In the E-Book “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter”, I talk a little bit about Re-Tweeting. There’s are a myriad of useful reasons to use this simple Twitter tool, but first I wanted to give you a clear definition:

Re-Tweeting – similar to a “forward” in email, Re-Tweeting allows you to send someone else’s Tweets to your followers.

In this post, I’ll show you both HOW and WHEN to Re-Tweet.

How To Re-Tweet

Depending on how you are viewing your Twitter account (on a web broswer or using a third-party dekstop application like TweetDeck or an iPhone application like Tweetie), Re-Tweeting can be as simple as clicking a Re-Tweet (RT) button.

For Twitter users who like to work with the original Twitter interface on a browser, you simply highlight the text of you want to Re-Tweet and copy-and-paste it into your Tweet window.

Now you simply type in “RT”, add a space and put the “@” sign in front of the username of the person you’re Re-Tweeting.

One potential “gotcha” is if their post is close to, or at, 140 characters. If that’s the case, you’ll have to modify their Tweet so you have the room to add the “RT”, the space and the “@” sign.

If you’re using TweetDeck, simply hover your mouse over their Twitter picture and click on the Re-Tweet button. Super easy!

For users of Tweetie on an iPhone, simply double-tap the person’s Tweet that you want to Re-Tweet and then choose the bottom left icon to bring up the Repost (same thing as Re-Tweet) menu.

The Repost options for Tweetie include “Repost” (that’s Re-Tweet), “Post Link to this Tweet” and “Mail Link to this Tweet”. You’ll want to “Repost” if you’re Re-Tweeting.

When To Re-Tweet

There are so many viable reasons for Re-Tweeting! I’ve included a few good examples – broken down into categories – following the pattern of the E-book.

Re-Tweeting as a Megaphone

If your church or ministry is using a Twitter account to keep members, volunteers and/or specific groups up-to-date, Re-Tweeting can be useful for:

• Cross-promotion between ministries that have a common event or need in common.
• Last-minute updates and reminders from a specific ministry or staff member.
• A useful link, thought or idea from a person you follow. This also helps build relationships with group members who get to know other members.
• Pointing members to a third-party resource that has a timely and applicable tweet.

Re-Tweeting as a Conversation

For more personal use, leveraging Twitter gives you a chance to interact in single or multiple conversations. Re-Tweeting can be useful:

• Introduce your followers to people you follow that they may not yet know.
• Use Re-Tweets to take a thought from someone else and build your own group discussion around that idea.
• Re-Tweeting provides exposure (good or bad, depending on how you use it) to the person you’re Re-Tweeting. Generally speaking, if you’re Re-Tweeting someone, it’s a nice way to give credit and props to that person for their Tweet.

Re-Tweeting for Pastors

Part of the benefit of pastors using Twitter is to give some insight into the person behind the pulpit. To that end, sharing Re-Tweets opens people up to others that influence you:

• Re-Tweeting other pastors from other churches helps share with your followers the thinking and focus of other pastoral leaders.
• Re-Tweeting staff members from time to time shows your interest and support of those people and their ministries.
• Sharing things that interest you – especially things outside of church life – allows people to see you as a human in addition to a pastor.

Finally, I’m of the personal belief that you honor people by Re-Tweeting their thoughts, ideas, struggles and observations. It also benefits you as your followers see that you have more to share than simply what you have to say. The credibilty of people on Twitter, generally speaking, goes up when they are consistent and intentional about Re-Tweeting.
Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and experiences with Re-Tweeting in the comments section below!