The two social media words that divide opinions

Retweeting is a funny thing. There are a couple of people I follow on Twitter who i swear feel like the get paid by the retweet. Every post to their Twitter account starts with a RT, or in the case of one individual, she insists on RT every reply to every person @replying her. To me this feels like overusage of the retweet meme and actually quite self indulgent.

Part of me wants to unfollow the pair of them and clean up my stream, but popular opinion has these two as leaders and movers in our local community. So at some point in the future it may be beneficial to me to have them in my circle. Maybe some business opportunity could come from knowing them. So I tollerate the RT abuse.

Asking for a retweet unless for a humanitarian or altruistic cause, is kinda self-indulgent, egotistical and a social faux pas in my opinion. Trying not to be cynical but sometimes the web feels like a shark pool

cheers

Q1: What’s your opinion about people asking you for a retweet?

I generally don’t like people asking for retweets. If a user finds something interesting anyway, and would like their followers to read it, then they can decide themselves whether or not to retweet and pass it on. I can’t remember a time when I have seen some write “please retweet” and that itself has made up my mind to hit the retweet button. That piece of text may make up some users mind but I would imagine it would be a small minority. I can understand why some users do this when they are desperate for their message to be spread but constantly seeing the same “please retweet” message on the end of tweets is not likely to have a positive impact – on me anyway.

Q2: What other ’social rules’, if any, do you abide by on-line?

I try my hardest to credit authors when I make reference to their work. I try not to use colourful language.

Q3: How do you handle it if people break or ignore your ’social rules’?

If someone tries tweeting information as their own or uses language I do not like then I still keep quiet. This is because it is up to the user how they decide to communicate online. People use the platform in different ways and I don’t really have a right to tell them otherwise. I always have the option to unfollow them if I choose to but getting into a discussion about the ways I disagree with another users tweets wouldn’t normally result in a positive outcome. Saying that, if you are reading this and you tweet blog posts/links without crediting the user or at least using “via @” please have another think about why you choose NOT to credit them.

These are all personal viewpoints on individuals using Twitter rather than from a corporate perspective.

Hi Robin,

Q1. I don’t mind getting a retweet request from someone I know pretty well, or if it is for a really good reason. I don’t think people should overdo the RT requests, especially if their purpose is self promotion.

Q2. I have come to loathe automated responses from new follows. I never read them, never send them. Mainly I use social media for business, and I prefer to have more personal conversations via Twitter DM or email. However, I recognize people use social media for all kinds of reasons, and I don’t really judge what they’re doing.

Q3. Like I was saying, on social media we should expect a wide variety of communication styles and objectives. If someone is communicating something in a way that is not consistent with what I’m doing, I’ll probably just ignore them. To me, it’s just noise. By the same token, I’m sure I use social media in ways that drive some folks crazy or puts them off. Unless people are profane or hostile, I say live and let live. All of these comments apply to professional use of social media. People using social media for purely personal reasons – that’s a whole other world. Nice discussion as usual, Robin, et al.