ReTweet This, It’s Easier Than Linking Back

Retweet MeSince the rise of services like Twitter and FriendFeed, blogs have been at war with them. Last year, the war turned into bloodshed as linkbacks to blogs started to decline, while retweeting via Twitter continues to shoot up to stardom. Don’t believe me? Name 5 blogs that don’t host the tweetmeme button that you read everyday. (Don’t worry I’ll wait…)

These days it seems you’re more likely to get a retweet for your content before a linkback to it. Not surprisingly so due to the huge difference between the process needed to create a linkback versus a retweet. Let’s examine, shall we?

The Effort Of Retweeting Versus Linking Back

Retweets are so much easier to create from Twitter’s site or a client. Linkbacks usually require some type of blog posting to make it official. Not everyone blogs, but a lot of people like to tweet. Another reason retweeting might be more favorable is because of the size of one’s audience. On a blog, it’s much harder to build up a nice size audience, which adds more value to the content you choose to share. However, gaining a couple hundred followers on Twitter and following the many Twitter tips out there, adds value to content shared more quickly than most blogs can do. It’s a trade-off that for mainstream, seems a lot easier and more helpful!

Social Limitations On Sharing Content

On another note, it’s a lot safer to retweet content that you enjoyed reading also, with a small comment if there’s room left. Readers on your blog don’t necessarily want to be spammed with the content that YOU enjoyed reading. They come to your blog for your insights or commentary. Linking back is great, but you’d better have an angle to add to the story. No one just wants a link to the story. We want to here your opinion too.

However, it’s the norm to retweet stuff on Twitter. People look forward to it. Clearly there are different social limits and restrictions on Twitter versus a blog depending on the content you’re sharing and why you’re sharing it.

So What Do YOU Think?

chat

  • Is retweeting the new linkback for you?
  • As mainstream hops on, can we expect to see more stats being integrated into search engines and analytics programs for retweets? (Most URL shortening services are taking note of this)
  • What’s in the future of retweeting? What about linkbacks?
Corvida Raven

A natural pioneer at grasping the rapidly changing landscape of technology, Corvida Raven talks tech in plain English on SheGeeks.net.