When Retweeting Becomes a Crime

Just this morning, my friend got @reply from one of his Twitter followers to stop the habit of retweeting other people’s tweets.  The request was so hilarious he had to post it on his Facebook wall.  I never knew retweeting can be offensive as it is like an act of spreading goodwill in the twittersphere.  There’s so much that my friend needs to learn when it comes to twitter netiquette without getting burned for posting innocent retweets.

The Anatomy of Retweets

Did you know that there’s a formula for making a retweet?  You gotta be kidding me! The term retweet is a form of reposting someone else’s post by adding RT @name before the original tweet.  Interesting Post < 140 characters = Better Chance of Retweets.  Tweeple use this all the time to spread a buzz on something funny, smart, or interesting.  Others even use it to ask questions.  Having plenty of retweets means your followers love what you’re posting.. but, if you’re the ones making a lot of it, that’s another story.

Stop Being Annoying With Your Retweets

The annoying orange is cute; you’re not.  What can be more annoying than a yeller and a spammer?  You guessed it:  A retweeter.  So, what makes you an annoying retweeter?

1.  You’ve got nothing important to say that’s why you retweet 80% more than you tweet.  You’re definitely not a Twitter bot so try to tweet something inside your head.

2.  You’ve got MEH printed all over your face as you retweet stuff that no one likes to care about.

3.  You are not contented getting @replies from people who follow you and you need to show the world they are your BFF by retweeting their replies.

4.  What’s worse than a useless retweet?  A repeating retweet! Yes, we get it the first time you posted.  There’s no need to retweet over and over and over…

5.  You don’t respect the original post and you tweak the tweet to suit your own voice.  Why won’t you give credit to where it’s due?  If there’s such a thing as Twitter karma, you’ll probably be crushed by the fail whale right now.

6.  You didn’t even care to read the tweet enough to retweet an MLM spam to the rest of us ( and here’s me clicking on the unfollow button after seeing your retweet ).

7.  If you even type the word please, I’m going to block you from my list.  If retweeting is not an eye sore itself, asking people to “please retweet” just adds more insult to the injury.

8.  Having multiple twitter accounts is okay with me so long as you don’t retweet the same tweet to all of these.

9.  Do you think it makes you look cool to retweet someone’s compliment about you?  It’s like meeting you face-to-face and you saying ” Mike says I’m the coolest guy on Earth! “  We don’t do it in the real world.

10.  You retweet something that has been retweeted.  It’s like saying double double tweet tweet..

If retweeting were a crime, we’ve all been jailed somewhere in the clouds without bail.  To err is human and we have been guilty at some point.  So, if you’ve got a twitter ADHD and you can’t seem to stop your constant need for attention, just click on ‘Sign Out’ and give us some peace. < sigh >