Retweet the old fashioned way, the classic or traditional retweet

Ironically, the most important feature on Twitter is one that Twitter itself did not develop, and has never adopted: the traditional retweet.

It was developed by the customers, on their own, and not by the company. And amazingly, to this date Twitter itself has never incorporated it, although doing so would be as easy as pie.

My advice to all Twitter users is that you should not use what Twitter calls a "retweet". It is a counterfeit, and does not have any of the key properties of a retweet. The Twitter friend you're retweeting usually won't even know that you did. Just skip it.

The true, traditional "retweet" is the life blood of Twitter.

Here's how to do a traditional retweet if you're accessing Twitter at twitter.com:

The hard way

1. Copy and paste the message and name of person sending it to you.

2. Precede it by "RT @" [type "RT", then a space, then a @. It's important that the @ and the name NOT have a space between them].

I.e. it should start out like this: "RT @Username "

An easier way

This one is especially important if what you're retweeting is itself a bogus twitter retweet because your Twitter friend who posted it can easily be totally omitted from your retweet.

1. Hit the retweet button.

2. In the "comment" section insert RT @Username of your Twitter friend.

3. If your friend's post was a Twitter retweet, also insert RT @Username of the person who did the original.