Oneupweb Reviews: Twitter’s New Retweet Functionality

Twitter has embraced the “retweet” by adding additional functionality to its site that could help you build your following.

Access your profile from Twitter.com and you will see two new features:

A Retweet Button— Check messages in your stream for what looks like a recycle symbol. Click and confirm your desire to retweet that message and Twitter does the heavy lifting.

An Organized Retweets Section—In the right side bar Twitter organizes retweets into three categories: Retweets by Others,” “Retweets by You” and “Your Tweets, Retweeted.”

PROS
The retweet button simplifies sharing, as you can now retweet in just two clicks. The old way is more cumbersome, because it involves cutting and pasting the message and adding the letters “RT” followed by the message originator’s username to the beginning of that retweet.

All this sharing could lead to spam. To address this potential issue, Twitter has added a retweet logo, which essentially looks just like the retweet button, to everyone’s profile page. When you think someone is spamming, click on their profile and make sure that retweet logo is not highlighted green. When the retweet logo is “off” that person should no longer show up in your timeline.

Finally, the new retweet categories allow you to better see who’s retweeting what, so it’s easier to find new followers and even undo retweets you’ve made.

CONS
Twitter doesn’t categorize retweets in the new organized section if you’re using the old method. So, if you’re married to the old way of doing things, you don’t have to change your methods, but you won’t benefit from categorized retweets.

Official Oneupweb Review: Oneup Thumbs-Up!