Don’t just retweet; tweet your own stuff, too

Don’t just retweet; tweet your own stuff, too

One of the steps I take when someone retweets me is to head over to their Twitter profile page to see if they have anything I can retweet. I find it’s a way to give back to those who gave to me. My preference is to find tweets that they’ve written themselves (as compared to tweets written by others that they have retweeted) because I want to direct my followers to their content.

Every so often, I come across a profile that has little original content. In fact, it’s virtually all retweets.

Don’t get me wrong, retweeting is a good way to engage with other Twitter accounts, but if retweets are the only way you engage with others, you’re not community minded. Plus, when others retweet something you retweeted, their readers will see only the original tweeter and the new retweeter. Your contribution to the conversation will be lost.

Like I said, retweeting serves a purpose and is a great way to show people that you like their content, but you must balance your retweets with comments and your own original content.

Original content can include commentary on content you’ve found elsewhere or content you’ve created yourself (such as a blog post). When you tweet original content that others find valuable, others will retweet it. When they do, your name and your tweet will show up on their followers’ timeline, driving traffic to your content.

If you want to be a part of the conversation, they contribute to the conversation.

By Kim Siever

I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business. Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.

1 comment

Comments are closed.