The Twitter Controversy Over Thanking For RTs

I think that thanking someone for a RT is thoughtful, but is unnecessary escpecially coz it does act as a “junk tweet” which, if reocurring, might make me hit the unfollow button.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Yep, that is what I’ve heard. Thank you for your opinion!

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Meryl K Evans Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 8:00 am

Second what Daniel said. Or I’ll thank the person in private in a DM. I know you miss out on getting the person’s ID in public… but really, it bugs everyone else except the person.

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John C Davies Reply:
June 12th, 2010 at 11:18 pm

#Agreed. I dm thanks or even better… I try and visit their stream and find something of theirs that’s ‘rt’able. If not… I’ll tweet their bio line. That’ll hopefully turn some new followers their way.
-J

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RW McElveen (Charmed0813) Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 7:37 am

The RT thank-you’s I’ve received have mostly come in a DM. It’s a great acknowledgement but I don’t think anything of it when it doesn’t occur. I would consider thanking someone with a DM RT if its about a personal promo for an event, cause, etc.. Mostly, RT’s are links to info or are funny comments and adages. I’ve never thanked anyone for a RT mostly because I’m not aware of the following audience when I tweet but do appreciate our mutual virtual attachment. Hopefully, over time they have figured out the kind of person they’ve chosen to follow and know the RT is appreciated.

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I thank people who RT my tweets because I have 515 followers, and the “RThanks” can fit in one tweet. However, I don’t notice if someone does not thank me for RT’ing their tweet, and most of the time, people DON’T say thank you. Then again, I am constantly bothered by overappreciation — the e-mail threads that thank each other back and forth as well as having to check my phone for text messages only to find they’re one word: “Thanks!” I think if you have a good attitude on Twitter and otherwise engage your followers then there is no need to call out each and every person who RT’s you.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 4:45 pm

I totally get what you are saying. It really makes sense. Thank you for your comment!

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While it is so sweet of you to thank us, it is not necessary. It will be hard to let go of that personal touch if you do decide to stop thanking for retweets, but it will free up your time to write the next article that we will retweet! Follow your heart!

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

Wow, you are such a sweetheart. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your sharing your opinion.

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@SoulKirk Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 11:48 am

Great article about an ‘ever-increasing’ problem, Diana. I’m about to fall asleep but I’m thinking somehow Lists or (God forbid)a day like #FF for tys? #TY Tuesdays? (Yikes!) Hmm. OK. I don’t know. Maybe sleep will give me a good idea.

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Krystyn Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 7:21 pm

NikkiD pls come back and leave your twitter ID or was your last tweet on the 24th? (@nikkid)

Diana, you have awesome followers.

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I appreciate when people thank for RTs and when I see their feeds “cluttered” with names, thanking people, then I get the idea that at least they’re appreciative and paying attention to people’s tweets….not just tweeting away and ignoring their readers. It definitely helps to do what Jennifer mentioned and put multiple names into the “thanks” tweets, or in the case of having tons of people RTing the same tweet, a general thanks tweet, thanking everyone, wouldn’t be bad.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Yep, that is what I’ve been doing the past few days, mostly just sending out a tweet to everyone that says thank you instead of listing names. It’s nice to know you don’t think that is too impersonal. Thank you for your opinion!

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Mitchell McKenna Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

I take a similar stance to Jessi’s view. I’ll often combine a bunch of @names, add a comment (it’s all about conversation!), and a “Thx 4 RT!” at the end. It shows you appreciate the RT & paying attention to your readers. I don’t think it clutter’s the stream; unless your following one of the @users in the RThanks, you don’t see it.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:01 pm

Mitchell,

Let me ask you this… would you think it clutters the stream if someone sent out 10 or more of those tweets each day? Would your opinion change then? Just curious.

Diana

Mitchell McKenna Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:14 pm

10+ RThanks a day? Not if there was 10 tweets you sent out that all got retweeted. If you sent out 10 RThanks for a single tweet of your’s, I think that would be overkill. Can’t fit all the @usernames in a single RThanks – fire off a couple DM’s. Like I said, I usually have some feedback or comment I like to add along anyway.

Is a RThanks necessary? Obviously not, or I would have unfollowed all my followers by now, lol. Is it appreciated – always

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:17 pm

Gotcha. I appreciate your insight.

Mariana N. Blaser Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 7:06 pm

Just to add something, you could always set the “Thx 4 RT” tweets to be sent in unusual hours, so only the mentioned people would see them. A good tool for it is hootsuite.com.

Hope it helps.

Dylan Blanchard Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

I think the whole issue of “clogging up the timeline” would be lessened if everyone used a client like Tweetdeck (from personal experience only)… I believe that Tweetdeck filters out most of the @ replies so I don’t even see them.

I definitely don’t expect a “thank you” for retweeting – and I usually don’t thank people myself unless they added a comment to it as well.

- dylan

Linda Sherman Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 12:50 am

Dylan – Regarding your comment “I definitely don’t expect a “thank you” for retweeting – and I usually don’t thank people myself unless they added a comment to it as well.”
I prefer to leave a comment with any RT but sometimes the tweet is just too long and difficult to abbreviate. So if comments are your goal I hope you’re leaving lots of space.

@LindaSherman – here thanks to tweet of this post by @George_Williams.

I appreciate that someone thinks that what I tweeted was worthwhile enough to re-tweet . That itself is a big enough thank you!

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

Awww… very nice. I understand.

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Melanie Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 8:41 pm

Ditto on this! The RT says, “You said what I was thinking,” or “What a novel way to look at this issue,” or “This struck a chord with me,” or “I think this is important enough to pass along.” Either way, that is thanks enough!

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seth winkleman Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 9:53 am

Melanie…well said!

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Diana, as a regular RT-er (lol) of your tweets I for one would not be offended in the slightest if you didn’t thank me for it everytime. You show your appreciation in other ways anyway but I think engaging in a conversation about the subject of the tweet is as much if not more aknowledgement than a generic ‘thank you’ if you get what I mean lol?

I guess what I am saying is I don’t think you (in particular) would look rude for not thanking everybody as its obvious you have a stronger connection with your followers than others. Some people I follow will do the RTHX but never engage in a conversation, does that make any sense lol?

Hope it helps a little bit anyway!

Laura.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

That totally makes sense! Thank you! I think you must be one of the nicest people in the whole Twitterverse, for real. LOL Love you babe.

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Laura Walker Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

Glad it made sense and I love ya too sweetie!

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I think it’s just polite to thank people for their RT’s, though I can imagine that when you have tons of followers and RT’s it can get pretty unwieldy.:) I guess a general “Thank You” tweet should be fine in that case.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

Thank you Chinie. I think that is where this is coming down, to just do a general thank you tweet instead of listing names. I really appreciate your opinion on this. Enjoy your day.

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Stuart Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 2:49 am

This is my opinion too.

Originally I’d very much come down on the side of “it’s rude not to thank those that have taken time to RT you”.. but then I’ve only got 400 or so followers so it isn’t hard and my RT’s number in single digits per week.

If I had >10,000 regularly RT me what would I do then? I simply don’t know but I’d like to think that I would somehow keep a personal touch.

A personalised DM would be uber cool but a step too far possibly with 1000′s of users …

I simply don’t have an answer as I don’t see my usage of twitter ever getting me to this many users – it’d be nice but I’m realistic too.

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I was going to try and suggest ‘TYT’(Thank You Thursday) because even though I don’t have many followers, I would hope that they would understand that thanking each person for everything they might do is very time consuming.
Not as a RULE or LAW, just people who wanted to participate.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:09 pm

Hey, that’s a great idea! Have one day a week when we thank those people that have RT’ed or been kind. I like that. The only thing is people might be tempted to take advantage of it like #followfriday. Hmm… we’ll have to give this idea of yours some more thought, I like it! Thank you!

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Laura Walker Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

I like this idea!

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@only1one Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

Diana,
Please understand this is just a point of view and opinion. I do believe their is a little judging without much thought as you seem to have an opinion of the FF and a perception of people doing wrong things with it, I believe you carried it over to a suggestion of mine and didn’t notice.
I understand you probably read/answer quite a bit (Pun)and have ….well I won’t make a mess, no hard feelings.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 8:57 pm

You know what? You are absolutely right and I appreciate your bringing this to my attention. Thank you for that. And… Happy new year!

@only1one Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 6:39 am

Diana,
You are so amazing, I had no idea that you kept such an efficient and tidy place here.
I had no right to confuse or pressure you, please accept my sincere apology, and let me come back to read your efforts with nothing between us but distance.

Regards
J.

I love the personal touch – - and as long as I’m able, I will thank each person who RTs or FFs. I love my followers and I take the time to look at my tweeps’ blogs, profiles, etc. whenever possible and support them as well. I put the @ first to cut down on stream traffic.

The beauty of Twitter is we are all on this journey together. Follow your heart, yes!

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

love your answer! You are always so positive. I really like the personal touch too, and if I end up not thanking people individually, part of me will definitely miss the personal contact. Maybe somewhere in this whole thing there is a happy medium, a way to have our Twitter cake and eat it too. LOL Thank you again.

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As I am out and mobile whilst doing all my tweeting, I find most apps don’t allow for mass @ replies easy, and by the time I get to a comp I would have to send a dozen lists of thank you’s. Either way feels rude but always feel appreciative of all.
I find sometimes instead of thanking I can lead into a quick good conversation or even get drawn into their own timeline and find a gem I missed of theirs to share.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

That is something that I learned from @dudeman718. Instead of sending thank you tweets, he will check out the follower’s own timeline to see if he can find something good to RT, you know, pay back an RT with an RT. It’s a good idea, I may start doing that too.

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Denise Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 5:17 pm

I agree. I don’t RT to be nice to the original person, I RT for my followers’ benefit. If someone thanks me for RTing, honestly it just gets me a bunch of spambots, or people who really make it a goal to have a lot of followers and hope I will follow back. A DM means I get all excited and check my messages, and it’s just a “Thanks for the RT”, no real info or engagement. SO much better if someone takes the time to check out what I have to say and RTs something they find interesting. If people follow me based on that, it’s because they liked what I had to say and may like more of it.

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Thanking for RTs is basic etiquette, and if you have become too big (22000 followers!!) to find time to do it, most might see it as arrogance. Like it or not, most people like to see some sort of acknowledgement landing up in their @reply.

Whether this acknowledgement is in the public timeline or not is a personal decision. My take is, it can even be in the public timeline but should be either once in 12 hrs or 24 hrs, depending on how many RTs one gets. It should be a bulk acknowledgement and not individual, so it won’t clutter the public timeline.

Twitter id @amancool5

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:27 pm

See, that is what I am afraid of. It would really hurt me inside if anyone took it as a sign of arrogance. I know I used to think that about people when they didn’t thank me. Like they are “too big” to say thank you, you know. I think the whole key is to do a bulk acknowledgment instead of individual, like you’ve suggested. Thank you!

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“Thanks for your comment”?? This “thanking” thing is clearly in your blood. It’s actually very good manners, and you’re clearly a quality person..

Well, perhaps here (on your blog) its more appropriate. But really, thanking for RT’s isn’t neccessary, and personally I think its a little weird (and slightly creepy even). The reason I RT has less to do with you (the originator) and more to do with the info in the tweet. For anyone to to be offended that they weren’t thanked for an RT calls into question the reason they RT’d in the first place. It smacks slightly of a whole other level of neediness. Twitter, to me, is an info pool. Its about sharing info, I’m retweeting because I feel the info is either interesting, funny, useful, or whatever. I definitely am not retweeting and secretly hoping to be thanked for it. I can’t even grasp why anyone would thank me. What exactly have I done to you (or for you) that requires being thanked?

I say this because I was thanked a couple of times lately, and I really didn’t get it. I belive that those that need to be thanked for RTs should kindly go to facebook (or better yet myspace: they love thanking for “adds” there) to get their fix.

Twitter is more an “info” network than a “social” one

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:39 pm

Wow, what an interesting perspective. I do agree that all this thanking is getting out of hand. Sometimes I check email and it’s just a thank you for my thank you and I admit, I roll my eyes.

But, at the same time, in social media, there are all different kinds of people and believe it or not, even tonight, some people have tweeted me telling me it’s rude and impolite not to send a thank you.

I’m not on Myspace or Facebook; however, if people thank there more than on Twitter, I can’t even imagine it. LOL

I appreciate your insight.

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Alina Here Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

Wow, absolutely, brilliantly said Udeme & right on the money. I also retweet because I found their post to be of value to me or others that follow me. I believe most are appreciative of a retweet & know its value. I just made comments today about the sharing power of retweets and its importance. Thank yous go unsaid, it is simply appreciated. I’d love to quote you Udeme for saying so eloquently “Twitter is more an *info* network than a *social* one.” Brilliance is usually disguised as common Sense!! Thank You. LoL There I said it. lol

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Saying Twitter isn’t social struck me as a bit funny–there’s no contradiction for me between being an info source and being a social space. It’s certainly a conversation space if you make it one.

When I thank people for the RTs I get (and I have nowhere near 22K followers so it’s not a stream-clogger the way yours would be!), I see it as a way to bring those names to the attention of my followers, who may be interested in following people who share some of my interests.

If you think of Twitter like a cocktail party, which is a commonly used analogy, you’d be saying, “Oh, hey, Sam, you like cycling? Barb over here is a bike commuter too and just read that same article that you liked.”

But it’s no big deal NOT to be thanked. I RT all the time and it’s because I think it’s info that’s worth passing along. As I think about this, I feel more warm fuzzies if one of my followers who isn’t the source of the link thanks me for bringing it to his/her attention than if the author says “thanks for amplifying my reach.”

If you’re balancing which types of messages to respond to, I think it’s far more important to acknowledge people who answer any questions you might put out there, to show that you listened to their answers. It doesn’t have to be individual–it can be “Thx @1 @2 @3 for your ideas on my blog title.”

You’re welcome.

@BarbChamberlain

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

Very very interesting… I like the analogy of Twitter and a cocktail party although I have a feeling that Mr. @udeme would disagree. Haha!

You are right, it is far more important to thank those who have helped by answering a question or providing some information than for an RT. I can see that.

I never thought of it from this perspective before. Thanks for opening my eyes to that possibility.

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“more” of an info network than a social one in that it tilts more towards info sharing than actual social connections and the touchy feely comms that come with that.

Then again, at 22000 plus follower there would be more acute etiquette considerations. Someone here suggested a general thank you, which seems to make the most sense (in a mid-ground sort of way)

Heck, I wound up here because of an RT (so Diana, be sure to thank @hlane for that)

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

You know what? I like you, you are spunky, I just followed you on Twitter. LOL

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AlinaHere Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 9:00 pm

LoL you got here first udeme so I shall agree with you once more. I also arrived here because of a RT from Tips,Tools,Status(Twitter_Tips) I thank the sender for great tweets by Retweeting them. Sometimes I openly reply with a comment appreciating the content of their site if warranted. In that way my followers can click their link & decide for themselves if they should then follow. I do agree with barb that anyone who replies to a question should be thanked even collectively so that you can acknowledge you actually read the material. I’m a newbie & just yesterday surpassed my 100th follower. I am elated & trying to learn how to manage reading it all. 22000?? Yikes!! One day I’ll get there, so I figure if they’re following me they’ll get to know my style & my heart and certainly know that I will greatly appreciate every retweet. One can tell alot about a person just by reading their tweets & no, endless inspirational quotes dont count. LoL. When I graduate from Twitterversity I wanna be just as good as y’all. Thank You. Uppss said it again. xoxo

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It can get unwieldy, but a polite thank you is always appreciated. Perhaps include a useful tweet along with the “@ RT thanks” reply. Btw, I prefer “RT xoxo instead of “RT thanks.” Cheers.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:33 pm

Or… RT ~hugs~. LOL I’m a big Twitter hugger too. I’m also a fan of the xxoo like you.

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I think thanking for RTs is polite and appreciative. And I think any opportunity we can inject polite-ness into our conversations is a very good thing, because I think as a whole our society has lost a lot of polite behavior.

Electrons are cheap, the public timeline is expansive – I don’t see a problem, although I too have thought a lot about this (I only have just over 10K followers and can see the potential issues already) – I guess I’ll let the tools help me deal with the noise so I err on the side of being polite and pleasant.

So I end with a quotation from Harvey:

“In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. – Elwood P. Dowd

Thanks and have fun! – Bob

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

Wow, great information right here! I would rather be pleasant than smart also. However, I remember a time years ago when I would have chosen the opposite. =)

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I use a modified strategy. To people that I don’t know- or haven’t seen before- I thanks them in the public stream. Because it feels good to be thanked publicly.

To my friends and “regulars” I send them a DM thank you- because I know they don’t need the public recognition.

The important thing is to recognize RT’s from new people. This presents a great opportunity to engage them.

Thanks for including my Twitter video on the RT! Love your blog. I especially love the little “eye” feature that shows you how many views the page has had. Is that a plugin?

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:50 pm

Your video is great. I thought it was so funny. Thank you for letting me use it! Your strategy is great. Now that I think about it, I know others that use that same strategy. It really seems like common sense.

You know the old saying, “You know when someone is a real Twitter friend because you don’t have to thank them for an RT.”

About whether that is a plugin.. Hmm.. that is a question for @Minervity. He is the brilliant visionary and designer for this blog, and he would be the one to ask that.

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I don’t have that many followers so I’m not in the same position as you. I try and thank everyone at some point in the day. Sometimes I’ll have 2 to 3 days of thanks to do. I do try to group them together to cut down on wasting space. To me not acknowledging a RT or any interaction is like me allowing you to pull into traffic w/o you giving me the thankful handwave. No law says you need to do it but I’ll think twice about letting you in next time. I don’t expect a thank you after every interaction but every once in a while would be nice. At least I know you’ve noticed me and value me as a follower. I follow some folks that no matter how much I tweet them, comment on what they are discussing or RT/MT, I NEVER get any feedback. After a while you wonder why you even bother.

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 6:53 pm

I know, right? You start to wonder if they are even real people. LOL Being thanked for an RT feels good, I know that because I feel that way when someone thanks me. That is why I’m so conflicted about letting it go. Either way, for what it’s worth, I value you as a follower and I appreciate you. ~hugs~

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There are so many factors to consider one is the time one has, relevance to your community, as in your ‘local hood’one factor is for sure; courtesy is appreciated & never goes out of style. It is when the RThanks enters as* kissing zone (clogging the stream). In essence a RT is thanks in & of itself, it is done “for having found ‘value’ in a tweet” which in the short summary & efficiency mode that is twitter is really Thanks enough. The Thanking isa possible inroad to enhancing connections, necessary no, an occasional plus yes.

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I’m glad for this article because I haven’t been on Twitter for a long time and I noticed the lack in thanking for the RT’s too. It didn’t feel like the Twitterspace that it once was. Instead of the warm and fuzzy social atmosphere, it felt like a strange place where you don’t know anyone. The personal touch made it a good place to hang out (especially for moms stuck at home) and feel a little bit social. Its also something that people in businesses always aimed for when it came to keeping in touch with customers and clients.

Its definitely a tough call. But I think that’s one of the things that made Twitter so viral in the first place. It is an information pool with the allowance of personal touch. Its the difference between feeds and other places you can get information from but not have the interaction. Even though you’re not there to get recognized, its a good feeling to know that you’re not just sending stuff out in space (like spam) to non-existent people. So if someone takes the time to RT, its good etiquette to thank them even if it takes a day or two and is bundled up. After all, things can be retweeted without mention of the original source (I think that’s happening anyway) and that’s really rude. I still RT anyway whether or not I get thanked because its just nice to share information that I think someone might be interested in but its also nice to have the feedback so I don’t end up tweeting clutter that no one is interested in.

Like the saying goes, “Its appreciated but not expected.” Appreciation probably does a lot better.

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I never do a RT expecting thanks…I do it because I think the Tweet included information I want to share.

I do thank people who RT me when we have a “special” relationship that I want to acknowledge or when I think I can be encouraging with my thanks.

With the size stream you have Diana I gladly exchange RT thanks for an occasional exchange with you.

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I never thank anyone for a RT – maybe in a DM but never in the stream.
It really annoys me when a person RTs the RT and adds a thanks. It’s like “hey, this person Retweeted me, I’m special and I’m going to tell you all about it”.

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I always thank people for the RT, and just a simple thank you will do. I think we spend too much time thinking what the right way is. I am someone who will thank anyone who RTS a link I post and I always @ it. Other people don’t. Its cool, but no way better than another way. I always say that you do what you think is best. And you can’t go wrong by thanking someone and if that causes someone to unfollow you, then that person really wasn’t going to add value to your stream anyway.

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I always publicly say thank you to people who RT links to my work. It is a small way to say, I appreciate that they took time to read my work and found it interesting enough.

If i shard someone else’s link and they RT’d that link, i don’t say thanks for the RT anymore.

i also don’t say thank you whenever someone RTs an opinion or something i said on twitter but i do make sure to either follow the person or to have at least one @ conversation with him/her.

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I follow a LGBT news site and what they do that I think is a great idea for anyone who gets a lot of RT’s and @mentions is they do a thank you stream at the end of the day.

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I say you should do what your heart says is the right thing to do. If that means some who are too absorbed with themselves, can’t get past thank you RTs (if that’s what you opt to do), then it’s really no loss to you if they unfollow you.

I guess some see this as a “big dilemma”, but I do not. Sure, I have under 1000 followers, and some would say the impact of my thanking people for RTs is minimal, but even if I had hundreds of thousands of followers, and many more RTs, I would *still* thank every one. To me, it is the right thing to do. If that’s a big problem for some who follow me, they’re free to unfollow me. It’s *their* challenge, not mine.

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Its cool – no need to thank – as you said, things move so fast

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How about creating a Twitter List for people who RT you? That way your followers are able to receive recognition for the RT, and you can keep track of which of your followers RT you. That could also function as a kind of “reward” for helping to spread your tweets by adding them to a list created by a highly-followed user such as yourself.
It could perhaps get unwieldy, as lists are presently capped at 500 users per list, but that seems like a possible solution, and way to say ‘thanks for the RT’ without worrying about filling other followers streams with thank you tweets.

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Honestly, it seems like a matter of who gets the last word. Honest opinion.

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seriously??? thanking for a retweet? i’ve never even heard of such a thing. that would be annoying to say the least. it’s like reading someone’s spam email.

people don’t need to be thanked for be retweeted. people have much more important things to do with their time. at least i hope so.

and i’m a very, very polite person; i hold doors open for people, say please and thanks always, but that’s just a bit much for me.

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Sometimes I send a thank you, other times I thank a RT’er by RT’ing them if I can find something good and recent in their stream.

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It could never be wrong to thank someone for anything in any fashion. Yet when it’s a burden to do so, skipping it can be excused. I think you should always do what feels right.

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thanking people for retweeting is a waste of time, you might as well go check out someone’s profile and retweet something of theirs that you like, that way it shows that you read their tweets and that you find them interesting which is a much more awesome thing for you to do than just sending a thank you which requires very little thought and effort

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Not necessarily relevant, but we get thousands of RT’s a week, and get comments about virtually *anything* that bothers people.

With all the *many* things we get taken to task for, no one has ever mentioned our not thanking for RT’s.

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Thanks for writing this! Have to believe lots of people have this same dilemma, yet if all someone sees on a profile is a bunch of “group thank yous”, we have to hope someone will bother to keep clicking “more” to see some actual tweets to see if they even want to follow us. Personally, I don’t retweet expecting a mention/thank you back. I know that person appreciates it and will return the favor if I tweet something that’s of enough value to them. I do try to make the time to find something I want to retweet for someone who’s retweeted me, but some days that’s possible, some not. If not a retweet, I think a personal DM is the best way to do thank, but shouldn’t be expected.

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I do agree that thanking somebody for a retweet is polite. You should make an effort to do so. At the same time, I frown at anyone who’s seriously bothered if you don’t find the time to thank hundreds of people!

Personally, I find mass thank-you RTs somewhat off-putting, nor do I find it particularly inclusive. Reading a string of names in a thank-you RT doesn’t do anything for me. It doesn’t make me check out those names.

If you have time, try to retweet something you find interesting from someone’s stream who retweeted you, as suggested above.

To be realistic though, the larger your following the less able you are to thank everyone or look at everyone’s stream. You have to balance it.

Above all, don’t fret too much. It should be fun still and Twitter being a social medium, the onus is definitely not just on you

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Why don’t we just say “#RTthanks to all who rt-ed for me/my tweets today” – at the end of the day, just before logging off from twitter? Does it makes sense?

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 29th, 2009 at 3:23 am

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best one, right? Yes, it does make sense.

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Dear Diana:

I connect big time with this beautiful article. Retweets play an important part in the growth & sweep of an individual on Twitter. As my good friend, Twitter heavyweight Susan Elaine (@ BuzzEdition ) rightly says, “We can’t do this alone”.

RTs exemplifies what TEAM stands for – Together Each Achieves More. For the re-tweeter, it gives him/her something instantly to share with the follower and for the tweeter, a free introduction to hitherto unknown tweeps. It’s a win-win situation.

Its in the fitness of things that gratitude is expressed when a post is RTed. When you have a miniscule following, one can thank individually via DM, but when you have several thousand followers and your tweets get RTed at a furious pace, its difficult to DM the thanks as one would be spending the major part of time on Twitter doing just that!

I get hundreds of RTs everyday. Thanking is in my nature and I will do, but I don’t do it individually. To avoid flooding timelines with thank yous, I resort to the following:

1. Bundle as many “RT thanx” as I can to fit into 140 characters.

2. I generally, thank later in the evening so that I don’t have to thank multiple times to somebody who has RTed more than once during the day.

3. Since there are many blocks of thank yous, I space them out a bit so that people with fewer follower count don’t get the “flooded” feeling.

4. I respect those who have specifically requested me not to thank them but not including them in my expression of gratitude.

Cheers

Natty
@hnatarajan

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Hi Diana,

I have gone through all the stages:
1. TY for RTs
2. RT for a RT
3. Thx in the heart and good tweets

But after the lists feature and I have a RT gratitude List. I would suggest you to do the same.

@pramitjnathan

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Martin Skinner Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 2:32 am

I think @pramotjnathan hit the nail on the head. It’s basically a process of emergence followed by increasing automation.

You keep it as personal as u can for as long as possible (which u clearly do very well) and you progressively automate through to ultimately (until the next step forward) to RT THX Twitter lists.

Gr8 blog & comments, I now know what to do when I get there.

@martinskinner

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I used to feel the same way, but I’m not offended if someone doesn’t thank me for a RT, so I don’t expect they would be offended if I don’t thank them. A lot of the decision to thank someone is if I have time to do it. If someone RTs me, they obviously thought the tweet was good enough to pass it on to their followers and I doubt they expect to be thanked, but I’m sure it’s nice when they are.

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Honestly, not many realistic people notice whether they’ve been thanked for a RT or not.

But I still like to thank people who RT my tweets although I would be faced with the same dilemma if I had as many followers as you do.

I don’t think it’s very important to thank people for RTs but I think it’s very thoughtful.

I guess this is something one does if they can and shouldn’t be blamed if they don’t.

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Simply, it’s polite to say thanks, but there’s a lot more worthwhile things that can be written instead of a “Thanks!” tweet.

By the way, you’re articles are great and they make me think. Thanks!

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I will generally thank those that Retweet my own posts, from my main blog. These are the ones that are clearly supporting and are very helpful to me.

That’s as far as it goes now.

If I tweet a link to a post on another blog, and someone then retweets that then I will not send on a ‘thank you’. It just doesn’t seem necessary at all.

I also don’t know expect a thankyou for any tweets that I send out off my own back. It’s nice if one receives it, but I certainly don’t now get offended if I don’t. It’s just often too chaotic to achieve.

Even for my own personal posts that are retweeted, I may get in excess of 20-30 retweets… then I wonder if it just looks silly to thank every single one of them, even though I am very much appreciative. So I guess it just depends on the situation or actual quantity, but have basically given up feeling guilty if I don’t ‘thank’ for a retweet.

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We all are growing up on here and sometimes its nice to thank people for the RT, but at the same time, no one wants to read a bunch of Thank yous. Should we start saying “you’re welcome” for the RT? Do what your gut says to do Diana and as long as you’re sincere, people will know.
Scott
@hipstertravel

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We cannot make everyone happy and your overall actions speak louder than … retweets. You are one of the sweetest in the stream. I personally like when someone goes and RTs one of mine, but it isn’t always a realistic expectation when you get that many retweets. Life has 24 hrs in a day and sometimes we can’t just sit there and address every detail we would and still keep this as an enjoyable medium to resource and visit. Cheese and rice, look at you responding to near every post on here? How sweet are you? If people are going to stick with Twitter, over time they will figure out the ropes and learn how near impossible it is to keep up with all of your RTs of you folks with 10K+, 20K+ followers. If they don’t, then they need to find someone, IRL to give you a real time hug to fill that void (better than any RT). I love Twitter, but it does teach you, we can’t do it all and remain a human-driven account.

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Hey Diana,

Interesting post. First, I found this post via a series of RTs, the latest of which was from Heather of @RosevilleRockLn fame. Perhaps you should thank her(?).

We started down the same path as you. We thanked everyone for every RT. In the “good ol’ RT days” it was easier, as all the RTs showed in our stream and we had few followers. Today, the manual RTs are still easy to identify, of course, but we need to check the automated RTs… er, manually. (There’s some irony for you. Perhaps Twitter intended to discourage “thank you” stream clogging.)

Today, it’s getting tougher, given the manual checking of automated RTs and a larger follower base, and we share your concerns about clogging streams with tweets of limited value (to those other than the recipient – I do not intend to diminish the value of a thank you).

With all that said, we still try to thank folks, especially if they have RT’d a marketing tweet for our store. We occasionally fail or are quite delayed. We have recently begun to thank multiple RTers with a single tweet – which addresses some of our concerns about clogging yet still delivers a thank you message.

There is one instance where we have stopped thanking folks, however. We have a few followers who are enthralled by tweeting a series of user names with no message. Then, everyone in the string seems to RT it, to see their names appear over and over again. If there is a valuable purpose for this, we don’t see it. We occasionally RT or thank someone if there is an actual message attached (we saw a lot of this for the holidays), but other than that, we ignore these tweets.

Another thing we have tried to do is “Pay It Backward,” for lack of a better term, by searching the RTer’s stream for something we find ReTweetable and RTing it. Or, if our RTer is another biz or is a blogger, and we can do it in good faith, we tweet a sincere tweet of appreciation about their website.

That’s our 2 cents for now. Like the weather, it could change soon.

Kudos for a great post, Diana, which has obviously generated a lot of discussion. Keep up the good work. Pls RT.

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One tweeter that I follow adds all re-tweeters into a “Thankyou” twitter list. Frequent re-tweeters get added to an extra special thanks list. It’s a great little idea. Re-tweeters see that they’re in a new list and go to see why and find the answer in the twitterlist description. It’s also a good way to permanently publicise your retweeters, rather than on one single tweet.

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I really enjoy true acknowledgment, like saying Thank you to those who made me smile in 2009, or saying specifically why I recommend to #follow someone, but even at just over 2100 follows it gets tricky and stops having any meaning if it is done in groups. So I can imagine that it is mind-blowing with 20,000+ followers.

I like to use a mention or RT as an opportunity to get to know a follower a bit better. I try to thank them by retweeting their content.

The only time I notice that someone does not at least say thank you is when they don’t engage with me at any level, and then I have to look at their content again and decide if I want to continue following them. I follow alot of people who do not follow back even just because of their brilliant content.

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i am re-tweeting a lot, mainly news about science and technology and i would not like to be sent to my seesmic desktop (a little bell for ev. new tweet) just to find a thank-you-note. socially (nice guy or gal) but it might make me RT less in the future, fearing up to 30 RTs on some days, when i do mainly research. so do not worry, we RT, because we find something important, sometimes funny whatever, bec. we want to RT. there is a wonderful saying in the arabic language: no thanks upon something-I-would-have-wanted-to-do-anyway (that is one word!). i love it.
vfb

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While I think thanking for RTs does indicate gratitude, if a lot of your tweets get RT by the same person, thanking her/ him repeatedly may become an overkill. I rather thank somebody new and also if time permits acknowledge by either RT their tweets it saying Hi. Just a thought:) . But most important follow ur heart.

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i do both : Thanking the RTs and Return the favor by RTing their tweets (not blinded though)

Lately its hard for me to thank all because i’m mostly on mobile,so i prefer to RTing back their tweets but most of the time i engaged with each and everyone.

Thank you (^_^)

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As someone who’s still pretty new to Twitter I’m learning as I go, and figured it was Twitter Etiquette (Twitiquette?) to thank for RT. It’s what I see done, and it seems like the polite thing to do. I’m just not sure if you thank someone for RTing you, when you were just RTing someone else? So confusing!

What doesn’t make sense to me is why people RT this “big names” that almost everyone is following. Most everyone is seeing it anyway, so then it just becomes clutter… or is it just a race to see who can RT it first?

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Personally I am really big into RT thank you-s. I feel like it gives me another opportunity to connect with that person individually. I try to personalize the thank you if possible. I am getting into numbers that are less manageable and it takes more time, for sure, but getting to know as many people that follow me & vice versa is my number one priority.

If I am busy sometimes I’ll group a bunch together, but when I send out a new blog post I will actually look at a person’s profile & Tweets, and see what they are about. I want someone to stay connected with me if we resonated in the first place.

At the same time I think everyone should do what they think feels right to them. That’s just me & how I use Twitter. Do what feels good to you, I am sure whatever you do it will be the right decision.

((((HUGS))))

Perri @bethebutterfly

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I think Perri’s right. Doing whatever you’re comfortable with is the thing to do. I don’t think anyone needs to thank for retweets as long as they are participating in the conversation and not just posting tweets.

For a relatively new twitter user like me participating is easier said than done of course without the RT function. For us the retweet function helps us join the conversation. I can well imagine that with 22,000+ followers it’s a different story for you…

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[...] 5 Likes 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling – The Oatmeal 5 Likes The Twitter Controversy Over Thanking For RTs | Bit Rebels I’ve always been genuinely appreciative of all my followers, especially when they give me the [...]

Diana,

Thank you very much for bringing up such an important question. I think the answer depends very much upon how you want to use Twitter and what you want to get out of it.

I prefer to use Twitter in a very personal way so that I can learn to connect with people better. For me, the answer about thanking for RT’s is obvious. I make them personal and individual. I don’t mind if others don’t thank me for retweeting them, but I do mind being thanked in a DM or in an impersonal way (like part of a group thank).

Carl Ingalls (@Carl_Ingalls on Twitter)

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I don’t see the TY list of @names as cluttering up the timeline, rather it’s an opportunity to meet new people, especially if they have RT’d something I also have an interest in.

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It is your twitter stream so you have to follow your heart. The fact that you are even thinking about this speaks volumes to your character.

Right now for me I try to thank everyone with an @ if I can. As far as clogging up the stream, I think that is a weak argument. Realistically the tweets move so fast that if you are not mentioned chances are you won’t even see it. Once I’ve RT’d something it’s gone. I do it because I believe in the content and I think that my followers will too. If I get a thank you that’s just icing on the cake.

The important thing to remember is that this is “social” media so it gives us all the opportunity to interact and be grateful for that interaction. As an @, a DM, a general thank you or in your heart, as long as you know you are grateful you are doing it right.

BTW, thank you for all your great content. You are a beautiful writer.

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I’d only thank someone for a retweet if I needed to spread a message. As an analogy, if I tell a friend something and then they go on and tell someone else, I wouldn’t feel obligated to thank them. If I wanted my friend to find people to volunteer for a worthy cause and they do so, then I’d thank them.

Thanking people in bulk for retweeting can fill a single page in a timeline. Keep in mind they follow other people. If all they see are your “thanks for RT” for awhile, it’s a disservice to those who follow you.

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Personally, I’m a big believer in thanking people.

Offline, if someone compliments you or helps you in some small way, a well-mannered person would say thank you, offer a smile or do something to acknowledge what you were given. For many online, however, manners seem to be some quaint old habit that gets in the way of trying to achieve Twitter fame. It’s quite a shame when a simple thank you is too much to offer.

Whatever your preference for thanking is, though, it should be consistent. If you thank no one, well fine. Don’t be surprised when your followers desert you. If you are a thanker, that’s great. Don’t pick and choose who gets thanked. Thank everyone – not just the celebs or the popular Twitterers who you think will help you get more followers.

Thanks for the topic.

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At the risk of sounding like a Grinch I must say it is obnoxious to find my timeline full of thank yous for retweeting to people I don’t even follow. I don’t understand why it is necessary. When is the last time at the office you thanked Smith for telling Jones your story about your fishing trip? The best thank you is simply to follow that person. That says, “Hey, I’m interested in you.”

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I’m Twitter small fry – around 100 followers and I not yet enough re-tweets for me to forget them.

So, I’ll continue thanking folks for now – I probably would have a totally different perspective if I had 20,000 users and dozens of re-tweets every day, but I’d be interested to know how many people that actually applies to in the whole of the Tweetsphere.

There’s a danger that Twitter will become an anonymous mass marketing engine in 2010 and the personal touches will hopefully prevent that happening.

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I always thank folk for RT’ing me, mind you I rarely get RT’d

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I’m obviously in the minority (big surprise), but to be honest, it never even would have occurred to me that someone should be or might like to be thanked for a re-tweet. If we’re stressing politeness, shouldn’t we follow the Thanks tweet with a You’re Welcome tweet? But I admit I’m not the most socially skillful person in the world. I often have trouble understanding the need to actively perform something that should be quietly understood, like a thanks for a re-tweet.

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[...] Under social media I read a post about RT’s “The Twitter Controversy Over Thanking for RTs” and had to comment on [...]

An RT could be seen as a courtesy for which that person should ostensibly be thanked, however, you’re right, at a certain point it becomes overly time-consuming and could litter up your stream. What about an end of day “Thx to everyone for the RTs” tweet? This shows you care, are grateful and at the same time avoids cluttering up everyone’s timelines! Just a thought.

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As you can see, no one expect you Diane (or any of the bit rebels for that matter) to thank for RTs. You are great content generators and give those of us who mostly RT plenty of ammo. As someone who RTs a lot, I definitely don’t expect to be thanked by everyone 1 RT nor for everything I RT. I even tend not to RT twits who thank “too much”.

That said, when I had only 200 or so followers, it was nice getting the thanks (and the follow fridays) from people I had RT’ed so people could find me. Now that I’m over 500 followers, I figure that people who want to find me eventually will.

Probably more important than “thanks” (and harder when you have 20k followers) is engaging in a conversation. But, you only need to do it once or twice, say when you note someone new is RT’ing you. I still remember the first time Misty Belardo engaged me in a conversation–I was so thrilled to have an “icon” talking to me. The impact has lingered also, such that I often search for her tweets to RT, and say hi when I get a chance. I don’t know if that suggestion is even possible at your level, but I can tell you that it is the most effective form of thanks you could ever offer, especially when you do it to “new” people who are just getting active in twitter.

By the way, for those reading who are like me with hundres of followers but not in the thousands, I would still thank when someone gets out original content by you (e.g. RTs about one’s own blog entries). I will probably stop doing so when my followers cross over 2k, assuming that they will someday, since at that point the number of RTs may get out of the single digits. However, I think the advice about making it a conversation still applies. When someone RTs me, especially if they add a comment, I would never want to miss the chance to continue the conversation. It’s the only way to connect on twitter.\

(Sorry, for being so verbose.)

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Diana Adams Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Thank you very much for this insightful answer and I agree with you 100%. I do try to engage whenever I can, and that is where the magic happens on Twitter. Oh, and also, I love tweeting with @mistygirlph too, she is so lovely. Thank you for all your support throughout the year!! You’re the best.

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Alex Stone Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Good points – but I see plenty of Thx for the RTs by people with 1000s upon 1000s of followers – if they have the time……

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[...] The Twitter Controversy over Thanking for RTs: As nice as thanking always is, thanking for RTs only matters to the people you thank. It creates noise for the rest. So I do it in private or return the favor with a RT if there’s a good one. [...]

Well, here’s the thing….

In my case, I thank people for their RT’s, simply because they’ve gone out of their way to do something for me. I do this when I have the time. There will be times that I tweet something, and then don’t see any activity on that specific tweet for awhile, and when I come back to the keyboard, I’ll see an RT that was tweeted over a day ago. Timing is everything. I only have a seventh as many followers as you, therefore, it might change, when I get up to your numbers. The frequency of thank yous also goes to what they’ve RT’ed of mine. It’s an art, not a science, as some would have you believe….

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I don’t get RTd often, but I have gotten out of the habit of thanking folks – MOST of the time – because I’m not really interested in reading other folks’ thank-you notes in my own timeline. My primary concern has always been to try to provide the best content I can, and I actually *worry* at times about causing clutter myself.

Having said that, I think it’s time for me to follow some of the steps listed above out of common courtesy. Everybody wants to feel like what they’ve done is noticed and appreciated, and a Twitter List (for instance) is an easy way to give that feeling.

And just thinking about it, that could be a reason my own follower count has not increased in, like, four months. LOL

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Interesting. I’m here (at your post) bcs I am the recipient of a thank you in Meryl Evans’ post: http://www.meryl.net/2010/01/01/links-happy-2010-edition/ (in which she links to this post).
So– what do I do? RT the post? Do I thank Meryl for the link love? Does Meryl now have to thank me for the thank you to her thank you? Do you have to thank Meryl for the link…
This new world etiquette sure can get muddy. It should never be inappropriate to say a heartfelt thank you. Perhaps the thx can be more meaningful than an RT (for those who need it), if it’s transmitted via a recommendation or introduction to a biz prospect.
Thank YOU, Diana – for the opportunity to engage!

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Diana Adams Reply:
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:49 am

Sonia,

Thank you for your comment and your point is well taken. You are a great writer.

Diana

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I think that a thank u is polite, but unnecessary. After all, shouldn’t the re-tweeter be thanking you for writing something interesting enough to be worth re-tweeting, so that their name becomes associated with your wisdom? Honestly, I stop reading folks whose tweets are largely people’s names, and it takes some work on their part to get me back in the habit of reading them again.

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Judy Greeno Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 10:34 am

Good points Diana. If someone new follows me, and I see something in the bio or tweets that nudges me to follow back, I like to RT something at the time I click Follow. I have no hard & fast rules – there are several who I’ve RTd, even replied to who have never acknowledged either, but if my reason for following hasn’t changed, I’ll still follow. I have no expectations of anyone, only of myself to be as conscious a tweeter as I can.

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I completely agree with Laura Walker’s statement, “engaging in a conversation about the subject of the tweet is as much if not more acknowledgment than a generic ‘thank you’ if you get what I mean”

While it’s always nice to see the RT thanks from you, if you were to actually have a conversation with the “re-tweeter” then I think that goes to the heart of what twitter is all about.

Also, I don’t get annoyed by RT thanks, because I think it’s a nice thing to do, and how can you get mad at someone for being nice?

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I didn’t realize that there was any controversy surrounding this subject! I RT things that I personally find RT-worthy. Things that are interesting to me; or, that I believe will interest my followers. I also do it as a token of respect for the integrity of the Tweet. When people thank me; I appreciate it. However, I have no unreal expectations that every person has the time, or will thank me for doing this. My plan is alway to recieve and return; good content!
Do I thank people(?) Why yes, yes I do! I have only just above 600 followers. I actively engage with as many as possible. It takes me little time to thank people. And if it got to be too big a list, (which coincidentally it has not, as I try to thank each person individually!); then I would do it through DM. This is JUST ME tho. And by the sme token; I am not in the least offended if others do not emulate my behaviour!

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hi diana, i personaly like to be thanked. i believe i would not have become friends with you if it were not for you thanking me. you would just have been another person i re tweet. you have the personal touch.
i re tweet others but dont look for their tweets, if i see them i re tweet them but, i look for you.
it would be awful if you become like the others, keep being you, keep twitter a fun, nice place not a cold corporate one.

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Hi Diana,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on RT TY etiquette
My 2 cents? I think it’s important to at least thank for RTs that were original posts…not RTs of RTs. Either in bunches or DMs. Its just a nice thing to do to acknowledge that you noticed someone liked your post. Hope this is useful!
Cheers!
SuuperG

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Very interesting article!

It’s funny, perhaps because I’m originally not American, when I first joined Twitter and people RTed me I never even thought of thanking them. The same goes for RTs I did – mostly I didn’t get any thanks, and when I did, it surprised.

As I became more active, I realize that it’s considered a common courtesy and try to thank those who RT me. Usually when I RT someone I get thanked for it, but not always, and I am certainly never offended by that.

But as my number of followers grew (just well over 31,000 at the moment), and often I didn’t notice people RT me.. so I found myself sending lines after lines of thank yous. Not only this is “noise” to those who follow you, but it also significantly increases your likelihood of reaching the Twitter hourly status limits (“Twitter Jail”).

At the moment I’m not sure what I’ll do. I’m thanking people, but you are making very good points. However, won’t people be offenaded if you just give a “blank thank you”? It’s a bit like doing a #FollowFriday “To all my friends”, no?

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Diana Adams Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 11:31 am

Thank you for your comment Udi. I’ve started doing a combination of the two. When I have time, and I’m being RT’ed, I will send out my usual thank yous.

But also, about twice each day, I send a heartfelt thank you to “everyone” for their RTs. So far it seems to be working well, but I haven’t decided yet what the final answer will be. I’m still experimenting with different things.

Please let me know if you find something that works well for you. Oh, and by the way, I tweet A LOT and I’ve never been in Twitter jail. I know, sounds weird, but I haven’t had the pleasure of that experience yet.

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Udi Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 11:41 am

I will try what you suggest. It seems like a combination of individual RTs and a “blank” thank you should help. It’s certainly better than many other people do.

I enter Twitter Jail usually once a day, at times, twice a day. The thank you RTs certainly help that, but it’s usually my policy of answering everyone – and I mean *everyone* – who sends me a message (a promise I made to myself when I had less than 100 followers and was ignored by a couple of big guys). I’m still able to keep it, but Twitter Jail is the result.

Regardless, you’re not missing anything with regards to Twitter Jail. It is a sad and lonely place, though I’ve made several good friends thanks to it (and this is actually not a joke – by joking about Twitter Jail, I met some good people!)

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Diana Adams Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 11:48 am

Oh my gosh, I do the exact same thing. I do my very best to answer everyone for the same reason. I remember how it felt to be ignored when I only had 100 followers. Now that I have almost 23,000 some of those same people will tweet me now, and they act like none of that ever happened. I wonder if they secretly remember. Haha! I wrote an article about that: Twitter Intimidation Explained http://bit.ly/8H6VS3 It’s been great chatting with you. Take care.

Although I think it’s nice when people say RThx, etc…. I do find it a bit spammy. I try to thank when I can, but I don’t have very many thanks to send out… I’m on the fence about this one. I think people know that you appreciate their RTs, and sometimes a simple “Thanks for the RTs everyone!” means a lot. It acknowledges that you appreciate the RTs, and doesn’t clog up the twitter pipes.

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I don’t use Twitter as a marketing tool. I use it as an escape from my real world. I think this social networking etiquette “unsaid rules” is getting out of hand. I am a mom, wife, full time recruiter, and believe it or not, a life outside the www. We have enough stress in the world besides worrying about catering to the people that take offense when people don’t thank others for them hitting the retweet button. I mean come on! I agree with you, if I get the computer generated “Thanks for the follow” I will normally block and report for spam. I get that people want to make a living, and expand their lists of people. However, as you said clearly, it is getting harder to figure out who is real, and who is just a bot.

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Speaking for myself first, I RT when I see something of value – no appreciation needed Occasionally I RT as a favor to a friend but still ONLY if I think the post, event, etc… has value. This is a personal favor and a DM is great. But I don’t RT to get your attention or your recognition. I DO thank some people who RT, sometimes publicly sometime thru DM – lots of criteria and variables to consider there. We also had a great discussion over on Bob Burg’s Blog last November about the value of a public thank you – http://www.burg.com/2009/11/my-newfound-paranoia-regarding-dms-on-twitter/

Thanks for addressing this issue – I have a lot of twitter newbies who follow me and I know I can overwhelm their streams already without crowding it with a lot of “thanks lists.”

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I also used to thank people for RT’s without fail. I do believe a retweet is an honor, and a favor, and I appreciate each one from the bottom of my heart.

But now that I am following more than 7,000 people & being followed by more than 11,000 & am being retweeted often, it’s incredibly time consuming to thank everyone for each retweet, and to say “you’re welcome” for each “thank you”. What is more, the stream looks very spammy when I’m sending a lot of those.

The way I’ve resolved it is imperfect, and I don’t know if it’s right or wrong. I now do it sometimes, but not all the time; and I do it as a DM more often than as a tweet.

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I am grateful when folks RT me. It shows a sense of reciprocity. There’s a certain thrill in having a response or sense of thanks.

I’m also grateful when folks discuss ideas. It stirs my imagination and we need more tweets of that nature.

I can see where that would be harder if I had 22,000 followers.

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What controversy are you talking about ? This really sounds more like a non-controversy. I’d move on and talk about something that really matters in the world. This is Twitter and you are taking it way too seriously. There are no rules, and there is nobody to dictate any rules.

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My 2 cents … I honestly believe that you should do what works for you. If people are unfollowing you before you’re posting RT Thanks, then they really haven’t connected with you very well in the first place. Sometimes it’s not effective to thank individuals, especially if you’re RTed a lot. I think most reasonable people will appreciate a thanks, but not be offended if they are not explicitly thanked. The primary purpose for RTing, IMO, is to distribute information that you believe will be useful to people following YOUR stream. Not a method for getting ones ego stroked (via Twitter Thanks). LOL!

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A practical, polite solution is to schedule sending out the RThank group tweets at different times.

You could take that to the extreme with 48 sets (each naming 6 to 10 tweeps) every 30 minutes.

And that would seem as ridiculous as it would be a complete misunderstanding of civility and good manners.

IMHO, the spirit of good manners requires us to demonstrate our sincere appreciation for the kindness of a RT.

A single, thoughtful and sincere daily tweet thanking everyone can be gracious – if you are getting an avalanche of RTs.

But I would make an effort to individually thank special and new friends and buisness connections. To do otherwise would be thoughtless.

That you’ve shown interest in discovering the right thing to do – says lots of good things about you.

Good luck with deciding upon what is the right thing to do.

@hannibal666

Follow @hannibal666 to #enlightenment!
http://www.twitter.com/hannibal666

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It is a delicate balancing act and everyone does it their own way.

While I have nowhere near 20,000 followers, every once in awhile I get RT’d a lot and I try and thank them for it. Where I fail in this is I forget to check the twitter site RT’s for those people doing it behind the scenes. My experience is mainly on Hootsuite so I don’t see those when they happen; I have to go looking for them. I get busy and forget.

I’ve found that what the real people actually appreciate, myself included, depends on your level of contact with them. Even this is unique in and of itself so rules are hard to define.

I think the best rule is: #1 Be yourself.

We’re all human, that’s why we care. So rule #2 is do what you think is best for yourself and your followers.

You can only please some of the people some of the time, all of the people none of the time, and none of the people all of the time.

If your experience on twitter sucks, what is the point?

Rule #0: Have fun!

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judygreeno Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 2:34 pm

Thanks Kevin – good post plus I use TweetDeck so see/send RTs from there & have blanked out on the need to check the Twitter site RTs, too.

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I personally am very impressed when some of my twitter friends with twice the size of my followers (I have 30K+) thank me in DMs for my rts. I have no idea how they do it. I sometimes do group thank yous, sometimes direct thank yous and often none at all. I keep dreaming of an assistant to help me with thank yous I also don’t like twitter’s rt function, so I can only thank those who don’t use it… I also have noticed that some of my friends that I rt just rt some of my tweets – and it is a great way to express gratitude as well.

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I haven’t read all of the comments yet (there’s a LOT here) but IMO, I like “genuine” over “required” any day. It doesn’t bother me when people don’t thank me for an RT. I don’t RT to get someone to thank me either. I RT because I think I’ve found it interesting enough for my followers to look at it. Sometimes I’ll RT just to keep something in my stream to refer back to later on. I RT for selfish reasons. Don’t thank me for being selfish.

If you feel you HAVE to thank someone, then it’s no longer genuine. Not only is it just a “required list of disingenuinessness” (OMG, it that even a word? LOL) but it makes it feel like plodding through the motions to *you* too, and it makes *you* feel like crap – and I can feel that vibe coming through your required mass-appreciation. It makes me feel a little bit like all you want is to keep your numbers up.

I don’t expect to be thanked. I can name a few major tweeple that I follow that *do* thank me when I RT, but in all honesty, I wish they wouldn’t, because I KNOW they only do it because they feel they have to. I can *feel* that, even in just one word. I could name several “Big Names” who have thanked me, but if I tweeted a “hello” to them (and I have before) they don’t know me from Adam. I don’t blame them either – it’s a lot of people to go through. I would imagine some of you can actually get a cool breze eminating from your twitter stream (must be handy in the summer..) I follow many people because I learn from them. They know more than I do. I don’t often share something that I didn’t learn from them in the first place.

I only appreciate a “thank you” if someone really, REALLY genuinely appreciates something I’ve done – but I NEVER expect one. IMO if you *expect* a thank you, then you’re not RTing for the right reasons. I’m not on Twitter to get a following. I don’t care if no one follows me. Maybe I’m a selfish twit, I dunno. But I would much rather get a true, appreciative thank you, and actually be *noticed* in a genuine, true-connection way rather than arbitrary fluff. If I wanted fluff, I’d go be a porn star.

To me Twitter ain’t about numbers. It’s about connecting with people. Maybe someday, we will find a point between us that we will actually connect on some unique level, but until that day comes, feel free to allow me to leech, unthanked, off your brain cells. I don’t mind at all.

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If you have to think about whether someone showing appreciation towards you is anything but good, you’ve probably become a victim of your success.

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Great article. First of all for me, I don’t have 22k followers but I can imagine how it would be to say or receive thanks to and from just 1000 of those 22k followers. It’s not impossible but it would cost you some great time.

Second thing is that I do say thanks and I do it via DM’s and sometimes through the public time line. It’s always great to let people know that you appreciate they’ve retweet you. But how it’s done maybe is the issue here. If you have a lot of followers it could cause your time line quality tweets. But I think this wont hurt you at all because people are getting into the Twitter/Social Networking world just for that. People have the need (and it’s a trend) to get more social, because of all the miseries happening around the world like wars. So to say thanks and appreciate others tweet wouldn’t be bad at all for no one. And as many of those before me said it’s about connecting/engaging with each other.

And last but not least, how about Twitter. Add a function to “say thanks”, like it used to be with web 2.0 forums. I think this would be a great suggestion for not filling your time line with names.

I never expect anyone to say thanks to me. I have good manners and I do say thanks if people helped spread my tweet. Same as if someone would help me with something else in my daily life. I don’t do it and expecting a thank you back, or anything in return.

ps Thank you’s are always welcome!

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I agree with the article – more important to keep your news stream valuable than send out a bunch of thank yous. I also think people are retweeting to boost the relevance of their own timeline and because they want to promote what was tweeted – being thanked has to be a truly secondary motivation.

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Like many others I am torn about whether to say thanks or not although I usually do and I am still below a follower level that would make it difficult. Even so I am sensitive to the TY’s being seen as spam. If your tweets are being sent to any other application like FriendFeed for example it looks even more spammy.

It is interesting that when people use the Twitter Retweet function nobody expects a thank you because the RT doesn’t show up in their feed. This says to me that the thank you is not that important. It certainly doesn’t bother me not to get a thanks.

All things considered I should probably do it a lot less and use the Twitter Retweet a lot more so that people don’t think I expect them to thank me.

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I came across this post via a RT on twitter and if it wasn’t for your follower/and my follower I would not have seen it. Therefore,you have the value of a RT. RTs are not only priceless in sharing information or something of meaning with others, but also a way of showing that you are watching your stream and appreciate what someone else has shared.

I try to thank all any and all who RT for me. I may not have 20k followers but I have more than 1000 and since day one have always felt it only fair to thank someone for RTing something for me. I may not do it immediately, esp if I’m away from twitter, but I’ll do a group of @’s with a thx 4RT and/or I will usually RT something for them if they have RTd for me and/or I will recognize those who RT me on #FF. I believe sharing is caring and RTs show you care about what someone else has to say or shared, or that you agree,etc.

Therefore, whether you have 10 followers or 200K followers, why not thank someone by RTing something for them, recognizing them on #FF or sending out a personal thanks via DM or a group thanks if you are short on time. Either way I think it is nice to thank others.

I notice many with 10K or more followers tend to neglect their followers by not thanking others for RTing for them and many of them don’t even recognize those who RT on #FF, to me this is a bit ‘snobby’ and makes me wonder why so many are following. Although, news orgs or celebrities for example, are less likely to thank followers, I think most people try to or should add that personal touch.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts and for your thoughtful post. Hope to tweet or RT you sometime

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I personally, don’t thank ppl for RTs but I think you are very thoughtful for wanting to do so. If you don’t want to clutter the timeline, how about a single post each day, something along the lines of ‘Thanks everyone for the RTs, much appreciated’?

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Hmmm… I think it’s called ‘social media,’ right? So I try and use my manners as best as I can. I express my thanks to some using ‘reply,’ others a DM, (even email), or I might even pick up the phone and say ‘Thanks.’

Personally, considering ‘clutter,’ I’m thankful that I don’t have to physically open all the messages & notes like email or snail mail. The stream just ‘auto empties.’

But I take note of RT’s & the thank you RT’s. Just maybe it is something that I’m really interested in…

and in this world that often forgets that “‘Please’ & ‘Thank You’ are the magic words,” I try and use my social manners with an attitude of gratitude.

Peace be with you!

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I wouldn’t be offended if I didn’t get thanked for retweeting. However being thanked is a nice personal touch if time permits. Me personally not being thanked will not keep me from retweeting articles with good content and written well which is the case with your articles Diana… I haven’t run across one article of yours I have not liked.

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mom taught me to always say “please” and “thank you” and to never walk into a party empty handed

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I see I’m very late to this discussion and there have been some fantastic comments left here, but just to add my $.02… I think it’s a matter of whether the RT is engaging, or simply forwarding your post…

I’d say the thank you is warranted in two cases…

1 – If the post referenced your original content and it was simply RT’ed, then it might beg a thank you, since it helps spread your content.

2 – if the RT contains a comment, additional promotion, etc.. then it’s often aimed at the originator, so some recognition of the RT will be appreciated.. the ‘Thanks’ can be interpreted as(“hey.. i noticed you liked the Tweet I sent.”)

of course.. the more I type, the more ridiculous this all seems.. We all like to see our name in the ‘mentions’ column, right?

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Diana Adams Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:00 am

Thank you, Jason, for your insightful comment. I just followed you on Twitter.

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While I’m possibly just repeating what has already been said, personally, I do not like endless “thank you for the RT” tweets either, although I do them still for the most part myself.

It’s as annoying to me as those posters who only tweet lists of names on, not just Fridays, but every day of the week and that is ALL they post. I have lists, so I usually just say to peeps, if you want to know good people to follow, check out my lists and that takes care of that.

I have since wondered about thanking people for the #ff lists inclusion as well because that’s the same as thanking someone individually for RTs.

I want to be polite and I do feel appreciative that someone took their time out to include me in a list, it’s just that they no longer fit in a single tweet and if I don’t thank them all, I shouldn’t thank just one or two.

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This is a tough nut to crack. Seriously, because it is always best to show appreciation for some one in public. So I would say if someone is an exceptional retweeter, offer positive commentary about your original tweet. Or perhaps some constructive criticism then some sort of thank you is probably applicable, but should not be expected.

I also think the occasional RT thank you or a FF explaining why is good to have in your stream as it demonstrates to all that you appreciate your followers.

I guess what I am saying is that I am encouraging you to continue thanking people but perhaps less frequently with more meaning.

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Hi Diana. You have a LOT of comments on this one, and I’ll admit that Ive not read them all and so am no doubt repeating things but every opinion counts right?

I think that if a person decides to follow someone that they don’t know previously it’s because they expect to get interesting tweets (as I did with you), which is praise in itself. If that person then retweets what you have to say, they get to post interesting things to their follows through the decision to follow you – thus getting a benefit straight away. If the interesting person being followed (you) then starts thanking even a small portion of 22,000 possible retweeters, the volume of interesting tweets that the follower was after drops, you become less interesting and run the risk of being dropped, thus loosing followers – bit of a catch 22!

I’ve never expected personal thanks for a retweet nor do I thank for any. Retweeting gets you (the retweeted) more exposure, which is silent thanks to you, and the retweeter gets to post interesting stuff and thus possibly more followers which is thier reward for the decision to follow you – job done, the system working as it was designed.

I think that perhaps those wanting person props for every retweet are perhaps a little too delicate for large scale global networking.

That said, there ain’t nothing wrong with building more personal relationships, and on Twitter a great way to do that is a mention or DM, and generally in life, a good way to start a new relationship is with giving praise.

SO, in conclusion – it’s horses for courses and you can’t please all the people all time!

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Diana,
I am a little disturbed that I hadn’t seen this post until now! How did I miss it. This is a subject I have been struggling with for a while.

For me, I retweet because the information was useful or interesting and I don’t expect a thank you! If there’s a list of 50-100 people at the end of a night who retweeted me I will send a tweet thanking “many wonderful followers” and, perhaps, take a look at some of their streams and retweet some of their interesting content.

I have been caught between the should I or shouldn’t I road and hard place for a while… any updates on how you now handle things?

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Carl Ingalls Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 8:27 am

Hello Darren,

I would like to suggest a different way of thinking about the idea of thanking people for retweets. Instead of thinking about what other people’s expectations are and what we should do about them, what if we think about what our purposes are for being on Twitter, and how our actions support them?

For instance, one of my main purposes for being on Twitter is to connect with people in an individual and personal way. Therefore, I use thanking people for retweets as one more opportunity to support this objective. I have been experimenting with ways of doing this more effectively.

If my purpose were to connect with people in a general and broadcast way, then I would do things very differently.

Carl Ingalls

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Darren Sproat Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Carl,
It’s important to focus on the reason for being on twitter in the first place…and using that objective in coming to a conclusion for how to handle retweet appreciated. Since we share an objective here, “connect with people in an individual and personal way”, thanking people for a retweet is an opportunity to build that relationship.

Thank you, Carl, for once again sharing your wisdom.

Appreciated,
Darren

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I want to start blogging too, what do you think, which blog cms is good for beginner?

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I strictly recommend not to hold off until you get big sum of cash to order all you need! You should take the business loans or just short term loan and feel fine

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i really do not understand the question: either i like a tweet then i RT or i don’t then i don’t. why should s.o. who has given me the GIFT of a RT-able tweet THANK me, if anything, i should thank the tweeter!
vfb

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I love this subject! I am one that does not expect a thank you for a RT from someone that has a lot of followers. BUT – if I RT someone 20 or more times and they don’t take a second to say hey thanks, then I stop RT’ing them. It makes me feel as though it doesn’t really matter much to them.

And yes, you can tell if someone is RT’ing you often.

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When I get a “mention” I get kind of excited and think it’s something special for me. When it’s just a “Thanks for retweeting” I’m a little let down.

A straight retweet doesn’t require any effort on my part, so, I don’t expect any credit. If I retweet and add commentary in the front, then a related comment to me is nice but certainly not required.

Maybe, if a certain user retweets often, a DM or public thanks to that user would be nice.

Great question!

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I appreciate RTs. It shows that what I am tweeting is of interest. I try to acknowledge by reciprocating. So I go to that person’s timeline and see if there is anything I can retweet, in my turn. And there usually is, of course. That way, we both win out, no?

A problem I have found, though, comes with automatic retweets, ie those created using the button below right of the comment. Here, I only find out if someone has retweeted anything of mine is by deliberately going to the Retweets section to the right, and looking! I admit I am remiss with those, as I often don’t have time to check! I will get to it, though, I promise!

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thanks for RT is absolutely not necessary and in fact i think it is a bad idea — unless there is something useful in the thank-you tweet that others may benefit from. it just creates unnecessary noise. this is just returning a favor and back-padding each other, a recursive form of self-promotion which is rampant on twitter.

i’d go even further and say that a casual conversation btwn 2 people is a bad idea on twitter unless again there is something useful for others in it. a tweet like “@jack lol etc …” is just unnecessary noise to me. i don’t think twitter is the right tool for a dialogue since there is no context. you can fake that with a special hashtag but even then it doesn’t feel natural.

along the same lines as i have argued before, it is also not necessary to auto-follow or follow someone just because s/he is following you. see:
http://tektrends.net/2009/09/twitiquette-etiquette-of-follow-on-twitter/.

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