“This post was originally written for and published on the Womens Network Australia Blog“
Since Twitter has reared its popular head around the web, there seem to be more chicklets (A chicklet is a feed button that normally contains a feed reader logo and has a specific blog or feed information attached to it. It is coded to easily allow users to subscribe to a feed), plug-ins , buttons and widgets than you can poke a stick at! One in particular that you may have noticed popping up on many a blog or website is the ReTweet button!
The ReTweet button (FYI – ReTweets are like personal recommendations of valued information on Twitter) and the TweetMeme aggregator service are very nifty little tools for the savvy social marketer and are slowly gaining popularity around the webisphere! Together, they are the brain child of a web company called fav.or.it, located in London, who says that they are passionate about Twitter, Social Media and whole lot more! I tend to agree with them.
What the site developers believe the purpose of their site is.
“TweetMeme is a service which aggregates all the popular links on Twitter to determine which links are popular. TweetMeme categorises these links into Categories, Subcategories and Channels, making it easy to filter out the noise to find what you’re interested in.”
How easy it is to open an account, use the site and what does it cost?
Joining and using TweetMeme is as free and simple as logging into Twitter! You will, obviously need a Twitter account up and running to use this service, however, if you do not have one they will happily redirect you through to Twitter to sign up (also free).
The site is very simple to use and has a familiar aggregator layout and feel to it, so if you are comfortable using feed readers and twitter – it should take you no time at all to get tweetmeme”ing”.
Will this site bend the time space continuum to suck my valuable time into a vortex?
No … well it shouldn’t (warning – online aggregator addiction could be an ugly side affect of using this site). This site, like any other aggregator platform (e.g. Digg, Feed Burner, Google Reader, etc) is purely a place for you to categorise your interests and find what you need quickly, with less noise and clutter.
How can I use this site to benefit my business?
The TweetMeme site not only acts as an excellent aggregator service, the team behind the site is also the brain child behind the ReTweet button that you would have seen on many blogs and websites.
Different ways to take advantage of TweetMeme and the ReTweet button:
- Using the TweetMeme button you can discover new content and tweet about it, allowing you to get valuable information to your followers in real time.
- The button provides a fully integrated URL shortener and the title of the story on each page.
- Each link that is posted to Twitter adds one ‘vote’ to the tweet count for that story, the more ‘votes’ or retweets you get the more people are likely to be interested in what you have to say and then retweet it themselves.
- If a story gets enough tweets (or as they say, “reaches critical mass”) then it makes it into their top 10 on the front page of TweetMeme and receives a tweet through the TweetMeme account. (If you get on the front page of TweetMeme you can be seen by millions of web users, a great way to increase your brand presence and online credibility)
- Each story on the TweetMeme website has its own retweet button which integrates both the current number of tweets that a story has, and easily allows you ReTweet the link through your Twitter account. (Kind of like having double the ReTweet power, i.e. you get twice as many opportunities for people to retweet or recommend your information.)
- Once again, the conversation is as important as the information. You can leave comments on every story featured on TweetMeme, with the option of retweeting the best comments out to the Twittersphere (yet another opportunity to provide value and confirm credibility).
- Searching on the site is handy too! You can look for stories posted on Twitter, and discover and share new content – whether you wrote it or not!
- By installing the retweet button on your blog or website, you can allow your readers to easily share your information and ReTweet them direct from your site.
The Skinny!
This is a simple and easy to use website, with a fantastic tool that every business owner who blogs or posts information online should be using.
It integrates with almost every platform (e.g. Wordpress, Blogger, etc) and will take next to no time for your web developer to add it to your site. Once it is there, it becomes an automatic generator for your content to the world!
There is no perfect formula to get people to ReTweet your posts, however as always, if you provide good quality information that is relevant and appealing, you can use this online vehicle to drive quality traffic to your Twitter account, which will in turn direct users to your blog and website.
