This is just a short post to answer one of the most commonly asked questions here at TwiTip:
Where did you get the ‘ReTweet’ button for your blog?’
The answer is that it is from the team at Tweetmeme (a service that tracks hot stories on Twitter). You can get the code for this button here.
It is currently available in the full sized version that I’m displaying:
As well as a compact version:
It can be installed simply using javascript code in your blogs template or as a WordPress plugin.
@hnuttall
This is a seriously helpful post, Darren. So simple, but so gosh darn useful.
@djharsh
Got one for my blog. Thanks for sharing.
@ScottWilliams
I will have to check this out… I had a problem with my “Tweet This” once the upgrades came out!
@zellerbrook
Any idea how to embed this button in a Wordpress.com blog?
@bambooforest
When my blog relaunches, it will have three buttons to choose from. The twitter will be among them. I think it is that important.
Cheers,
Bamboo Forest
Ahh I’m so far behind. I gotta catch up with those guys. Anyone interested in a partnership?
@mfaconnect
Yeah, but my question is how do you get it displayed aligned right in the top of each post. this might sound like the world’s stupidest question, but I have spent hours trying to figure it out.
@josephgelb
thankyou for the tip
@PetervanVeen
Thanks for this info, Darren!
@paulyhart
wow! thank you!
@digmo
It looks great, just installed in now. I take it you have to leave the @tweetmeme id in to the tweets for it to work ?
@ReneeBarronMN
They were fresh out, I w/b back!
@nicktelford
@Digmo, when a user clicks the retweet button, they’re free to edit the tweet in whichever way they wish. Although in order for it to count as a retweet, it still needs to include the URL (or the a shortened URL, one is automatically generated by the button).
@mfaconnect, what problems are you having aligning it? You should just be able to embed it before your post and then use CSS to float it to the right (float: right).
@digmo
so the @tweetmeme isn’t necessary ? I think it is a little confusing. thanks for the reply too.
@MarianSparks
@Digmo – Thanks for raising the question! I was a little confused by that also. Installed plugin on a test blog but stopped the minute I saw @tweetmeme.
@Nickelford – thanks for responding.
@nicktelford
Those of you who dislike the “RT @tweetmeme” prepended to the tweet: Would you prefer “(via @tweetmeme)” appended to the end instead? e.g. this posts tweet would change from:
RT @tweetmeme Get a ReTweet Button for Your Blog http://bit.ly/aiQx
to:
Get a ReTweet Button for Your Blog http://bit.ly/aiQx (via @tweetmeme)
Or even the possibility for the site owner to specify a user to be retweeted? e.g.
RT @problogger Get a ReTweet Button for Your Blog http://bit.ly/aiQx (via @tweetmeme)
@LisGarrett
I installed it to my Wordpress.org as a plug-in. It will retweet from my pages (as in, it automatically fills in the RT text), but it will not do so from my posts. All it does is redirect me to Twitter. And I’m not so sure about that @tweetmeme . . . .
@alexschleber
Why exactly would you want your tweet to count as a retweet for @tweetmeme?
Plus it’s not technically a retweet at all, it’s a “reading…” or similar notification, you aren’t really retweeting @tweetmeme, no? What about retweets or similar mentions of your post that this will miss if the short-url is changed out by other users’ Twitter clients, but that a service like Backtweets.com can find?
I have nothing against whoever made this, but this doesn’t seem like the perfect solution to this problem yet. While I like the general approach of combining a button with a social proof number, there are likely better ways to do this both for your blog, and for your readers that take the time to notify Twitter about your post.
RT text should read something like “RT @yourusername: …” asf. if @tweetmeme isn’t really relying on their name mention for the counting. No problem giving them some credit (e.g. at the bottom of each post with a link and a repeat of the button), just not in the retweet text itself.
@nicktelford
Alex: Tweetmeme monitors all links being talked about on twitter. Shortened links that point to the same location (“aliases”) are identified and it is the final destination that has it’s tweet count incremented.
In a nutshell, the button will still count the tweet regardless of the URL shortening service the user uses.
Also, we’re looking in to changing how retweets are attributed to @tweetmeme, if anyone has any suggestions, please do get in touch.
@Robby_G13
haha thanks again for the link. I’m one of those annoying voices that asked you about where I could get that ReTweet button.
@nitrogen
I was just about to ask about the plugin! Thanks!
@hectorhenry17
hey thank you a lot.
@mike_stelzner
I would use this, BUT…
I do not like that each tweet starts with RT: @tweetme
That is just one huge promotion for TweetMe, rather than the original source of the content.
Frankly, I’d be willing to pay to have more control and eliminate the @tweetme
While I like the counter, I do not like the resulting Tweet
Also, it seems that there is no control over the actual Tweet content (at least not when I experimented with it)
There are other services (like http://www.retweetist.com) that auto expand different compressed URLs and still count the total number of tweets.
@derfrankie
I would suggest that the user can choose if he wants to give @tweetmeme credit (as many plugin developers do). And as for the “It’s not a RT!” question I have a simple answer.
The blog owner could enter his TwitterID and the RT should be credited to him. Here my reasons:
1) Normally you see a link in a tweet and after following it to the blog post you retweet the original tweet
2) If you click on the retweet button it’s like you followed a link tweeted by the blog author.
In the end while you are reading the blog post it
@GMMR
I was excited to use Tweetmeme until I saw the output. I understand it’s being looked into, but until them opening “RT @tweetmeme ” is removed and replaced with “RT @mytwittername” I’ll have to pass. I’m bummed, because I really liked the RT counter of the tool.
@ihatethemedia
I just switched from Digg (doesn’t work for conservative sites: Bury Brigrades attack ithe story and bury it) to TweetMeme. But now I am having second thoughts about Tweetmeme given the RT @Tweetmeme at the front. If Tweetmeme.com keeps that, it will be the end of them. It simply needs to Tweet the story and link. Period. It’s not a retweet, and while I don’t mind giving credit to Tweetmeme, it’s confusing to users (hell, it took me a while to figure out what was going on).
If it’s not changed by tomorrow, I’ll likely have found another solution.
@UnbalancedLibra
I added this to all my blogs and sometimes the counter works and sometimes it doesn’t. I have been experimenting and the results have been very varied, it’s weird!
When I first added the code to my blog, I immediately saw posts that had 1 tweet – how could that be?
Then there were times I would test the button, it would redirect and ‘retweet’ just fine, but the counter number never changed. Anyone else have this issue?
@felipecerda
I’m having the same problem Unbalanced Libra… don’t know what to do.
@machoe
I just installed it tonight and i get question marks and it leads to their site, they says it’s an error but no fix yet..
@emp_parents
We plan on adding this to our parents blog very soon! Thanks for the information.
Looks pretty interesting and was very easy to install. Will be very interesting to see how many people actually use the retweet button.
@wildogre
Thanks for sharing this useful tool.
@MadelineJ
I had the same issues as some posters above, namely: I had to add the code to each post, not just to the blog’s template, which would have been find had it been worth it. Then I noticed many posts had 1 tweet, which may have been true, since evidently the tool takes history. But I did some tests, and the tweet counts were just incorrect. Also, several counts went lower – like one day I’d see 6 retweets, and the next day it would be 1. Too much work. I don’t use the retweet button anymore. I wonder whether it’s something to do with Typepad though?
@brianattopsy
Hi. I work for Topsy, and we offer another option — The Topsy Retweet Button.
One of the unique features of the Topsy button is that we maintain our index of tweets forever, instead of just including the recent tweets, and our entire index is searchable via http://topsy.com
You can check out the Topsy Retweet Button and other Topsy stuff here — http://labs.topsy.com/widgets/
Even the Tweetmeme Retweet button is popular…. then also i don’t like it… I prefer the Topsy RT widget most!!
@EsoArt
Sweet! Though, that code relies on an outside site.
@Adsensing
How to use this in blogger blog. Can you elaborate?
@promodirect
Phew! my long hunt overs here, I was sick of finding a solution for this retweet button at blog post.
Thank you so much
@promotionalbuzz
Thanks a lot Darren, i’ll have to get this button integrated to by blog asap. thanks for sharing it with us
@paarth31
Darren, thanks so much, this is what i was looking for.
Awesome plugin. Used to have small share buttons at the end of the article, but after I implemented this on my blog, traffic increased…thanks
Do you think these plugins can work on Xanga? It seems that Xanga can be so exclusive that we cannot install many widgets. Please let me know, thanks!
@ndey1
I like the plugin but it is not working well on posts that have any media inserted on them. It doesn’t seem to like iframes. Do you know how to solve this? tweetmeme doesn’t offer any help with this.
thanks