Hail to the new retweet function!

As you probably noticed a few weeks ago, twitter finally released its retweet function. While facebook changes its entire layout every 6 months to the dismay of its entire user population, twitter is usually more careful when releasing updates.

The new retweet function, has received harsh criticism, including a well written rant from business mind hacks, among others. The main cricism includes the fact that:

1. The person who RTs gets less “social credit” even he’s taking the risk of pushing this content to his followers
2. It is easier to RT bad content, since people are more likely to blame the initial author rather than yourself
3. There is a “shock” factor of seeing the username and avatar of a user you’re not following  in your stream

While others who are in favor of the new feature state that it’s cleaner and makes tweets easier to read.

The point for me is that those who complain the most about the new retweet function are the hardcore tweeters who have thousands of followers, in large part because of argument #1 (they get the “social credit” for other people’s content).

But this new function is for newcomers to twitter, as it makes RTs easier to do and to read. And for soon-to-be hot-shot online marketers who are trying to move up the social media ladder, this new feature is essential as it gives more power to the original author of a tweet. If a user who is not following me sees me pop-up in his stream, he might either like the content of my tweet or fall in love with my picture, but in both cases he is much more likely to start following me.

More power to the original author means a more opportunity for people who write meaningful tweets to get more social media cred’. Not that I am one of those worthy of such honor…