thought the information or statement should be posted again, and retweeting someone else's retweet of mine seemed a little less egotistical than just retweeting myself (like I'm saying, “Hey, I just like what this guy says (even if he's just retweeting me…)”
). That happens rarely, though.
I agree with you though, about RTing FFs (and FFs in general!). I was once following a person (who had quite a large follower base, actually) who would vomit out tons of FFs every Friday. I guess she felt she needed to mention everyone or they'd get offended. I'm talking 10, 20 FFs, each with 5 or 6 names in it.
People started getting annoyed and would RT her FFs just as a joke, just to show how ridiculous this endless stream of FFs is. One time a guy RTed the FF that contained him and 5 others, and then someone else from the list RTed it again, and so on, until all it was was a string of RT @usernames. Was quite funny.
She toned down her FFs shortly after that. But I eventually stopped following her anyway.
Good points. I have, unfortunately, run into a lot of people who do all of this. It's annoying even if you are not following a lot of people, but even more annoying if you are. By the way, recheck the sentence “Yeah, because that last observation you made was so good, it would be nothing short of a crime to make double-sure that nobody missed it.” because I think you meant “NOT TO make double-sure” there.