Are Re-Tweets the new Link Backs ?

Well, technically they aren’t. But they might be more valuable than link backs even , right ?

If you said no – you’re someone who haven’t yet explored the Twitterverse.

I think its time to make two parts of the Internet. The first part prior to Twitter and the second part after Twitter. Twitter has revolutionized the way (after the initial skepticism) we communicate on the internet. It might be a bubble, but I’m not going to worry over that. At the moment, Twitter is awesome ! Here’s why.

It sends me traffic more than any other social media.

Of course, Twitter can’t replace Digg or SU, those are different channels altogether. I strongly believe that each social media channel has its own characteristics and crowd. So comparing them in terms of numbers would be foolish. Twitter has a massive potential to bring in quality traffic that is exciting than any other channel. In fact its giving me at the moment the best traffic compared to any other social media channel.

Its quick and genuine.

I don’t have to request people to Re-Tweet, if the story I’m sharing (from my blog or otherwise) is genuinely interesting, it takes on its own. People re-tweet it and there’s nothing I can do to moderate it.
In fact, a previous story from DSB was tweeted by Darren Rowse and it almost burned my servers, much like the Digg traffic crash.

Its natural.

The good thing about Twitter is that the communities that people form among themselves are natural. Everyone has the liberty of opting out or to unfollow someone, so whatever remains and stick together are groups who identify themselves really well. For instance I have a group of friends whom I haven’t met otherwise on blogs or other social media channels. I got drifted towards tweets that were related to social media, blogging, seo and design. We identify through the nature of Tweets and not by the websites we own.

Twitter is incredibly Viral.

The first time I used Twitter, I couldn’t have imagined its real potential. I thought its a time waster and in fact criticized it. But only when I came to follow some interesting tweeps (Like @styletime and @murnahan) did I realize that Twitter could be productive as well as fun. The viral nature on Twitter is unlike anything else. If you are connected with the right people, you just stick to good quality tweets and people will just love you for what you tweet.

So coming back to the original point, re-tweets. Re Tweets tend to work like link backs, even though that’s a technically wrong statement. Re-Tweets are like votes people give to you. They are signals that people love you what you Tweet and they are encouragement to your work. Like any other social media, re-tweets give you the right exposure that can fetch you the best link backs.

Twitter has the least signal-noise ratio.

I’ve been getting linkbacks to some of my older posts just because some folks have been pulling them off and re-tweeting them from the archives. This exposure is really worth pursuing, if you ask me. Because the noise to signal ratio here is very minimal. When I tweet about the Top 10 SEO secrets, I can be almost sure that all the re-tweeters will at least read (or his followers will) the article and all of them are SEO enthusiasts. Now, what’s so great about it ? I cannot guarantee that on Digg. A story might fetch me 1k diggs for an awesome story, but I can’t possibly be sure that all those guys who did digg the story were SEO enthusiasts or tech.

Twitter creates more Win-Win situations.

If you have been a power user on Digg / Reddit, Im sure you wont disagree that you do “favors” for your friends by helping them submit/digg their stories. Its a fact and everybody does it. I don’t think there\s anything wrong in it but, I don’t think this sort of “mutual symbiosis” is healthy for the community, though it may favor me and my friend. It may result in irrelevant stories appearing adding to the noise. While on Twitter, I don’t see this “favorism” exist as popular as in other networks. People tend to be more genuine. And there fore the chances to a win-win situation is more compared to other networks which I think is awesome.

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