Ten factors feeding the eco ReTweet Affect

While considering social media planning for several sustainability-focused organizations (and practicing on three Twitter streams @carbonOutreach @GreenCollarJobs and @LowCarbonMedia), a clear benefit of social media outreach is the RT affect. The RT affect goes something like this: I like your message so much I want to duplicate it for my networks and include you in (AKA ReTweet).

What's great about the RT Affect?

Three things: first, RTs are real-time measurable. (See Mashable and YoungEntrepreneur articles on RTs and widgets to see how many times each article was RTed.) Secondly, social media gurus (like my friend Jon M Bishop who does social media planning with Gumtree; Brian Solis (I call the 'brainfather of PR 2.0'); Dominic Campbell who creates social media outreach campaigns for government at FutureGov); Sarah Evans who singlehandedly created #journchat or Max Gladwell; Paul A. Smith who focus solely on sustainability and social media) love to have efficiencty metrics for Marketing and PR. Lastly, as noted on the utility of Tweets--RTs mean authentic branding (that's scalable) for environmentally-minded organizations. It's nearly impossible to get away with greenwash on Twitter.

Therefore, ten qualities get me RT love and make me want to RT others. Definitely ask yourself these questions on creating your set of Tweets. IS your Tweet...?

1. Intriguing (Makes me say, "hmm")
2. Informative (like liveblogging an event with hashtags)
3. Instructive (developing logistics for an event, for example)
4. Inspired (creative)
5. Innovative (a new spin or point of view in your field)
6. Sincere (authenticity = essential)
7. Straightforward
8. Salient (noteable)
9. Succinct (only 140 characters, don't forget to shorten your URL)
10. Sweeping (include affiliations and support for other organizations)