Once again, Twitter proved it’s ability to break and spread news faster than actual news networks themselves. However, this time it all seemed to work in concert. Twitter became the megaphone for the cascading sources to put out confirmed reports of Michael Jackson’s death from Cardiac arrest. Even though Twitter was going over capacity, just proving it is becoming the source of news, it stayed up and running to keep the real-time engine pumping out updated information. Many people were denying the first report that came from TMZ.com. The second report seemed to put a somber reality to the situation when the LA Times reported that Michael Jackson was confirmed dead from LA City and Law Enforcement officials. We will update this story throughout the day as new information, news and classic videos and interviews are released.

More confirmed sources of Michael Jackson’s Death (30 - 40 minutes after the 1st two):

Michael Jackson, 50, legendary ‘King of Pop’ dead in Los Angeles

Singer Michael Jackson dead at 50 (MSNBC)

Michael Jackson dies at 50 (USA Today)

Pop Legend Michael Jackson Dead at 50 (Fox News)

Great collection of stars and legends paying tribute to Michael Jackson through quotes on TV, Interviews and Twitter: The UK Independent

“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news,” said Quincy Jones, a longtime friend of Jackson’s and producer of his “Thriller” album. “For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words. …… I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.” - Quincy Jones

No matter what your personal feelings on Michael Jackson were as a person or about his run-ins with trouble, you cannot deny he was one of the best performers in the world. He redefined dance performance in combination with #1 hits time after time. The moonwalk is a classic. However, Michael Jackson defined and invented a long list of dance moves and made them mainstream. Michael Jackson took dancing to a magician mystery type level that will be emulated for eternity.

Beyond just the magician-like dancing Michael brought to the world, the inner music coming from his beatbox type of body and percussion producing rhythms also took the one-man band to a new level.

This page is in constant update mode. Please comment and let us know the best videos, interviews and stories you like about Michael Jackson and his career and we’ll add them.

Interviews

Young Michael Jackson Interview in 1972: Video Here

Videos

Michael Jackson - Thriller - MJJ Productions Inc: Video Here (watch in High Quality)

We have all seen it happen, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. A celebrity hops onto one of the sites or has someone representing them get on the site and they do what? Well, often times they don’t do much besides broadcast promo’s about their next show, movie, or where they’re going to be at… you get the drill. An interesting post written by Brett Borders titled, “Dear Web ‘Celebrity’ Who Never Follows Anyone Back” takes the issue to the level of calling these celebs snobs.

I don’t think I’ll go as far as calling these celebrities or their managers snobs, they are just misinformed. Maybe they think it makes them seem more famous to not follow anyone. Maybe they are afraid of having an out of control twitterstream? It is very similar to putting on those celebrity shades and withdrawing from the world. If celebrities are worried about their twitterstream (which I’m sure they’re not) they could use a tool like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop to solve that problem. What celebrities are telling you when they don’t follow you is that they don’t care what you have to say. Who wants to be a fan of that? Send in your fan letter you worked so hard on and it goes straight to the trashcan?

Oprah Winfrey Follower Numbers / Ashton Kutcher Follower Numbers:

The trend is changing

Now the good news is there are some celebrities that are starting to get it. You should take screen shots of celebrities accounts that don’t follow anyone because soon you will most likely notice a large portion of them following people back. Why? They may not even do it to listen to you, but instead for pure competition and marketing. Let’s take a look at a managed celebrity account that is starting to follow thousands of people and another account that has shown a similar trend. Below you will find @BritneySpears and @JimmyEatWorld following stats from Twitterholic.com.

With the competition brutal due to Twitter going mainstream, celebrities are starting to clamor for more follows to be ranked higher in the overall Twitter follower rankings. When looking at the column data it is from left to right: Date, Followers, Following.

You can see the incremental amounts that were increased from a mere 1,000 people that the Britney Spears account was following to three days later an additional 9,000. The action of following an additional 9,000 people resulted in a follower jump of 23,837. However, the biggest monumental jump was when an additional 58,000 people were followed which increased the people following the Britney Spears account by 581,000 additional followers.

Another example is with the Jimmy Eat World account. You can see the direct relation from the point that when they started following thousands of people their account is directly effected in people following them. Obviously following 0 people the @JimmyEatWorld account wasn’t doing too well! Two months later after following 70k they have gained 106,000 additional followers. Do you see a trend?

As celebrities, corporations, TV shows and brands observe this trend most of them will fall in line and end up following back. If they don’t, they’ll be passed by other celebrities and identities that are willing to follow people back and allow a two way conversation.

Why will celebrities follow people for more followers?

I’m quite certain you can answer this yourself. However, I do know some people that don’t seem to get it. From a marketing perspective, if you were Britney Spears and you were releasing a new album would you like to tell 100,000 people about it every day or 1,000,000? If you are Ashton, it’s movies, if you are Oprah it’s your show, book club, magazine. You get the point, right?

Now obviously this method doesn’t just apply to celebrities. It applies to all Twitter users really. Let’s be honest about that, right? Corporations, Pizza Companies, Hosting Companies, you name it. If there’s a message to be given, this new trend will creep into every corner of Twitter. Essentially they will follow the leader.

One problem remains: Engagement

So one problem has been solved. From the article mentioned above by Brett Borders which has been retweeted nearly 900 times, you can see that the Twitter majority feels celebs should follow back. Problem solved, the trend is moving in that direction and should tend do so in the future. There is still a problem however. Most of these celebrity accounts still don’t get it. They don’t engage, they don’t talk to their fans, they don’t ask them questions, they don’t take polls, they don’t have contests or even acknowledge the existence of a fan. So one problem remains, while they may follow people, they still don’t communicate with them. I think there is a way to change this trend as well.

The solution?

The everyday folks on Twitter should support celebrities, brands, companies and organizations that have open communication with their followers. If people that use Twitter in a favorable way get more attention, responses, retweets and press than the people that shun their fans, eventually the tide will turn.

I have noticed a particular celebrity account on Twitter due to my friend Susan Elaine (@BuzzEdition) bringing it to my attention, that has shocked me more than once. The account is for the band Collective Soul and can be found at @collective_soul. What I find so simply amazing about these guys is that they actually respond to fans. They retweet fans tweets. They read blogs by users on Twitter. They make exclusive videos just for their Twitter fans. I could go on, but let me put it this way. These guys are extremely successful and have went Multi-Platinum 7 times in the U.S., 18 times in Canada with 7 #1 hits and guess what? They still treat every one of their fans as a person. Amazing huh?

Before they were even jumping in the Twitter pool, this band was participating in Social Media. They have a phone line where fans can call in and leave a message. They randomly call back fans and talk to them. Even more interesting and voyeuristic (just like Twitter) you can listen to the fans messages yourself. I have taken a quick recording of a few fans messages. Crazy huh? Social Media with a telephone.

After talking with @BuzzEdition and @Collective_Soul I got the news that they are launching a blog contest that’s giving away crazy prizes! It just proved to me that these guys truly do get Social Media. Allowing the fans, followers and bloggers to be apart of the party is a great interactive way to be real. I’m thinking that to prove to celebrities and big brands on Twitter that have decided to “broadcast” instead of interact they should be given a wake-up call. By participating in this blog contest a knod can be given to the celebrities that are doing things right in Social Media. Here are the details of the blog contest:

Collective Soul Blog Contest

These guys are giving out some awesome prizes for participation!

1st Prize: 2 Tickets to any show, 2 backstage passes, AUTOGRAPHED GUITAR and a copy of new album

2nd Prize: 2 Tickets, Autographed Guitar Pick and a Copy of the new Album

3rd Prize: Copy of New Album, Autographed Picture, Autographed Drumsticks & Guitar Pick

The first 10 entrants into the contest will receive an Autographed Picture in the mail!

How to Enter

Write a blog post talking about Collective Soul that includes the following things:

1. Include a link to the Collective Soul Twitter Account
http://www.twitter.com/collective_soul

2. Include a link to the Collective Soul Website / Blog
http://www.collectivesoul.com/blog/
or
http://www.collectivesoul.com/news/

3. Mention new tour starting in 2009
http://www.collectivesoul.com/live/

Once you’ve written your blog post leave a link to your blog post in the comment section below. This will add some traffic and a backlink to your blog. Also TWEET a message to @Collective_Soul on Twitter announcing your new blog post like:

I just entered the @Collective_Soul Blog Contest here: YOURURL

Collective Soul has agreed to Retweet your blog post to all of their fans! (Your 15 minutes of fame!)

How Collective Soul Chooses The Winners

The band will pick the top 10 entries out of the all the submissions. It’s recommended that you be creative and let people know how you feel about Collective Soul, their social media interaction, how their music has effected your life or any other creative way you want to present the band. The only requirements that you need to include in your blog post are listed above.

Once Collective Soul has chosen the top 10 entries the final Top 3 winners will be chosen by you! An online poll will be held on Twitter to allow you to vote for the final winner. The top 3 contestants will win the prizes in the order of their votes!

Terms and Conditions

The contest will end on June 15th at 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time. The Collective Soul band will then choose the winners and the online poll will start within a week.

Blog posts must be for public viewing and not private! (ie. MySpace Blogs can’t be seen by anyone but your friends)

Anyone suspected of rigging the votes in the poll will be removed and disqualified from the contest.

If you have any questions just send @Collective_Soul
a message on Twitter!

In Conclusion

I hope that gives you an idea of the coming trends of celebrities and gives you one way you can fight back. You can accelerate the trend by supporting the celebrities that will actually interact and engage on Twitter. In the end, if most celebrities adopt the trend, Twitter will be a better place to hang your hat.

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

If you like this article, Tweet this message to your Twitter stream.

RT @webaddict A celebrity that gets social media? I know shocking… http://bit.ly/twittercelebrity #sm #socialmedia

If you’ve read my blog ever before, you will know that I am sometimes abrasive, direct and blunt. I’m sort of the exposé of the exposé. I’ll call out big companies, big names, famous people or anyone that thinks they are too important. That’s the great thing about blogging, you don’t need to censor because it’s your blog, your home. On one of my previous blog posts titled, “You’re NOT a social media expert, you idiot” I made this statement: “It seems Twitter has fostered an extreme steroid fed bacterial growth of social media experts, social media gurus and super follower magnates.” I’m returning to that sentiment in that I also believe that Twitter has fostered an extreme steroid fed bacterial growth of PLEASE RETWEETS! With that said, let’s get on to the point here…

I said the above paragraph due to some of the responses I received immediately after I sent out a tweet that simply said:

I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats.

Well, so how do you think it went? LOL. Yes, I agree it was a little abrasive. I typically am a little abrasive, it’s one of my personality flaws that I have decided to embrace. But the reality is, in this world today, if your statements and opinions don’t stand out from all the lemmings you won’t be listened to and your point will not be delivered in a postage stamped letter.

Some people took my tweet personal and replied as if I sent it to only them. Others requested I take a break from the computer because I’m grumpy. I am not trying to attack anyone and yes, maybe I was a little grumpy, hehe, thanks for the suggestion Grandma. So here are the emotional replies or hey now replies.

LadySascha @webaddict woah. sorry about that. I didn’t realize I was offending =(

waltercolor @webaddict Mmmm.. We’ll not RT it, thus it would have been helpful that you express it in a more pedagogic way. Where is Twitter-etiquette ?

GrandmaGriner @webaddict Hey there!Good afternoon,UR a bit grumpy&may need 2 step away from computer 4 a moment! Just a grandma thought!SmileUgoFurther!

Okay, in order, let me address them. Dear Lady, I was not tweeting this directly at you and you weren’t offending me, just annoying me if you were repeatedly using, “Please retweet.” Don’t take me personal unless I send you a personal @ message and say something nice or rude. *hugs* to you Lady, didn’t mean for you to take it so personal. To you Walter, just “not” RTing the tweet does not solve the issue. I have seen this method spread from a set of core users to thousands of clueless Twitter users. Like I said before, while you don’t like my methods, if I would have been nicer and “cutesy” no one would have listened, thus useless. You ask where is Twitter-etiquette? Welcome to it, it’s here on my blog and I’m educating the masses what is highly annoying. To Grandma, you are probably right in some ways, thanks for the nice reminder.

These five tweeple got exactly the message I was getting at and described it well in their tweets:

kirstenwright @webaddict I couldn’t agree more. If you want it to get RT’ed, just have quality content!

kenGe @webaddict true, and if it is worthy it will be done. take out the RT saves on chars

iamkhayyam @webaddict I know, right? Every link out there begs for requoting. Ok, here’s one for you… Please create a beautiful day
iamkhayyam @webaddict My thing is this, are you asking or telling me to RT? Either way, IMO it’s treads a fine line of desperation and insecurity…
iamkhayyam @webaddict …do you not have faith in your content? If it’s good or pertinent, then it will get pushed forward regardless of begging

Lizz_A @webaddict I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Lizz_A @webaddict Furthermore, I find posters who constantly end tweets with ‘RT PLZ’ don’t have much interesting to say. Def nothing I want to RT.

BuzzEdition @webaddict I agree the “Please RT” syndrome is out of control, people should RT what they like & what their followers will find value in
BuzzEdition @webaddict And furthermore, if your tweet doesn’t get RTed, it should be a sign that U R not providing the value your followers R looking 4

The first message I got that seemed to sing to me like a Mozart masterpiece was from Kirsten. She really hit the nail on the head with simplicity and much nicer than me. You don’t have to get people to “Please Retweet” because if the content is interesting, good, moving or fantastic people will retweet it. If people don’t retweet it is time for you to reevaluate why your tweeting out junk no one wants to retweet and they only do if you beg for it.

Ken put out a great point that removing all this “Please Retweet” business saves on those precious 140 characters. This is very true and the reality is, when people retweet the “Please RT” tweets they often include all the begging garbage so the character wasting becomes viral.

Liz and Khayyam seem to pretty much share the same viewpoint. Khayyam speaks a lot of truth and has that edgy feel that I often portray in my words. Khayyam makes the point that it almost shows a bit of desperation and insecurity in a tweeter to use, “Please retweet.” After that, the message that Kirsten made was reaffirmed, “If it’s good or pertinent, then it will get pushed forward regardless of begging.” Bravo!

Susan, under the name BuzzEdition classified the “Please RT” game as a syndrome. Pretty funny because that is pretty much what it has turned into. Susan also pinned down the point that if your stuff isn’t getting retweeted there is a breakdown in communication between you and your followers. It’s very true, if your not getting retweets, replies, DMs and comments then you need to start thinking about how to better connect with your followers.

Now I got a couple tweets that came in saying that essentially they liked getting “Please Retweets” for one reason or another, let’s look at those:

SweetLeafApril @webaddict i think it’s a heck of a lot nicer to say “pls Rt” rather than just RT. (my 2 cents)

juliendorra @webaddict Some people tweet good things, and, from time to time, ask to push on a specific issue. I don’t have a problem with that.

Oh sweet April, I see your point, it is nicer for someone to say “PLZ RT” than just saying “RT.” However, in my experience I often don’t see people say just RT because it really resembles the RT used in an actual RT. With that said, I don’t think it’s nice at all. Please is an overused term in most instances. You see when someone is saying “PLZ RT” they aren’t really being polite, it’s just disguising self promotion and kutzpa for people that get all warm and fuzzy with these fake niceties. I just don’t understand how three more letters or an extra word makes a car salesman pitch seem any nicer. Frankly, I don’t buy it. Julie, you’re right, lots of people tweet good things… but here’s the deal, there’s something I’ve noticed. Most people that use “Please Retweet” use it chronically most of the time. I obviously wouldn’t have made such a strong statement if I only saw this method used once a week or so.

I received a message from the twerson making an interesting point that we should bring up. Make sure you comment and let me know what you think about this one!

chrisboutet @webaddict Hear, hear! http://twitter.com/chrisboutet/statuses/1664170144
chrisboutet Does adding “PLZ RT” actually result in more retweets than, say, writing interesting stuff? Think it comes off kinda desperate & sad. PLZ RT

I will shed some insight on this one. I have spoken to some people that are chronic, “Please Retweeters” before and some of them have told me that they do get more RTs than if they leave it off. I’m not so sure how much scientific testing was actually done but I will lend that to the, “Please Retweet” crowd. It would be cool to do a brief study on what got more tweets, a tweet with or without the dreaded promotion. The truth is though, each tweet is invariably different than another tweet, the time of day and the actual day. So for the testing to be as solid as possible a tweet would have to done on a Tuesday at 5:00pm PST and then done the following Tuesday at 5:00pm PST for the data to be comparable.

The rest of the messages I got were mostly in agreement or retweeting what I or some people replying to me actually said. Since I told everyone I’d include them if they @ replied me, I’m keeping my word. Here is everyone else that directly replied to me as of the time of writing this (in the order they were received):

littlebead @webaddict Agreed!!!

trishaj RT @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U wnt UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it dn …

CriticalTodd @webaddict Thank you for that!

suikagirl1 @webaddict amen!

peteravalos @webaddict doesn’t it depend on the tweet? Please RT

trishaj @webaddict So funny and so true I had to RETWEET, lol!!!  ;)

calinazaret RT: @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats.
calinazaret @webaddict I agree. RT’d! lol

johnnyflower @webaddict hey dude, i, ah, i have this little favour, to ask? hehe…

louiebaur @webaddict Ok so you want me to retweet your comment about retweeting???

johnmcc @webaddict Totally agree. Or the worst of all, ending it just with ‘RT’!

assault @webaddict It’s interesting to me that very rarely does actual “content” get RT,  instead lists or roundups of other peoples content does.

Bubbalou RT: @webaddict: RT @kirstenwright: I couldn’t agree more. If you want it to get RT’ed, just have quality content!

RandyInman RT @webaddict:  I couldn’t agree more. If you want it to get RT’ed, just have quality content! [exactly! that is EXACTLY it.]

jdschultz RT @webaddict …tired of…”Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.”…we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats.

achimbrueck Please, please RT RT @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed.

derekbaird @webaddict re: RT’s spot on!

johnjambrose RT @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats. Irony

BuzzEdition @webaddict Well at least I’m getting my blog now *hugs*

tommytrc RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict Well at least I’m getting my blog now *hugs*

ecopolitologist RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict I agree the “Please RT” syndrome is out of control, people should RT what they like…

faithgoddess7 RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict People should RT what they like & what their followers will find value in ***I Agree***

Paul_Holgorsen RT @faithgoddess7: RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict People should RT what they like & what their followers will find value in ***I Agree***

creativejo RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict I agree “Plse RT” syndrome is out of control, ppl shld RT what they like & what their followers find value in

HindsiteHealth @BuzzEdition @webaddict if someone says Please RT, I pretty much don’t. I’m ornery that way. (amber alerts etc, yes. quotes, no)

Well, I hope that inspires some of the chronic “Please Retweeters” to tone it down a little bit. It’s not that there is anything wrong with using “Please RT” every once in awhile, it’s just becoming an old worn out tire, like FollowFriday. If anything, it just seems crazy to say, “Please Retweet” because why wouldn’t you want us to retweet you? Of course you want that. Let’s just make an agreement, we will always KNOW that you want to be RTed and you don’t even have to tell us to! Just remember that if you say something stupid, slutty or horrifying to let us know, “PLZ DON’T RT.” Most things are pretty cool in moderation and silly promotional pushes and begging is ok if it’s a rare breed too.

By the way, now that you’ve reached the end of the post, can you PLEASE RETWEET this?

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

We know you’re probably very upset. Please leave your condolences in the comments section for this well loved star. Rest in peace Kermit. Dang you, Miss Piggy!

I was going about my daily routine of going through my various social media websites and was voting and commenting on Mixx.com. I saw an article in the upcoming section of Mixx that was on the verge of going popular, so I contributed my vote and sent it to the frontpage. Inside of this submission I was shocked to find some names I really respect supporting and agreeing with the content of a blog post written by Dave Winer.

If you don’t know who Dave Winer is, you should. For a detailed explanation of who he is you can check out this Wikipedia entry or just hop on over to his blog homepage to get his bio. Two big accolades of Mr. Winer’s are pioneering the development of weblogs and syndication (RSS). With that said, you can also jump on over and read Mr. Winer’s blog post on why he feels the, “Retweet is stupid.”

Quoting Mr. Winer from the meat of his post he says:

A retweet is the same as voting up something on Digg or Reddit. It’s a piece of metadata about the tweet, and should be stored and displayed with the tweet. When you retweet something, none of the 140 characters should be used in saying that it’s a retweet and who it came from.

Now it’s very possible that Mr. Winer was not devaluing the power of the resyndication of information but was just saying that retweet information is wasting space in the confined 140 characters provided in Twitter. That is pretty much what the above quote says. However, there are some problems with what is said above and the comments this post spawned revealed that many people embraced the idea and feels that the retweet is pointless, spam and is inferior to social votes from sites like Mixx.com, Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com and many more.

From this Mixx comment thread there were these two comments that started my feeling for the need of a retort:

FROM MIXX ID: justiuli
Retweeting is pointless. It’s completely ridiculous. You only have to fill up 140 characters, and you don’t have the creativity to even come up with that. So, you fire up TweetDeck and hit the retweet button all day long. Uncreative and utterly pointless for anyone who’s not a pointless social media retard.

If I see a Twitter profile and it’s got nothing but retweets, I hit the magic “block” button. These people are pointless leeches, and usually have nothing of any interest to say: it’s all “OMG social media is so transgressive! I love Web 2.0 so much!” etc. Pointless crap.

FROM MIXX ID: cmcgill (Mixx Founder)
hate the retweet- but I suppose it is a way to “pass it on”

Now before I start to discuss my objections let me state that I have the utmost respect and admiration for Chris McGill, the founder of Mixx. He created a social news site that I have loved from day one and always look to for innovation in that niche of the social web. In regards to Dave Winer, who can’t admire him? He’s like a co-father of the Internet’s Web 2.0. Okay, credit given so here’s my take!

My comment on Mixx was this:

I’m disappointed in the views of my fellow Mixxers in their feeling that the “Retweet” is stupid. What it tells me is that most don’t understand it’s implication or point. While it certainly is the same as a Mixx Upvote, a Digg or a Stumble it’s so much more. The reason I think most of you think it’s stupid or pointless is because you are categorizing and compartmentalizing it in the same category as the voting system.

While a retweet is a vote, it’s also the syndication of information within seconds. If someone has a lot of followers on Twitter, they are respected to have a keen eye for good content, breaking information or a tight niche categorical focus on content. Instead of simply just voting, that content is then displayed to hundreds or thousands of eyes, minds and feeds within seconds.

So if you want my true opinion, I think a vote is more pointless or stupid than a retweet. It’s effect is much less substantial. It’s power limited. It’s butterfly effect small. Wake up and smell the revolution.

With all of that said, I absolutely love Mixx, which is why you see me here, voting away and commenting.

Mixx on buddies!

P.S. This comment thread and Mixx submission just may spawn a blog post from me. I think people need to be educated as to the real point of a retweet and what it really means instead of the explanation of “Firing up Tweetdeck and mindlessly spamming links along.” Keep your eyes open for my post and vote accordingly.

Update: I had pretty much finished this blog post and noticed a response from Chris McGill on Mixx where he makes an excellent point. I will put his quote below and see if I can address it.

Is a retweet just a vote like a Digg, Upvote or a Stumble?

Part of the answer is a definite yes. A retweet is simply a vote for an idea, piece of content, picture or blog post. These votes are aggregated by a growing number of sites like Tweetmeme.com, Popurls.com and Twitturls.com. So the representation of top content rising in a voting system is built out by these 3rd party websites and replicates most of the features of sites like Digg and Mixx.

With that said, besides just the voting system each retweet lends more power, syndication and traffic than a simple vote on a social news site. When you vote on a site like Digg and Mixx you have the potential to lend more traffic and exposure to that site if your vote helps it rise to top pages or the frontpage. If your vote doesn’t have that effect it was simply a nod of agreement and that’s about it. With Twitter, a retweet instantly offers hundreds if not thousands of people the chance to see the content as soon as it is retweeted. The power is multiplied by much more and then you have the chance of a retweet of a retweet which then build the viral syndication model even larger.

Is a retweet just mindless spamming of links?

This idea really gets me. I don’t see any relation to spam or mindless activity or laziness with this. Essentially when you retweet you are placing your authority, brand and credibility behind someones tweet, blog post, image or idea. The credibility factor is HUGE. There are many times when I will take a double-take and a closer look at an article because of WHO retweeted it. So the idea that it’s a waste to see “who” retweeted is way off too.

Niche / Trust / Categorization

Beyond just the idea of credibility, trust and authority there is the focus of niche content. There are many Twitter users that stay extremely true to the type of content they retweet. A good example of this is @mayhemstudios as about 80% of his tweeting and retweeting is focused on web design and graphic design. This compartmentalization of information is powerful in many ways and is slowly replacing or competing with RSS feeds. I have already heard from at least a hundred people that they have quit using RSS feeds and just use Twitter to aggregate their niche information they’re looking for by scanning their groups in Tweetdeck or their 3rd party client of choice.

Waste of 140 characters?

Where I will say that I do agree is that possibly the RT @username and the sometimes long list of this information can take away from the sparse amount of characters we already have to use in Twitter. It could be effective to have this information of who retweeted in a different way so that the 140 characters can be utilized for extra information such as a short opinion and hashtags.

Chris McGill’s reply to my comment on Mixx - he makes a great point!

@webaddict First of all- this is a great response and I completely appreciate where you are coming from. The downside for me is that it just fills my twitter stream with the same thing over and over again. A vote on the other hand just simply readjusts what I should be lookin at.

Clearly I am biased… and I am not a twitter power user. I’ll look for your blog post and seriously appreciate the perspective.

Twitter Stream same thing over and over?

In Mr. McGill’s reply comment he really does touch on a great point. There IS a problem with retweets when on Twitter. If something is hot or for some reason everyone decides to retweet it a lot one can find their Twitter Stream littered with the same tweet over and over as it’s retweeted by other users. The only solution I see to this is using a 3rd party client like Seesmic Desktop or TweetDeck. With these 3rd party apps you can setup Groups and filter in specific users you are monitoring. In my own groups I try to not add people that simply retweet people every time they tweet. I do find that if I see an article retweeted multiple times and I haven’t read it yet that I might be missing something and I better take a peak. With that said, the voting mechanism of social news sites certainly does solve this problem. Thanks for the reply Chris.

I hope this helps some who don’t see the value of the retweet as to why some people find it simply amazing. While I can vote for things, like them or comment on them in other social media spaces, I cannot present it to thousands of people and help drive traffic to amazing ideas and information like I can with retweeting on Twitter.

Please let me know what you agree and disagree with on this post. What do you like and dislike about retweets? Do you think they’re worthless too? Do you find yourself reading things because a certain person retweeted them?

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict