Twitter’s official Help Centre describes how to Retweet using the Web interface, but there are other manual Retweeting options.
This post describes them.
Automated (new style) Retweets
The official Twitter Help Centre advises that other users’ Tweets may be Retweeted via the Web interface by the following means:
- Hover over a link
- Click the Retweet link
- The tweet will then be shared with all your followers.
Manual (old style) Retweets
Retweets could theoretically also be entered via the web interface manually simply by typing ‘RT @username: [Tweet]‘. However, if you intend to publish a lot of the variation Retweets often described as Modified Tweets (MT), it may be easier to use popular Twitter client TweetDeck.
One of TweetDeck’s least mentioned but most useful features is the option to modify Retweets, accessed via Settings > Twitter. The final option in the list is a drop-down menu:
Selecting Always ask me forces Tweetdeck to ask the user whether the Retweet should be published without editing, or whether the user wishes to edit the Retweet before sending:
Choose Edit then Retweet to add value to your readership by reorienting the Tweet’s message in some way, perhaps to give emphasis to a point, add a hashtag to broaden the Tweet’s potential readership, pose a question, or to include a link or further information. Remember to edit the default RT in the initial position to MT to signify the fact that you have modified the Tweet
Tagged: Twitter
