Twitter recently rolled out a new feature that allows you to retweet yourself. Which automatically begs a question:
Why would anyone except narcissists want to retweet themselves?
It turns out there’s an advantage to sharing posts repeatedly, which is highlighted by services like Timehop or Facebook Look Back. And it’s not just about reliving the glory days.
Sharing existing posts can signal to your audience that something is worth their time.
Think of it this way: When someone scans a page or an app, they evaluate a series of visual cues that make them decide whether something is worth the demands on their attention.
Some of these cues are the source or the proximity or connection to the viewer. And one important cue is how many other people are responding. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.
So when someone sees a post that already has several retweets, likes, comments or shares, it signals that this is worth their attention. In that way, it makes sense to retweet your best tweets or share old Facebook posts and take advantage of the built-in network effect.
Here are 4 tips to help you find and re-use your top posts.
Mark milestones with iDoneThis
I recommend @idonethis to keep track of what you've done today. It's just awesome to get reminded of what you accomplished a month ago
— Jonas Forth (@Jonas_Forth) February 18, 2012
The website and app iDoneThis provides a digital calendar that allows you to keep track of what you finished each day. To use the service, simply email or copy and paste links to your top posts at the end of each day. Then, iDoneThis will send you a digest the next day and on milestone dates like one month, three months, six months or one year later so you can easily access posts that you reference on anniversaries.
Use Twitter advanced search
If you’re looking for a specific tweet that took place, say, three or four years ago, you can find it quickly using Twitter’s advanced search. You can access it at search.twitter.com, or by clicking “more options” when you do a search from your Twitter homepage. On the advanced page, you can narrow down your keyword search by date range, geotag or even positive or negative emotions.
Dig into your Pocket
Pocket is a service like Instapaper and Readability that allows you to save articles and videos, which you can easily search. The Chrome browser extension for Pocket also allows you to save from Twitter — with the original tweet at the top of the link. If you link your Twitter account you can retweet without leaving Pocket. To surface these old tweets, simply reverse the chronology to “oldest first” in the settings.
Embrace made-up holidays
Is today National Hot Dog Day? Or Friendship Day? Or Mac and Cheese Day? Sign up for newsletters like Internet Brunch that let you know about quirky holidays so you can use these made-up occasions — which are often trending on Twitter — to reshare any content you have related to these days.
Tim Cigelske (@TeecycleTim) is the Associate Editor of MetricShift. He has reported and written for the Associated Press, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Budget Travel, Adventure Cyclist and more. Today, he is the Director of Social Media at Marquette University as well as an adjunct professor teaching media writing and social media analytics. You may also know him as The Beer Runner blogger for DRAFT Magazine.
