Twitter etiquette question

[KiwiChick]

I'm new to Twitter, and I'm trying to learn my way around without offending anyone too much or doing anything excessively inappropriate. Can anyone tell me the proper response when someone retweets me? I sometimes get messages thanking me when I retweet other people. Is that a polite thing to do? Is there something else I should do?

Thanks for your advice.

KiwiChick

 

[cmhbob]

I usually will thank people with big networks who RT me, like someone with over 5k followers, because that's a huge boost for me.

I also tend to follow people who RT me, since there's some sort of connection there, in that they liked what you posted. Chances are you'll get a followback out of that.

 

[Earthling]

I dislike those "thanks for the RTs!" Tweets, and I don't do them. I follow people who RT me (unless they're obviously spammy accounts) and look through their Tweets to find something of theirs to RT.

There's no fixed etiquette on this, so do whatever you feel comfortable with.

 

[randi.lee]

Hiya Kiwi! "Etiquette" on Twitter is synonymous to the individual in question. AKA, it changes by the person. As Earthling mentioned, some people don't like the "Thanks for the RT!!!" tweets, while others seem to appreciate them. I, for one, am with Earthling. I think the clutter up my Twitter feed and they're super annoying. You could always "like" the retweet, acknowledging to the retweeter that you saw their effort and appreciate it without cluttering the feed. That's a nice alternative

 

[Ravioli]

Depends on the size of your following and what is retweeted, I say.
What: if it's a personal tweet, it's kinda weird, and I'd ignore it. If it's a tweet reflecting a topic I want more exposure for, or a promotional tweet, I show appreciation with a quick "Thanks for the RT!"

Size of following: if you're huge and hardly manage to respond, then responding to an RT makes the retweeter feel special. That's awesome if you want that. If you're afraid of nurturing over-eager followers though, be like some say an author should be on social media: elegantly quiet. Post a "Thanks to all my followers!" from time to time.

 

[Barbara R.]

Depends on the size of your following and what is retweeted, I say.
What: if it's a personal tweet, it's kinda weird, and I'd ignore it. If it's a tweet reflecting a topic I want more exposure for, or a promotional tweet, I show appreciation with a quick "Thanks for the RT!"

Size of following: if you're huge and hardly manage to respond, then responding to an RT makes the retweeter feel special. That's awesome if you want that. If you're afraid of nurturing over-eager followers though, be like some say an author should be on social media: elegantly quiet. Post a "Thanks to all my followers!" from time to time.

What he said. If you get a lot of RTs, it's impossible to thank people each time, and it's overkill. Say thanks for the special ones that you really want disseminated. When you're still new on Twitter and building your following, you can go the extra mile and say thanks to them all. But RT'ing something of theirs is another way of showing appreciation.

 

[KiwiChick]

Thank you for all the responses. Twitter is like being in a foreign country.

 

[Elias Graves]

It's not necessary to respond to a retweet. Do so if you wish or not. Chances are, the user who retweeted you already forgot about it by the time you sent a reply.

I use twitter for comedy and get hundreds of retweets every day. I'd go nuts trying to thank everyone. I do blanket "Thanks" messages every few days.

 

[KiwiChick]

It's not necessary to respond to a retweet. Do so if you wish or not. Chances are, the user who retweeted you already forgot about it by the time you sent a reply.

I use twitter for comedy and get hundreds of retweets every day. I'd go nuts trying to thank everyone. I do blanket "Thanks" messages every few days.

Thanks for your response. I originally asked this question some time back, but it's interesting to come back now and review the answers I got, having played on Twitter quite a bit over the last few months.

I've been sending a "thanks for the RT" tweet when someone retweets my blog posts, but then I started wondering if that made my tweet stream look rather dull, so I've switched to mixing it up with trying to RT something of theirs instead. It can be a bit of a problem when I can't find anything they've tweeted that I want to share with my followers, though.