Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and in social media circles, that means retweeting somebody’s content.
But what do you do when you check your Twitter mentions (@PublicityHound, below your photo) every day and see that, say, more than a dozen people—or two dozen, or three dozen—have retweeted your content during the last 24 hours?
I’ve noticed fewer people thanking me recently, and I haven’t taken the time to thank people for sharing my stuff either.
Would you thank 36 people, one by one? Or does that just add to the noise?
Is your time better spent gathering more interesting content to share? Does it bug you when you read a slew of “Thanks for the RT” messages from people whose content you’ve RT’d?
Or do all those thank-yous make your day?
(Shutterstock photo)
My thoughts here: http://j.mp/8GYwfC
In short, I think in general you shouldn’t thank people- it doesn’t do justice to the dynamic of what you should hope to be on Twitter.
Max, this is an interesting conversation, judging from your blog post on this topic, and the comments you received. You beat me to it!
Thanks for sharing the link.
Interesting post Joan,
The trend I have noticed is that some people are consistent at thanking people for RT’s while others never seem to take this step. My goal is to thank everyone who retweets one of my posts and hopefully I do acknowlege everyone.
In situations where many people have retweeted something, I usually thank everyone in one tweet rather than sending separate messages to each person. However, I currently have less than a 1000 followers so it’s much easier for me to manage compared to people who have thousands of followers.
Cheers!
Kelley
http://www.FearlessSellingBlog.com
Kelley, sometimes “thousands of followers” can be a huge disadvantage, especially if many of those people are following you for the sake of getting you to follow them in return and have no clue what you write about and really don’t care.
I’d rather havee a smaller, more loyal following.
I’m back & forth on this. If I do thank people I try to put what I’m thanking them for (to give context). Like this: @_____ Thanks for the RT of my story about press releases: URL
Or, my other way to handle is to look through their stream for something I could retweet. Return the favor.
I’m not good at either but have noticed that I get more unfollows if I do too many thank you tweets. I know my followers are sensitive to getting value and that I don’t waste their time. My other Twitter account is much more open to thank yous and personal tweets.
Great topic!
Janet
@Newspapergrl
@Onlineprbook
Janet, I like the idea of explaining exactly what they’re retweeting, and looking through their stream and RTing their content. Thanks for sharing.
Gratitude is important for me to show to others. I try to thank everyone for their retweets. There are a very limited number of people that I don’t thank every time but that’s because we retweet each other on a regular basis.
I feel good when people thank me but it’s not necessary on a continual basis. If someone hasn’t thanked me or interacted with me at all, I wonder if they are aware of or care about my activity. If not, I may reevaluate where I spend my time and effort.
Kimberly, I too, have a select group of people whose content I love to RT, simply because it’s so compelling.
I have several Google Alerts, so it’s not that I’m lacking for topics to share. I just don’t have the time to share everything I find.
Although I generally consider myself very polite, I do feel that publicly thanking people for re-tweeting DOES add to the noise, and it does bug me to read a slew of them. And posting the public thank you is almost like shameless self-promotion. Unfortunately I don’t have the problem you do Joan, with scores of people RT-ing me (although I HAVE RT’d you!)
Ginny,don’t be concerned about not having a lot of your content RT’d. Go find interesting, helpful, controversial content, and you’ll get more RTs.
As for noise, you can thank people in DMs. Just hit @reply to the, type a D and a space in front, and message goes to Dm. Public thank yous, I wait until I do all together in one tweet.”Thanks for your community”…
Tweets retweeted with the BUTTON are harder to thank so I don;t usually.
I tend to do thank yous by DM. Sure, it gives the person a tiny thrill to see his/her ID mentioned — but a greater thrill is being mentioned for something besides a thank you. So I try to find some recent tweets of others and use those to mention them.
Once in a while when a handful of people mention me regarding the same thing — I’ll thank them in a single tweet.
I think it wastes tweet space and it should all be done in DMs. But we’re human and we want to show gratitude.
In reality, you have people who support this and people who despises this. There are simply no rules in social media — just suggestions and guidelines.
Meryl, I love DMs that are not blatant commercials for something that people are selling. This is a great way to really endear people to you.
Thank you, Joan. I’m so happy I came upon your site today. As someone quite new (3 months) to the blogosphere, I need just the sort of information you so generously provide. I am even newer to Twitter (I tend to resist technology!) and am sure I’m making all sorts of faux pas simply because I’m not sure what the rules are. I am always extremely grateful when someone comments on a blog or tweet and like to thank them. Of course, when I begin getting hundreds of comments on each post (yeah, right!), it could become a bit difficult.
Jean
@delightfulrepas
(and, no, that isn’t a typo; Twitter couldn’t take one more character)
Good question Joan. I think its personal preference. Yes the Twitter feed can get clogged with tweets like “Thanks for the RT” which brings no value to anyone but the RTer, but if we add why we’re thanking them and perhaps a link (like Janet mentioned) someone who missed your tweet from before might see it and find value in it. 🙂
This is an interesting topic and one which I am reading a lot about at the moment. I don’t really know the best way to go about thanking for tweets other than individually writing @ then the name, then a thanks. Any automated ways of thanking person with the link they RT?
I joined Twitter late, not really knowing what I was doing. So much of it felt gratuitous. Sales-ey.
Then one evening not long ago I realized that, for me, the real reason for being on Twitter was to listen to people I admire. My own personalized aggregator for personal and professional development.
Which made me realize that I could contribute, in return. I’ve got a 100% referral business, so why pander?
The Twitter experience has been so much richer since.
I mention this because I’ve also wondered whether to thank people for retweets since I’m often thanked publicly. I’ve opt instead to send a direct message of gratitude and not clutter newsfeeds. (Noticed Miriam and Meryl have the same idea.)
P.S. Like what you said on 4-27, Joan, about smaller, more loyal followings. I also like Janet’s idea about looking through the retweeter’s stream for something meaningful to retweet. Seems like a sharper way to say thank you.
Jared, if I retweet somebody’s tweet, I’d much rather see that they’ve returned the favor and retweeted one of mine instead of reading a DM thank-you note.
So keep doing what you’re doing!
Charlott, I think automating the thank-you process sort of defeats the whole purpose of thanking somebody.