Retweeting — where Twitter users forward messages to others preceded with the letters RT — can be a fast way of getting an insight or link around. Hoping for a retweet? Don’t forget about your name.
Twitter’s SMS-inspired 140 character length already poses a challenge, but if you’re hoping to get your pearls of wisdom retweeted and acknowledged, you’ve actually got even less room to play with. Your message will need to leave space for your user name (complete with @ symbol), the RT at the front, and two spaces. In pseudo-formulaic terms, your maximum length is 136 – length(username). Keeping your message even shorter will arguably increase the odds of retweeting, since it leaves room for others to add their own “me too” variations.
For Twitter veterans, it’s an obvious strategy, but with the service’s rapid growth, it’s worth repeating. To keep your tweets short, make sure you’re using a URL shortening service for any links.
If you’ve got the reverse problem — too many retweets when you’re searching the Twitter stream — we’ve got a fix for that too. Thanks problogger!
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