It was dead quiet. Tumbleweeds blowing through the wind and not a creature stirred. While this small town of 140 characters is usually packed with over 400 million tweets everyday, they all had scattered out of the town because they knew what was about to happen. As the sun was beating down on the one and only dirt road in the area, the two lone cowboys stood at either side. A showdown was about to take place between each of them…the Retweet and the Reply.
Each had hashtags in their saddles and with quick clicks of their spurs could signal either one to ride away into your Twitter feed. However, it’s a showdown of which one of these cowboys is more effective for you.
At one end of the road stood the Retweet — the dark horse. He’s known to take an entire tweet to share it out to his entire audience. Sometimes he brands his own stamp on it with a “RT” other times he’ll be there with a simple green symbol marking that he did in fact “retweet” you. Although, he operates on his own, if you ask for a Retweet, you’ll have a higher chance of receiving it.
One the other end of the road stands the exuberant, social cowboy. With a white stetson and smile, is the Reply. He is extremely social and interacts well with others. The Reply enjoys talking and engages well in conversation.
Each cowboy shines in there respective field, but this western standoff is about to take place.
The Retweet and Reply stared each other down hands on their holsters, ready to sling out their shots at any moment. One character at a time and with one click, each began climbing forward for the chance to make it on the user’s feed.
The Reply knew had the engagement, all he needed was someone to tag him with the “@” symbol and he could get the takedown he needed. He knows you can’t join in on the conversation without him. With the power of the mention under his belt, you won’t be able turn down any discussion with him. With 22% of a brands engagement functioning with the Reply, it looks like the Reply is stepping ahead with his expressive charm. And did you know that 95% percent of public conversations about TV shows happen on Twitter? Looks like the Reply can in fact talk the talk and walk the walk.
Wait. Reach for the Sky.
The Retweet crunched his boots into the ground, affirmed his position as the head hauncho in this Twitter town. Even though he can go by his nickname, RT, or his full name, everyone in the town knows his reputation. The simple green arrows and the quick click, he has speed and amplification on his side. Yes, you may have gone with the Reply, but then someone the went with the Retweet to send out to their followers. The Retweet knows how to transfer the strength of characters to other followers. The Reply has a hard time throwing the quantitive strength of the Retweet’s horse power. The other majority of the engagement tally is brought up by the Retweet, with brands have 78% of their engagement through him. Looks like there will be only one cowboy left in this town.
These two stand on opposites ends, but it looks like someone is lassoing them together. Yes, that is in fact your brand doing that. Twitter cannot function without either and your own Twitter feed will not be useful without both of these cowboys. Using a combination of both only increases your engagement and follower interaction on Twitter. Without both, your brand’s Twitter account will be on the other half of Twitter that provides zero interaction.
Twitter is a fast-paced outlet with over 1 billion tweets being sent out in a little less than a week. The preference is yours in choosing what to reply to and what to retweet. In amplifying a message, it seems like the Retweet has the more powerful shot, but with interaction it seems tweeting replies at your followers could in fact increase your overall engagement. It looks like riding off into the sunset with both of these cowboys is your best bet. Don’t forget that Twitter Favorites can in fact light your way too.
So you have your tweets set? Take a look at this Cheat Sheet from LinchpinSEO to decide which cowboy works for those potential tweets:
