What Does RT Mean on Twitter? Re-Tweet (Total World Domination)

Learned what RT means on Twitter yesterday. Re-Tweet. Essentially you type "RT" prior to a Tweet that you are re-posting from another Twitter feed. Make sure to include the owner's Twitter handle after "RT". (Ex. @kamimauzy) Here's a Tweet I re-posted (re-tweeted) from the Malibu Boats Twitter feed today in honor of Memorial Day.

RT @malibuboats Remembering Marine Corps Cpl Joshua D Pickard, 20, killed by a sniper Dec 19, 2006 near Fallouja. http://ping.fm/8e68o

Josh is a hero in our area and I thought it was appropriate for me to re-tweet (RT) this sentiment to my Twitter friends (followers).

There's a lot of power in re-tweeting (RT). Your followers don't always follow the same Tweeters that you do. That means they may not have seen whatever amazing 140-character micro-blog post that you did. I follow Malibu Boats on Twitter so I saw the Josh Pickard post, but chances are most of my Twitter friends (followers) did not. So I re-tweeted it. (Secret: I Twitter on behalf of Malibu Boats, cause I work there. So I cheated on this example, just a little.)

If you post something on Twitter that you want people to re-tweet (RT) add something like this to the end of your post, "RT plz".

Thanks to everyone for the amazing response to #savehashtags. We still need your help http://tr.im/savehtags (RT plz)

Check out that link. Hash tags is a cool thing and they need help. If you want to learn about Twitter hash (#) tags too check out my earlier blog post.

Of course not everyone will re-tweet, but depending on the content of your post, you may be surprised. In my limited experience, the posts that tend to be re-tweeted the most are free of cheap advertisements and marketing crap. Most the re-tweets I see in great numbers are genuine, normally, helpful pieces of information.

Now that we know the technical meaning of "RT", let's think about the implications that a simple Twitter tag like this can have on the "big picture". If I post a Tweet to my 108 Twitter friends (followers), then 108 people have the opportunity to read my tweet and learn about me. Cool! But if that same post is re-tweeted by one of my Twitter friends (followers), say @lizasperling who re-tweets (RT) a lot of good info, then all of her friends (followers) could also see my tweet. You may be saying to yourself, "big deal!" But do the math. @lizasperling has approximately 2,223 followers. That makes my tweet visible to an additional 2,223. I just expanded my friend (follower) network by more than 22 times.

Another one of my Twitter friends (followers) is @thebrandbuilder who has over 10,000 followers. Then there's @johncmaxwell who has nearly 18,000 followers. Those are just 3 of my twitter friends (followers). Realistically, I would have to post something really really good to have discerning tweeters like Liza Sperling, Oliver Blanchard and John C. Maxwell re-tweet (RT). It could happen, but I think you get the point. With just 3 re-tweets (RT) of my inspired 140-character hypothetical post it could be in front of more than 30,000 tweeters in a matter of seconds. Think about that!

Lesson I'm learning: tweet often and tweet well. Think of others. Try to help. I'm looking forward to an RT.

See, Twitter and re-tweeting (RT) is the doorway to total World domination. Ha... like anyone would want that. @kamimauzy [kah-mi-mah-zee] out!

Tags: Amy Mauzy | kamimauzy | re-tweet | RT | Liza Sperling | Oliver Blanchard | John C Maxwell | Twitter