Do you see that TweetMeme button on the top right of this post?
See it?
Click it!
Go ahead click it and it will show you that I’m using TweetMeme correctly.
What do you see in the pop up box?
You see RT @benspark – twitter message. That is my twitter name and that means that whenever someone retweets my posts using TweetMeme they are giving ME a RT.
What I see on so many other blogs is this: RT @tweetmeme twitter message. Do you see what YOU are missing out on?
By having TweetMeme as the source of the RT you are giving Tweet Juice to TweetMeme and not to yourself.
You wrote the post and everyone who is retweeting the post should be retweeting you, not TweetMeme.
There is a simple fix, though.
Go to the TweetMeme settings area in your blogging software. There is a field for source. Put your twitter name into that field.
Save the settings.
Done.
Now you are using TweetMeme to your advantage.
Terrific post! I never bothered to install it because that whole “RT tweetmeme” seemed stupid. Now I will install. 🙂
.-= Look at what Tricia wrote blog ..A Groundhog Story or Spaghetti for Three =-.
Tricia,
Excellent! I am glad that this info was helpful to you. I had been sing it wrong for a long time and noticed that many other people were as well.
Drew – do you know why, even though I have bit.ly selected as my URL shortener, sometimes it uses tinyurl and sometimes ow.ly? I really hate ow.ly and only want the Tweetmeme plugin to use bit.ly
.-= Look at what Eric Nagel wrote blog ..Tracking ShareASale Commissions with Prosper202 =-.
Eric,
It is possible that someone can click your tweetmeme link and then cut and past the tweet into their twitter program like tweetdeck and then the url gets shortened to their default rather than the one you choose. I have not see random selection of url shorteners in my experience with tweetmeme, looking at all the RTs on this post they are all the same.
I took a look at the TweetMeme forum for information. Here is one topic that might be helpful. http://help.tweetmeme.com/forum/topic/209#post-816
Thanks Drew – I’ll try a re-install, as I have everything else done correctly.
.-= Look at what Eric Nagel wrote blog ..Tracking ShareASale Commissions with Prosper202 =-.
Great tip. A question though – do you think it’s appropriate to keep Tweetmeme at the top of the post, or put it at the bottom – assuming people would take the action to RT once they’ve read the post? I’ve heard disparate viewpoints, wondering what you think. Thanks
.-= Look at what Adam Cohen wrote blog ..Donation Connect: Text Some Good =-.
Adam,
Thank you. I’ve struggled a little bit on this same question. For my blog and design of my blog at least it makes sense to have the button at the top. Generally I have photos on the tops of each post and that can trigger a RT. However I can see that putting the button at the bottom of a post has major value because people who finish the post want to be able to tweet the link and not have to scroll back up. I think you have to take into consideration the behavior of your audience, the overall theme and design of your blog and personal preferences.
Thanks I never realized I was doing it wrong. I did not even realize I was doing it.
Hi Drew, it’s surprising how many people don’t configure the TweetMeme button correctly, I found quite a few and if it says @tweetmeme then I usually remove the @tweetmeme from the tweet..
.-= Look at what Karen wrote blog ..Blog Engage Closes It’s Registrations and Becomes Invite Only! =-.
Karen,
I remove @tweetmeme from the tweets too and usually put int he twitter name of the person who wrote the post. I think that many people see a plug in on a blog and they install it and forget it, they don’t look under the hood and tweak things to their own uses.
So glad you posted about this, Drew! This drives me crazy when I see it – I always change the link to the author’s twitter ID, as well. Thanks for posting on it, though – going to happily spread your post around! 🙂
.-= Look at what Lisa Marie Mary wrote blog ..Glee – The Road to Sectionals, Disc 4 =-.
Lisa Marie Mary,
No problem, I am glad to help. It drives me nuts as well so I now have a post to direct people to in order to help them. Thanks for tweeting and using tweetmeme.
Drew, what do you think about removing the RT completely? Although I have it configured correctly, more often than not, I’ll just remove the RT @danielmclark (or RT @gdweekly) and post the remainder.
Technically, it’s not a re-tweet after all, but I do it just to save some characters and maybe add my own comment in addition to the headline.
.-= Look at what Daniel M. Clark wrote blog ..Geek Dads Weekly #5 – Back to the Island =-.
Daniel,
I’m not sure if you can remove the RT automatically but however I think there is nothing wrong with using tweetmeme to remove the RT and add something of your own to the tweet. I do think though that you keep the @user to help them get some more followers.
Should have clarified – I don’t ever change it when I’m using the button from other people’s sites… but only when I’m pushing my own content onto Twitter. I use the Tweetmeme button rather than opening Tweetdeck after I’ve posted – it’s a step saved, and it gives me a little jumpstart on the counter.
.-= Look at what Daniel M. Clark wrote blog ..Geek Dads Weekly #5 – Back to the Island =-.
Daniel,
I understand now. And seeing how you use it makes sense. I actually have my posts automatically post up using twitterfeed though to get that out to twitter. The retweet button there is primarily used by readers.
YES! Thank you for pointing that out to people! It drives me mad sometimes.
.-= Look at what Loretta wrote blog ..Bellagirlygirl.com Website for Sale =-.
Loretta,
You are welcome. I wrote it so I could explain to peopel how to use it correctly.
I’ve been using tweetmeme for a while now.. and ive got my @reply name right.. but my retweet function doesnt retweet the link of my post, instead it retweets a link to my bloglink. It doesnt even show the title of the post. Any idea why? I’m going mad trying to edit the codes. but nothing works. Help?
Hi Kristen,
Are you using WordPress or Blogger? For WordPress this should work correctly with no tweaking. However with Blogger there are some additional items. Have you checked out this info? http://help.tweetmeme.com/2009/04/06/tweetmeme-button/