Why I Hate “Please Retweet”
I kind of hate that there are methods which get people more retweets. I kind of hate that there’s masses of research on how to maximize your Twitter “success”. I don’t like that social media consultants exist. I don’t like that I learn this stuff myself and advise others on how to put it into action. I don’t like it because it’s not natural. I hate the please retweet philosophy.
The art of the retweet
There’s a bunch of analysis out there which demonstrates how you get retweeted more often. The basics are pretty simple;
- Keep your tweet to under 127 characters
- Use longer words
- Be the first to post the news
- Don’t use semicolons
- Make sure there’s a link in your tweet
- Say “please retweet”
- Tweet at 4pm on a Friday afternoon
All based on statistical analysis done by people like Dan Zarrella, all methods that will increase your reach and make sure more people share your content.
Why it’s annoying
The attraction of Twitter is that it’s ongoing chatter. It’s a combined stream of consciousness that I can dip into, and find interesting things. I grow to trust that if I see a link from someone like @bkmacdaddy, it’s probably going to be interesting, so I’ll check it out. I learn for myself based on interaction.
The more statistical analysis there is into what “works”, the more generic Twitter becomes. If everyone knows that saying “please retweet” means their content is more likely to be shared, the more they’ll do it. Do they really think that content is amazing; are they selectively curating or are they just pushing a retweet request every time?
I value people on Twitter who seem to be engaging naturally. If they stumble upon a cool article at 2am on a Sunday morning, they post it then. They don’t wait until 4pm on a Friday because that’s the best time for it to be shared. If I’m going to retweet, then it’s because I value the content (I followed the link, read the article), not just robotically clicking the button because I was asked.
Individuals and businesses are different
Businesses market in different ways. Statistical analysis makes more sense for them. They want to target a certain audience, get maximum benefit for the time investment they make in social media. A “tweeting strategy” is a legitimate course of action.
But now getting a lot of followers and a lot of retweets has become an end to itself. Which means that people are losing focus on being unique individuals, and instead are just following the “best practice”. That makes their tweets look just like everyone else’s.
The aim is not to win
As I wrote recently, competitive social media is pointless. The benefit doesn’t come from trying to win, it comes for people interacting naturally, in interesting and different ways. The people I am most like to notice on Twitter, Facebook, etc, are those who are unique, who have something different about their behavior. If all you’re trying to do in every single tweet is send it viral, then it’s really boring.
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