Today, I may receive a few rocks with this blog but I’ll try to explain myself the best I can so you will understand me and maybe, do what I do.
If you are following me on Twitter you may have noticed that I do not “Retweet” or “RT” the new posts from fellow webcomickers anymore. Why? For a few reasons.
- I feel that simply retweeting a Blog Post from another webcomicker is not personal. It happened a few times when I put a “temporary” post on my site and a few hours after that post was gone, someone retweeted it. Obviously that person never read that post.
- During weekdays, I don’t have the time to look at Twitter every 10 minutes, and sometimes when I log in, I see a loooong series of RTs and most of the time, I would miss some very good tweets hidden in this list.
- I would often see several colleagues retweeting the same post within the same hour. The chances your followers are following me are there, and it can be very repetive for many Twitter users
Don’t get me wrong, I love when somebody “retweets” one of my post, but is there a real value in it theses days? I feel the RT business is becoming more like a “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” and can become an endless loop of RTs. Now, once the rss feeder sending an automatic tweet will update my Twitter, I’m curious to see if anyone will retweet it 
But if “RT” is starting to have no meaning to me? What would?
What I’m doing now, is randomly plug webcomics I like on Twitter, with a personalized touch. Examples:
- A Geek, a Werewolf, a Zombie, why not? from the WCP Collective, http://www.capesnbabes.com/ by @capesnbabes #webcomics
- Newcomer in the WCP Collective, amazing art & Story: http://hard-graft.net/ by @Prestwickuk #webcomics
Note the “#webcomics” : this tag can be beneficial as well. There are a few twitter groups that are using this tag. and therefore, the webcomic plugged in the tweet may be discovered by non-followers
I won’t be pluging the same comic over and over, seriously, how many new followers you’re getting on a daily basis? I really believe that by doing this once or twice a day, with different webcomics, can bring much more value to the “tweet” than a simple “Retweet”.
The first time Brian Anderson, creator of the comic Dog Eat Doug, did a personal tweet like this, plugging my webcomic I was really amazed! I told myself: WOW! Brian is reading my comic? This is so awesome!
Speaking of Brian, he wrote a great article on Twitip: Twitter for Cartoonists, you should be reading it if you haven’t already.
Be honest, when you see a series of RTs coming from the same users that are taking the majority of the 1st page, or makes you scrolling down in your twitter application. how many times it was a posts you already saw? Or how many times you are ignoring them?
Twitter has been great for me and my webcomic since I joined and I fear Twitter would lose is credibility because of these numerous RT.
I would also add that I’m not saying I will never “retweet” anything anymore. I believe there are some values in “retweeting”, such as quickly plugging a Podcast, live drawing, event that is occurring by the time of the “tweet”.
Finally, I may be repeting myself but I’m surely not saying I don’t like when your “retweeting” me, I’m just saying there’s a better way to plug our colleagues and friends 
Hey, I may be wrong with my thinking here. Maybe I missed something somewhere.
What do YOU think?
Cheers!
- Antoine
The whole idea of the RT is to reach more readers/followers. If 10 people retweet my post of a new comic, that’s a larger potential audience. I do not have the time to write a personal note for every comic Tweet I see. I do not RT any link I do not look at first. I have been caught with my pants down a couple times (and why would you post something then take it down, that would be my question to you… if it is a WIP, just simply update the image, not remove the post, that will screw up an RSS feed too).
Your point is valid… senseless RTs merely fill up the page, but then I am following nearly 200 people now and that alone fills up my page. I only go on Twitter a few times a day and will simply look at the most recent 100 Tweets and then leave it on to catch up. There are good links to be ReTweeting and to simply say “I’m not RT’ing anymore because it is not personal” is also counter productive.
Our time is valuable. WE have comics to do, websites to maintain, “day-job” duties, etc., etc. Add into that I have a grown family (2 in college) and my days are FULL. So I see your point, but RTs do have value to an extent. And if you have time to make them personal, fine. I found the first time someone altered my Tweet, I was a bit offended. I speak for my comic in my Tweets. If you wish to put up a personal tweet about my comic, COOL, but my message is valuable too.
Ask yourself, did Brian Anderson’s personal tweet bring you anymore hits then a RT from him? Twitter is not bringing in that many hits for me to worry about it. You need to judge your overall marketing scheme and see how Twitter fits, or does not fit, into it.
I am on Twitter mainly to see what my “competition” is talking about, plus local/national stuff (NASA, etc.). I am not looking to grow my readership by 1000% by using Twitter, it’s just not going to happen at this stage of the game.
But, your post is an excellent one; well written and to the point! Good show, young man!
I agree with you. Some people seem to feel a sense of entitlement if they retweet you, like you need to retweet them too or you’re a jerk. They just retweet people because they expect you to return the favor and not because they actually like what you do. This takes all the meaning out of a retweet. Not to suggest that I think anyone who has ever retweeted me feels this way. I probably retweet a bit too often myself but I never RT anything that I didn’t read and enjoy first.
-Tim
As you know, I came to this same conclusion a while back. There are a few times here my Twitter stream is 10 posts from the same person, RT’ing comic or blog updates for their friends…or worse several people RT-ing a block of several people.. most of whom I ALREADY follow in Twitter. And if I also like their comic, I have ALREADY subscribed to their comic’s feed. (I have gotten to where I exclusively read comics from my feed, UNLESS a specific recommendation tweet catches my eye… that is that the tweet isn’t a generic RT of an update.)
I think a lot of tweeting/retweeting of updates, DILUTES the value of a recommendation tweet. That is, if I am retweeting DrunkenFools every single update, a couple of times a day, how valuable is that when I see a specific strip or blog post on DrunkenFools that I want to call attention to? That I strongly suspect MY followers would be able to enjoy? So I think it’s an issue of quality tweets over quantity tweets. (and how about the long follow-ups some folks are doing to “thank for the RTs?”)
That’s where I disagree with Brian’s article… I would never ask anyone to RT. I assume they will ALREADY tweet it if they like it. Though I do see the value of requesting a specific action, I think that a “tweet this” button at the bottom of your strip or post would do the job a bit better.
I hope when I tweet that a specific strip that I think deserves attention that my tweet is more valuable to my followers because I don’t RT regular updates. Also, I hope they end up being more valuable to the cartoonist to whose work I want others to see…in that people ACTUALLY go see it!
Good article man. I stopped using Twitter for this exact reason. RTs all the time.
I find this blog quite interesting because constant RT’s is what prompted me to stop by here. If 10 of my respected peers think enough of your site to recommend it, then there may be something noteworthy about it for me to check out.
I enjoy your strip, but with the plethora of webcomics available, I may miss something occasionally. I’m thankful that the gang reminds me of what’s out there.
As far as RT’s go, I’m not always on Twitter so it’s good to know that I can catch a “commerical” again when I’m on there. And since I’m only on sporadically, I’m probably guilty of leaving a “block” of retweets. I’m just spreading the love while I have the opportunity.
Thanks for writing this blog and keep crafting a great strip!