Friday, July 31, 2009

Facebook's "RT" & "RP" Explained



If you're a friend of mine on Facebook, you may notice from time to time my Status Updates begin with an "RT" or "RP." I had a feeling that many of my friends would wonder what the letters were for, but I kept doing it with the thinking that everyone would catch on.

The common definition of a Re-Tweet; To post a copy of someone else's tweet on your own account. A Re-Tweet is part of Twitter etiquette or...Twittiquette.

It's commonplace to see "RT" on Twitter as it's part of the whole experience. It's the primary reason Twitter creates such a viral opportunity. If Roger Federer (or whomever) Tweets something interesting or CNN has breaking news, their followers will "RT" the message to their "followers."

Here's the rub. When Facebook and Twitter linked with each other, Twitter's "RT's" started showing up on Facebook's Status Updates. The Re-Tweets from Twitter still have millions of Facebook users wondering about the letters "RT."

Enter "RP." I started Re-Posting on Facebook out of the blue. I don't do it much as Facebook is a bilateral experience whereas each Profile Page is only entrusted with "Accepted Friends." With this in mind, I only "RP" when something is rated G funny or I think a PSA type Post needs more attention. When I "RT" or "RP," it's actually a compliment, endorsement or extension of someone else's thought.

For example, tonight Ricky Mollohan announced that he was very concerned about a missing person. Since we only have about 150 "Mutual Friends" of my 1000 or so, I took the liberty to "Re-Post" his Status Update thinking it would help find his friend Mike.

Coaching further, the name you see immediately following an "RT" or "RP" is usually the original author of the message.

It's as simple as that. If you see "RT" or "RP" preceding a message, it's simply a "Forward" of someone else's Tweet or Status Update. :-)

1 comment:

Brad Holt said...

Wind the clock back. Did you ever think in 1994 that you would devote any time to doing something known as blogging about something known as re-tweeting?