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Battle of the ReTweet Buttons

ReTweet buttons have taken social media by storm and are an easy way to encourage the sharing of your content on Twitter. There are dozens of solutions similar to the 3 buttons listed below, but these seem to be the most promising and include a “Tweet Count” on the buttons themselves.

I’m often surprised at how many great blogs aren’t using these buttons yet when it seems like a no-brainer. The only reason I could see not having one of these buttons on your site is if you don’t want social proof of your blogs failure. In other words, you don’t want the rest of the world seeing how many people are not sharing your posts. But then again, if that’s the case, maybe adding one of these buttons to your site is the first step to getting a solid new following.

TweetMeme retweet button

TweetMeme’s retweet button wasn’t the first of it’s kind, but it definitely sparked the trend that eventually led to this post. This button is probably the most recognizable throughout the blogosphere because of it’s unparalleled support and cutting edge website. Past attempts at aggregating retweets into a “Digg style” website fell short due to shortcomings in functionality and bandwidth.

My only quarrel with the TweetMeme button was the fact that it automatically added “RT @tweetmeme” to your tweet unless you had some sort of high level clearance to get it customized. However, it seems they have fixed this and you can now customize it, as you should be able to. This was an especially smart move considering the launch of BackType’s retweet widget that allowed you to customize itself to your heart’s content.

Backtype Tweetcount Widget

This is the retweet button I am currently using because, at the time, TweetMeme wasn’t allowing me to customize my tweets. The main difference between BackType’s widget and TweetMeme’s is that BackType counts all Tweets pointing to a post where TweetMeme only counts each tweet once. You can also change the color of the widget to match your website’s theme. I’ll probably stick with this one for awhile.

Real Retweet Button

This guy popped up just the other day. Besides being a TweetMeme ripoff … well it’s a TweetMeme ripoff. The only reason I would even consider using this button is if I wanted to try something different.

So which RT button do you use?

4 replies on “Battle of the ReTweet Buttons”

[…] Twitter didn’t always have it’s own retweet button. In the beginning there was TweetMeme. A few tried to copy what Tweetmeme had created however only BackType and Topsy succeeded where others failed. Finally Twitter released it’s own button that gives you the option of choosing a Twitter profile to recommend after a user shares your content. Each retweet button has it’s perks but make sure you display one on your site. […]

[…] Twitter no tiene siempre su propio botón retweet. En un principio hubo ÜberTwitter. Algunos trataron de copiar lo que había creado ÜberTwitter sin embargo sólo BackType y Topsy éxito donde otros no se pudo. Finalmente Twitter lanzó su propio botón que le da la opción de elegir un perfil Twitter recomendar después de que un usuario comparte su contenido. Cada botón retweet tiene sus ventajas, pero asegúrese de que mostrar uno en su sitio. […]

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