What is a Twitter Retweet, RT? Why don't my RT's Show?

Twitter has a Re-Tweet page that offers a couple of different tabs. Here are a few things you might want to know about the tabs and the functions of those tabs. Some people find this whole retweeting thing a little buggy…. or to have a few bugs. So if it’s got bugs, call on your pest control guy!

Retweets by Others -

In this Tab you will find Retweets by

I like this tool because it will show what is hot or trending within your actual peers/follows. Although it doesn’t work all that well because Twitter only counts retweets done through twitter, or acceptable APIs. The add a comment and ‘RT ‘does not count as a twitter retweet.

Retweets by You -

Odd.  I’ve retweeted countless times, but for some reason, the only retweet I sent out it’s showing is one from July.  WTF?”

Alan Bleiweiss The New Twitter – A Quick Review

For the same reason above, a RT with a comment or a simple reposting of someone’s tweet with ‘RT’ in front of it does not count as a twitter retweet.

For example:

RT @AcmePhoto: One upping @AlYankovic’s Weasel Stomping day with a “Cricket Stomping Day” even @bendenny @Thos003 don’t offer this service.     6:12 PM Sep 25th  via Echofon

Sorry, Echofon doesn't do real RTs

 

Now while that appears to be a retweet, it does not count as a retweet. Most twitter applications will not do a Twitter retweet.

How can you tell?  Twitter retweets will have a round arrow looking thing in front of them. Plus under them you will see, “Retweeted by ______” See Below:

Now that was a legitimate retweet.

Your Tweets Retweeted

This tab will show what others have retweeted from you.  Granted, this too only counts twitter retweets.  However, you can find RT’s that were not counted as twitter retweets in you mentions. So your RT’s that are received outside twitter are mentions…. The Good News is… YOU CAN RETWEET THOSE RTS that are only counted as mentions!

Hope that helps.

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