Have you ever thought of something brilliant, thrown it on Twitter and then promptly lamented the fact that your mates wouldn’t be on to see it until later on in the day, at which point their feeds could very well be a jumbled mess and you’d be lucky if they even scrolled past your Tweet? Or have you ever shot off a Tweet so wonderful that you wanted to do it again, but didn’t feel like typing it up twice? There are a few other use cases for this new feature, but mostly, the two groups mentioned above will be the happiest to hear that as of Tuesday, Twitter has enabled Retweeting and Quote Tweeting of your own Tweets.
All narcissism aside, this feature could prove quite useful for a number of people. If you happen to be an independent creative of some sort, for instance a YouTube musician or aspiring blogger, Twitter can be a gold mine for self-promotion, but the sad fact is that you’re likely only ever going to reach a quarter of your audience at one time. The same can be said of those who Tweet for marketing purposes, or simply to share interesting stuff with their followers. If you’re in the market for more views on a Tweet, sending it out again at a later time of day is pretty much the only way to do it. With the newly enabled self-Retweeting feature, that’s as easy as heading to your profile and hitting Retweet on the golden Tweet in question. With Quote Tweeting enabled as well, you can also comment on your own previous Tweet, share new insight or offer a disclaimer of the misadventures that led to a regrettable Tweet, if you happen to have one floating around.
While the number of possible use cases for the new feature may be a bit limited, it is nonetheless a nice feature to have. The nicer part is that it has been enabled server side for all users worldwide, meaning no matter where you are, you can now send whatever glorious Tweet that some of your audience missed back out into the world with minimal effort, no app update needed on any platform. Thus, whether you’re trying to sell something, get more followers or just get your name out there, if persistence will pay off, then this feature is there to help you.