How to Retweet the Right Way (With a Comment) on Twitter

Notifications for a Retweet With Comment. Your tweet will show up in the original tweeter's notifications tab, but not their mentions tab. It'll ... Marketing|12minread HowtoRetweettheRightWay(WithaComment)onTwitter WrittenbyLauraFitton @pistachio Justseeagreattweet?Wanttoshareitwithothersbyreposting, AKA retweetingorRTing,thattweet? Cool!Soundslikeyou'regettingthehangofhowtotweet onTwitter.Nowdomeafavor,anddon'ttouch thatretweetbutton! Notyet,atleast.First,let'stalkaboutthechangeTwitter'smadetoitsretweetfeature--areallygoodchange,inouropinion. DownloadourfreeTwitterguideheretolearnhowtotweetyourwaytoabiggerTwitterfollowing. Ifyou'veclickedtheretweeticonatthebottomofatweetlately,youmayhavenoticedthebrandnew"addacomment"feature,allowingyoutocommentonthecontentyou'reretweetingifyouwant. Welovethespiritofthischangebecauseitdiscouragesblindretweetingandencouragesuserstoaddtheirownvoiceaboutwhythey're sharingthatTweet. Beforethisfeatureexisted,usershadtodowhat'scalleda"manualretweet,"wherethey'dcram boththeoriginaltweet(oramodifiedversion)andanycommentaryintothe140-characterlimit. Now,userscanembedthatoriginaltweetwithintheirownmessageandthencommentonitinupto116characters. Now,someofyoumayhavebeenavoidingthisnewoption. Hey,Igetit--we'reallbusy,andskippingstraighttoanold-schoolretweetisfastandconvenient.Andsometimes,that'stotallyOK.Butifyou'renever takingadvantageofthe"addacomment"feature,thenyou'remissingouttheopportunitytoaddvalue totheconversion. TheManualRetweet Yes,Twitter's"retweetwithcomment"featureallowsyoutoretweetwithacommentuptoawhopping116characters.Butthereis anotherwaytoretweetwithacomment,althoughitwon'tallowyourcommenttobeasmanycharacters.It'scalledthemanualretweet, andit lookssomethinglikethis:Yes,itis! RT@username:Theskyisblue. Inthefinalpartofthispost,let'sgothroughhowtomanuallyretweetproperly. HowtoManuallyRetweetin4EasySteps Step1: Copytheentiretweet,includingtheTwitterusernameofthepersonwhosentit. Step2: Pastethatinformationintoabrandnewtweet. Inthisstep,you'llalsowanttodeletethenameoftheuseryou'reretweeting,addaRTinfrontoftheir@usernameandacolonaftertheirusername,anddeleteanyweirdspacing. Inotherwords,changethis: ...intothis: Note:CheckyourlinkURLscarefully,asTwitter'shandlingcanbreakthemwhenyoucopyandpaste.Addhttp://backinifneeded,andbewarethatTwittermightshortenlongURLsbyaddinganellipsisattheend.Inthiscase,you'llneedtomanuallycopyandpasteanylinkURLsfromtheoriginaltweetintoyournewone. Step3:Editthetweetasneededsoit'sfewerthan 140charactersand/orallowsforcommentspace. Killoptionalpunctuation,change"and"to"&,"abbreviate,omitwordswithminiellipses".."and--ifyouabsolutelymust--change"the"to"th"and"to"to"2". Step4: Addyourtwocents. Iliketousethespacebefore"RT"toaddstufflike "thankyou,""you'rewelcome,""+1,"oraremarkaboutwhatIliked,myopinion,andsoon. Press"Tweet,"andyou'redone!   Now we'llcompareretweetingtheold-fashionedway,whichwe'llrefertohereas"autoretweeting,"versusretweetingwithacomment.Howdoesretweetingwithacommentwork?Whataretheadvantagesanddisadvantagesofoneversustheother?Then, we'llgoovertheoriginalmanualretweetandrecapwhyit'sstillimportant,howtodoit,andhowtodecidewhenit'syourbestchoice. AutoRetweetvs.RetweetWithComment Howtoretweetatweet Clicktheretweeticonatthebottomofthetweet--youknow,theonethatlookslikearecycleicon. Decidewhetheryouwanttoaddacommenttoyourretweetornot. Ifyouwanttoskipaddingacomment,simplyclicktheretweetbuttononthebottomright. Ifyouwantacommentontopofyourretweet,filloutthe"addacomment"field. Beforewegetintothenittygritty,firstthing'sfirst:You'vegottofindatweetworthretweeting. Forme,it'sallabout myfavoriteOrangeistheNewBlackactressUzoAduba runningthisyear'sBostonMarathon andsupportingcancerresearch.Ilovedherbefore,butIloveherevenmorewantingtotraveltoBostonforsuchanoblecause--plus,it'sfuntothinkshe'llbearoundmyhomecity...andOMG,wouldn'titberadifshecametoINBOUNDsomedayandgaveaBoldTalk? Anyhow,ahem.Backtobusiness.Onceyou'vefoundatweettoretweet,thefunstarts.Willyouautoretweet orretweetwithacomment? Thefirststep'sthesameforboth:Clicktheretweeticonatthebottomofthetweet--youknow,theonethatlookslikearecycleicon.Awindowwillpopupthatlookssomethinglikethis: Now,it'stimetodecidewhetheryouwanttoaddacommenttoyourretweetornot.Let's takealook atwhatbothoptionslooklikeandhowtodothem. AutoRetweet Anautoretweetiswhenyouretweetwithoutaddingacomment.Soifyouweretoskipaddingacommentand simplyclicktheretweetbutton onthebottomright,the resultingretweetwilllooklikethis: Theadditionofretweetingwithacommenthasnotchangedhowtheseautomaticretweetwork,soifyoudigusingthem,youcanexpectthingsto workastheyalwayshave. RetweetWithComment Ontheotherhand,ifyoutakeadvantageofthe"addacomment"field,theresultingtweetwilllooklikethis: Addingthattidbitatthecommentallows myfollowersto gainabetterunderstandingabout whyIretweetedinthefirstplace.It'spossibletheymightevencareaboutHuffingtonPost'soriginaltweetabitmorebecauseI'vegiventheirtweetcontext,like theOrangeistheNewblack hashtag(#OITNB)andalinktoUzoAduba'sTwitteraccount. Note,though,thatmyfollowersarenolongerabletoclickdirectlyonthelinkthat'swithinthatoriginaltweet. It'snotblueandvisiblyhyperlinkedanymore.HuffingtonPost'sprofilepictureisalsogone. But,restassured,iftheyclickanywhereinthatboxcontainingtheoriginaltweet,they'llbetakenbacktotheoriginaltweetitself. Fromthere,theycanclickonanyURL,hashtag,orusernamelinksthattheoriginaltweetcontains. Still,withoutthevisualcuethattheycanclickon(likebluetextthat'sclearlyhyperlinked),theymightbelesslikelytoengagewiththatoriginaltweet. Iexpectit'sgoingtotakepeopleawhiletogetfamiliarwiththisdistintion,andyoumaynoticelessengagementinthemeantime. I'llalsobealittleself-criticalhere:My commentcopywasabit redundant,givenhowthefinalretweet appears.Iwouldhavedonewelltojustputaperiodaftertheword"Boston"andletpeopleseethemarathonandthecausementionedintheoriginaltweet.Withpractice,we'llallgetthehangofthisslightlynewtypeoftweetcopywriting. Oh,onemorething.Youcanretweetwithacommentasmanytimesasyou'dlike,andwithasmanydifferentvariationsofcommentasyou'dlike.Thisishugelydifferentfromautoretweeting,whereyoucanonlyretweet,un-retweet,andretweetagainifyouwanttore-sharethepost. WilltheOriginalTweeterSee ThatIRetweetedThem? Ifyou'reretweetingsomeoneinhopesofgettingontheirradar,you'llneedtoknowhowvisiblethevariousretweetoptionsaretothepersonwhooriginallysentthe tweet.Here'sthelowdown. NotificationsforanAutoRetweet Yourretweetwillshowupinboththeoriginaltweeter'snotificationstab,butnotthe mentionstab. NotificationsforaRetweetWithComment Yourtweetwillshowupintheoriginaltweeter'snotificationstab,butnottheirmentionstab. It'lllooklikethis: Whymightthisbeaproblem?BecausemanypeoplewhogetalotofattentiononTwitteractuallyrelyontheirmentionstab,nottheirnotificationstab,toshowthemwho'sreachedouttothemspecifically.Thisisbecausethenotificationstabincludesallusernamementionsinadditiontofavorites,retweetsoftweetstheywerementionedin,andothermoreextraneousnotifications.Soifyou'reretweetingsomeoneinordertoattracttheirattention,youmightwantyourretweettoshowupintheirmentionstab,you'llwanttodoamanualretweetinsteadofeitheranautoretweetoraretweetwithcomment.I'llcoverthemanualretweetlateroninthispost. WhatDoTweetsWithImagesLookLike? Let'stakealookatanotherside-by-sidecomparisonoftheautoretweetversustweetwithcommentfunctions,exceptthistime,withanimageintheoriginal tweet. ImagesinanAutoRetweet CheckoutthescreenshotbelowofmyretweetofHubSpot'stweet,whichincludedanimageinit. Noticethattheimagelooksamazingandthelinksintheoriginaltweetarevisiblyclickable.What'smore,myretweetcountedtowardthetweet'snumberofretweetinteractions,asindicatedbythegreenretweeticonatthebottom. ImagesinaRetweetWithComment Inthiscase,I retweetedthesameHubSpottweetbyaddingacomment. Noticethattheimagedoesn'tappearinfullhere--instead,wehavea squarethumbnailthat'ssmallerandalittlelesscompelling. Thetakeawayhere?Ifthemainpurposeofretweetingistoshareacoolorarrestingimage,thenstickwiththeautoretweet. HowDoYouUndoaRetweet? UndoinganAutoRetweet Ifyou don't addacomment,youcanundoyourautoretweetanytimebyclickingthatretweeticonatthebottomoftheoriginaltweet.Itwon'topenuptheretweetingwindowalloveragain.Thaticonwilltoggle onandoff witheachclickbychangingcolorandtheretweetcount. UndoingaTweetWithComment Ifyoudoaddacomment,yourretweetbecomesa wholenewtweetobjectwithit'sownURL.Inotherwords,it'saseparateentityfromthatoriginaltweet,consistingoftheembeddedoriginaltweetplusyourcomment.Togetridofthiskindofretweet,you'llhavetodeleteyourentiretweet.But  CanIEmbedaRetweetWithCommentonaWebsite? Yes,butitwon'tlookthesame.Bloggers,takenote: IfyouuseTwitter'sembedcodetoembedaretweet withacommentinyourblogpost,theembeddedtweetwillappearasahyperlink.Here'swhatit'lllooklike: stokedmyfavorite#OITNBactress@uzoadubawillbeinBostonrunningthemarathontofightcancerhttps://t.co/CkhgRlDaDU —LauraFitton(@Pistachio)April8,2015  Luckily,there'saneasywayaroundthisproblem.Takea screenshotofthetweetyouwishtoembed,addthatimagetoyourblogpost,andthenlinktheimagetotheURLofyourtweet.Thatway,anyonewhoclicksontheimagewillbetakentoyourtweet.Fromthere,they'llbeabletoclickonyourlinksaswellastheoriginaltweet.Here'swhatthatlookslike: Yes,itmeansreaderswillneedtotakeanextrastep,butitgetsthejobdone. MeasuringRetweets Fornow,theofficial retweetcountofatweet(i.e.thenumbernexttotheretweeticononagiventweet)isonlyattributedtoautoretweets. Thismakessense,butitalsoposesaninterestingchallengetothepersonbeingretweetedintermsofhowtheywillmeasurethesuccessofthattweet. Forthepersondoingtheretweeting,it'simportanttonotethatwhenyouautoretweet--i.e.retweetwithoutacomment--thenyou'renotgoingtoseethattweetshowuponyourownTwitterAnalytics.Theonlyretweetsthat'llshowupthereareretweetswithcomments,orthosemanualretweetsImentionedintheintroduction,whereyoucramacommentandaversionoftheoriginaltweetallinonetweet.(I'llgetintothedetailsofmanualretweetsinaminute.) InTwitterAnalytics,aretweetwithacommentisanalyzedjustasanormaltweetwouldbe.Here'swhatyoucanexpecttosee: WhichShouldIUse,andWhen? Bothautoretweetsandretweetswithcommentshavetheiradvantagesanddisadvantages.Here'swhatIlikeanddislike aboutTwitter's"retweetwithcomment"feature: Thankfully,themostobviousdisadvantageoftheautoretweetingbutton--theabilitytotellpeople whyyoufeltatweetwasretweet-worthy -- hasfinallybeenfixed.Nowyoucanadd youropinion,pointsomethingout,specify yourfeelings,andmore.BeingabletoaddtotheinitialtweetisareallyimportantaspectofretweetsthatTwittermissedwhentheyfirstbuilttheretweetfunction. Atthesametime,thenew"retweetwithcomment"feature stillmessesupsomeofthe importantrelationship-buildingrolethatretweetsplay.Why?Mostimportantly,becausetheoriginaltweeterwon'tseeyourretweetintheirmentionstab.Thisis moreofaproblemiftheoriginaltweeterpaysmoreattentiontotheirmentionstabthantheirgeneralnotificationstab. WanttoseehowHubSpotusesTwitter?Joininthe conversationhere. Editor'sNote:ThispostwasoriginallypublishedinNovember2011andhasbeencompletelyupdatedforaccuracyandcomprehensiveness.   OriginallypublishedApr15,20158:00:00AM,updatedJuly282017 Topics: TwitterEngagement Don'tforgettosharethispost! RelatedArticles ExpandOffer SocialMediaContentCalendarTemplate Getitnow Getitnow DownloadforLater