HOW TO: Retweet on Twitter

HOW TO: Retweet on Twitter

• Retweeting is an integral part of the Twitter experience. The retweet (or “RT”) allows Twitter users to share the best links, tweets, and gems they find from others using the service. But for beginners, it’s not immediately obvious what retweets are, or what tools to use to make retweeting easier.

  This HOW TO article not only covers the basics of retweeting, but also highlights some of the best web and mobile-based tools for retweeting and tracking RTs in real-time. If you’re a Twitter beginner, we hope you find it useful; if you’re a more advanced user, we hope you’ll share it with friends who are just starting out.

  ---

  1. What is Retweeting and How to Retweet

  ---

  
  

  Retweeting is how Twitter users share interesting tweets from the people they are following. They copy and paste the original tweet and send it out. To give credit to the original person, users usually put “RT” plus the originator’s username at the beginning of the tweet. Here’s an example:

  - The Twitter user @benparr tweets: I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!

  - You retweet by posting RT @benparr I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!

  ---

  2. How to Track Retweets

  ---

  
  

  Once you’ve gotten used to retweeting and seen some excellent retweets in your Twitter stream, you may want to track retweets on a larger scale. The most popular retweets tend to reflect the favorite articles and most important stories of the entire Twitter community. This can be great if you want to find important articles, read useful blog posts, or are looking to track emerging trends.

  Here are some of the best web-based tools for tracking retweets:

  Retweetradar: Retweetradar [@retweetradar] is a web tool for tracking the most retweeted and trending content on Twitter. It provides a tag cloud to see the most popular content from today, yesterday, and even what’s popular right now.

  Retweetist: Retweetist [@retweetist] is a tool that tracks the most popular links being retweeted on Twitter, just like Tweetmeme. Retweetist doesn’t stop there, however - it also lists the most retweeted accounts on Twitter.

  Tweetmeme: Tweetmeme [@tweetmeme] is an authority when it comes to retweeted URLs and stories. Tweetmeme tracks the most popular links on Twitter. Once a link receives enough retweets, it appears on the front page of Tweetmeme. Tweetmeme can also be broken down by categories (i.e. sports, entertainment, technology).

  ---

  3. Tracking Retweets with Mobile Phones

  ---

  
  

  One of the coolest aspects of Twitter is that it’s easy to use on-the-go. Tweets can be sent from any mobile phone via text, the mobile web, or iPhone and smartphone applications.

  If you need to track retweets while on the move, here are some of the best mobile tools for tracking retweets:

  Retweet iPhone App [iTunes link]: The Retweet iPhone app, which we recently reviewed, is a great app for tracking the most popular retweeted URLs on Twitter. It costs $0.99.

  Tweetmeme Mobile: If you’re not an iPhone owner, you’re in luck - Tweetmeme has a mobile version at m.tweetmeme.com. Bookmark it so you can see the most popular retweets from anywhere!

  Tweetie [iTunes Link]: The most popular Twitter iPhone App includes a section for viewing top Twitter trends and searching for retweets.

  ---

  4. How to Retweet with just Two Clicks

  ---

  Another cool aspect about Twitter are the great applications people build to make using Twitter easy. There are desktop and web applications that can show you all of your Twitter friends and tweets in one place.

  The coolest part? Some of these applications make retweeting as simple as two clicks: one to create the retweet, and one to post it to Twitter. No copy and paste required! Here are some of the best applications for two-click retweeting:

  
  

  Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck is a very popular application for running Twitter on your desktop. It has many features, but one of its best is its one-click retweeting feature - hovering over a profile picture provides the easy option for retweeting anyone’s tweets - just click the bottom left icon.

  
  

  Seesmic Desktop: Seesmic Desktop is another great desktop application for Twitter. Formerly known as Twhirl, it also helps users read, reply, and send tweets from the desktop. Just hover over the profile picture and click the bottom-left bottom to retweet any post.

  
  

  Tweetree: Tweetree is a web-based Twitter application that helps organize Twitter using conversation trees, so you can see an entire Twitter conversation on one page. Tweetree has an easy-to-use retweet feature at the right hand side of any tweet. TwitZap is another web-based Twitter application that has a similar one-click retweet feature.

  ---

  5. Mashable’s Best Retweeting Resources

  ---

  If you’re looking to continue your education in the art of retweeting, then we encourage you to read some of our most popular Twitter and retweeting posts:

  - The Science of ReTweets: Dan Zarrella explains which factors make certain tweets more viral than others.

  - Retweet iPhone App for Twitter - Our review of the Retweet iPhone App.

  - 15 Fascinating Ways to Track Twitter Trends - Covers some of the best tools for tracking trends on Twitter.

  - Please Retweet Me Makes Retweeting Dead Simple - Our review of a site that helps people retweet posts.

---

Tags: retweet, tweetdeck, Twhirl, twitter

Share this Post

• Digg
• Twitter
• Stumbleupon
• delicious
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Google
• Technorati
• ShareThis
• Reddit

Related News and Resources

Please Retweet Me Makes Retweeting Dead Simple

Repeets Tracks Twitter's Hottest Retweets

Retweet iPhone App for Twitter: Free for 24h

DailyRT Ranks Twitter Retweets

Hundreds see UFO’s over city - Helicopters Investigate

Hundreds see UFO’s over city - Helicopters Investigate : thecrit.com

May 20th 10:30pm (ish), glowing lights appear in the sky. Some move. Some appear out of nowhere. Some move vertically or horizontally. Half a dozen helicopters fly around and near the glowing lights.

Around 10:30 a formation of lights sit in the sky as helicopters head for it. And towards the end watch as 3 lights appear below them. You get to see one appear out of nowhere. Its amazing thing to see.im excited.Hope to get more videos of these strange lights. We did go down to memphis but its too far so we stopped.

This video is spreading like wildfire among the various online communities. Military verterans are saying these lights are in no-way related to flares whatsoever. That it is impossible for these lights to be flares.

rrorrimruoy says:
FLARES!?!?!?!LMFAO…I served in the Marine Corps for four years active duty and have seen plenty of flares my friend and those ARE NOT flares. For one they do not sit for that long…they move and they have a trail. You know when you see a flare or flares. LOL…flares…how about some swamp gas too…LOL

Peace
May 22, 8:15 PM

We are still waiting for better footage as it is strongly believed that at least one helicopter on the scene, had a video camera.

Stay tuned for updates!

heading out to Forest Park to see Jack Hartman...if you don't know about him...definately google him...he is AWESOME!!!

I'm not sure how much more I can take of Gato, the Siamese cat wailing and groaning...she is definately in heat! Must get EXTRA money (if that is a such thing) to fix her/this! And is thankful of my Puffin for putting up with this...he is so cute when he says nothing. ;0)~

on call this week @Victoria's Secret, didn't have to go in today...finishing my coffee with my Hubbykin and then taking advantage of my day off and going to do my Petco's...be back in about 2-3 hrs.

going to bed...goodnight...going to bed late last night and waking up early today kicked my a$$...TTFN!

7 most recession-proof jobs: http://ping.fm/6t22J

woke up this morning and no cupcake update. :0(

Yawn! Getting ready for some Monday Morning Madness...been up for half hour and the coffee has just finished brewing...

pic 3

pic 2

Gato the Siamese Cat is napping peacefully...

"I'm gonna wash that gray right outta my hair" today...and for those of you old enough, you will get a kick out of these flashbacks! http://ping.fm/lqnNT

"I'm gonna was that gray right outta my hair" today! ;o)

went to Walmart on Boston Rd, Springfield tonight for a pair of black flat shoes, definately can't work another day in heels (at least for a while) and there was a fight between 2 employees...very scary and unprofessional...back home where I believe I am safe, lol.

ir's ready! time to dig in!

it's all bubbly...almost ready!

is not happy that the kids put the nasty Splenda in my sugar bowl which had the real sugar in it already...not exactly what you want to find before your first cup of coffee...

Got out of work and my little piggies hurt :o(
I guess that's what you get for wearing 4 inch heels all day...but they did look cute.

Jeannie Toohey Announced as 2009 Mother of the Year

My friend Mel sent me the following video from CNNBC: "Jeannie Toohey Announced as 2009 Mother of the Year."
Watch it here

Baby Blues; Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Cinco De Mayo, and the 6th, and 7th...

Happy Cinco de Mayo - A Little Info...

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a regional holiday in Mexico, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico.^[1][2] The holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.^[3][4]

While outnumbered, the Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army that had known no defeat for almost 50 years.^[5] However, Cinco de Mayo is not "an obligatory federal holiday" in Mexico, but rather a holiday that can be observed voluntarily.^[6][7]

While Cinco de Mayo has limited significance nationwide in Mexico, the date is observed in the United States and other locations around the world as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.^[8] However, a common misconception in the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's Independence Day,^[9] which actually is September 16 (dieciséis de septiembre in Spanish),^[10] the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.^[11]

FBorFW.com - For Better or For Worse.

FBorFW.com is The Official Website of Lynn Johnston's comic strip For Better or For Worse.

Doing some maintenance on my laptop...right now I am Defraggling...

Staples: They have what we need...for "the flu"

It seems everyone these days are ca$$hing in on the Swine Flu Virus Epidemic. Shawn was saying the day before yesterday that CVS was selling those breathing masks that painters use for around $5.00. And now, Staples has this ad right on their homepage.

Staples is now advertising that they have what you need to protect yourself from The Flu. Really? Seriously? Since when did an office supply store become a pharmacy? And by the way, did you notice how they said "Protect yourself from "the flu""? There is a difference from "the flu" and "The Swine Flu"...did you notice how they are capitalizing on "the flu" but didn't Capitalize "The Flu"? {:o)

Gotta love marketing!!

I am thankful everyone I know has not caught any of the flu's.

Inside Edition - Real Estate Infomercial Investigation - John Beck

If you are up late for any reason, you have probably seen these John Clark Infomercials. I have gone to bed with them on because that is the only thing on tv. (We have basic cable - $5.00 cable tv plan.) I remember thinking how great it sounded and what if it was really true? My husband never likes infomercials and thinks that they are all scams. I am beginning to think that he may be right. (Don't tell him I said that.)

And then it gets me thinking, what if there are infomercials that are really true, no gimmick. John Clark very well may have screwed up the integrity of everyone else's business. Because of this, people will always beware...thanks to all the snakes out there.

I am thankful that I don't have the money to invest in something like this because if I did, I may have been one of those unfortunate people that got caught in his scam.

I found it very interesting that Inside Edition's Video showed what the house REALLY looked like and interviewed the people who fixed them up. They said that the houses DID cost that much, but they were un-inhabitable. It costed the buyers 3 times the amount they paid for the house to fix it to make it inhabitable and look like the pictures the infomercial shows.

I also love that they went and interviewed the owners. The infomercial states that the cost of the houses was the amount they owed on the back taxes and the houses were up for foreclosure. When Inside Edition interviewed the owners, they said that was NOT true. They did NOT lose their house to foreclosure at all.

One woman they interviewed said that she paid her taxes, but the city had applied her taxes to the wrong property, the city's fault. They fixed the problem and she did NOT lose her house. She sold her house on her own, it did NOT foreclose.

It's funny (not really) how you can stretch the truth and twist it for your own benefit. It is awful and dishonest. Why lie?

I will be honest, though. I have seen the infomercial many times and they did a great job explaining how it was possible to buy a beautiful house for under $600. I guess next time, I will be better off just turning the tv off.

Thank you so much to Inside Edition for uncovering this story/scam. You have saved one person - ME!

The moral of this story; Buyer Beware, If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, Don't believe everything you see/hear, Turn the Boob Tube OFF!

Real Estate Infomercial Investigation:

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 4/28/2009

On his infomercial John Beck talks about a two story home purchased at a tax sale for only $521.56. However, what the infomercial didn't show was what this beautiful home used to look like. After ten long years and more than $100,000 in renovations, the home's current owner has transformed the once "uninhabitable" home. Also featured in John Beck's infomercial was a home he claimed was lost after the homeowner neglected to pay $329 in back taxes. However, Beverly Glover, the homeowner, never actually lost posession of her home. She ultimately sold it herself for $158,000. Dawn Zuvic and Lani Mapleson say they have each paid more than $10,000 for Beck's tutoring and have had no real estate success. Gary Hewitt, one of the owners of the infomercial and Mentoring of America says, "We help people. We are a legitimate company."

"You're about to learn how you can start buying homes like these for just a few hundred dollars," says the announcer at the start of real estate guru John Beck’s infomercial. The infomercial airs morning, noon and night all across the country. In it, Beck says if you send him just $39.95 he'll teach you how to buy beautiful homes for next to nothing. According to Beck, buyers can get incredible deals when people fail to pay their property taxes and the houses are auctioned off by the government. The hostess in the infomercial says, "We could not be telling you about it on national television if it was not true." INSIDE EDITION’s Senior Investigative Correspondent Matt Meagher went to Oklahoma where every house featured in the infomercial is located. There, with just a little digging, Meagher discovered, how Beck misleads viewers about the homes featured in the infomercial. On his infomercial Beck boasts about how a big two story home was purchased at a tax foreclosure sale for only $521.56. However, INSIDE EDITION learned that it actually cost three times as much, which would still be an amazing deal. But what Beck didn't show is what the home really looked like when it was purchased. It was completely dilapidated and took ten years and more than $100,000 for the current owner to make it look as good as it did in the infomercial. The current homeowner tells INSIDE EDITION the house was “pretty much…uninhabitable” when he purchased it. Also featured on the infomercial is another dazzling house that Beck says was actually purchased for less than $100. But, that’s not true. County records show it was acquired for more that $2,200 and was a falling down piece of junk at auction. It took four years and $40,000 to fix up. Beverly Glover was shocked when INSIDE EDITION showed her the infomercial. The infomercial implied that she lost her home because of just $329 in back taxes. Glover says, “That's a lie.” In the infomercial, Beck claims "[Glover’s home] was purchased free and clear for only $329.90." However, she actually never lost possession of her home. A clerical error had applied her tax payment to the wrong property. The mistake was corrected and she never left her home until she sold it for $158,000. Butch Freeman has been treasurer of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma for 16 years. He says he has never seen homes that look like the ones in the infomercial ever sell for pennies on the dollar as Beck claims. Freeman says that not one of the homes featured in the infomercial has sold for the price John Beck has quoted them at. As many as 15,000 people a week cough up nearly $40 for Beck’s instructional DVDs and booklets. But that's just the beginning. Everyone who responds to the infomercial soon gets a call from a telemarketer at a company called Mentoring of America. It's owned by the same people who own the John Beck infomercial and several others like it. This is where the company makes the real money. Telemarketers follow a script that says the potential buyer is being considered for a select team that will be trained by John Beck himself, but that’s baloney. The telemarketers urge people to put up to $15,000 on their credit cards to pay for private over-the-phone tutoring, and say they’re almost certain to make that money back in just a few months Dawn Zuvic of Mississippi and Lani Maplesden from California both say they fell for the pitch. “I know that there's always money to be made in real estate,” Maplesden tells INSIDE EDITION. Zuvic says, “I was always hoping that eventually that I would be able to be make a good living at it.” They each paid more than $10,000 for the tutoring and have had no success. “It makes me cry a lot,” laughs Maplesden. “I'm still paying on the bills.” Dawn Zuvic says her mentor talked her into buying a tiny piece of land in Pennsylvania at what was supposed to be a huge discount. But, INSIDE EDITION found property records showing the land had been bought for only $585 and then sold to Zuvic for more than $2,595 only five months later. That wasn't a discount, it was more than a 300% markup! The land was sold to Dawn Zuvic by none other than John Beck himself! She's never been able to resell the land and has now had to take a second job as a waitress. Zuvic tells INSIDE EDITION, “I felt like, like I was taken.” Bill Mitchell of the Better Business Bureau in Southern California says John Beck's infomercial has generated hundreds of complaints and the company has received an “F” rating. “Their real business is selling blue sky, hot air,” Mitchell says. John Beck wouldn't talk with INSIDE EDITION, but INSIDE EDITION’s Matt Meagher caught up with Gary Hewitt, one of the owners of the infomercial and Mentoring of America. When Meagher asked Hewitt if his companies were ripping people off, he replied, “Absolutely not. We help people. We're a legitimate company.” When Meagher asked how his companies helped people, Hewitt responded, “Why are you confronting me like this?!” He says that Mentoring of America is not a scam. “It is not [a scam]. First, first of all...you have your facts wrong.” His attorney later supplied INSIDE EDITION with a list of 13 people who said they had a good experience with the program, earning between $550-$39,600. But Lani Maplesden isn't convinced. She's $20,000 in debt and in danger of losing her home. She says if she could talk to John Beck, she’d ask him, “How can you sleep at night? Do you have any conscience at all?” The company says they dispute the Better Business Bureau's ratings system and claim they work to resolve consumer complaints. As far as the houses, they say Beck never states in the infomercial that the homes were in the condition shown when purchased.

The Story of Mother's Day

The Story of Mother's Day

The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday". Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter*), "Mothering Sunday" honored the mothers of England.

During this time many of the England's poor worked as servants for the wealthy. As most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers.

On Mothering Sunday the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along to provide a festive touch.

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, the celebration changed to honor the "Mother Church" - the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm.

Over time the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday Celebration. People began honoring their mothers as well as the church.

In the United States, Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. How would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Massachusetts every year.

In 1907, Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day.

Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year, Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessmen and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. It was successful as by 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state.

President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Austrailia and Belgium, which also celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May.

Enjoy Mother's Day French Toast Recipe

Happy Mother's Day!!