The way of the retweet

One of the many elegant conventions on Twitter is called a “retweet” (or “RT” for short). People will “retweet” you if they like what you say and want to share it with their own followers.  For example, I might tweet this:

Pants are cool. Shorts are hot.

Someone might see that, like it, and want to share it (I seriously doubt it, but whatever). If they did, they’d probably do it like this:

RT @marshalljonesjr Pants are cool. Shorts are hot.

The “RT” in front stands for “retweet” and means they’re re-sharing something someone else already tweeted. My Twitter name plus the “@” symbol creates a link to my Twitter profile to signify that I’m the one who first tweeted this.

It’s a pretty nifty system, and RTs are quite a compliment. I thank everyone who RTs me.