As I’ve just added the “retweet” plugin to my blog, I have a question for you: does a retweet button encourage people to retweet your posts?
I can see how it might – if people see it, they might click it. But on the other hand, if they like your post, wouldn’t they share it anyway?
Sometimes I think people need a nudge to remind them that retweeting is one to share a post they enjoyed. I think it goes a bit beyond that when your blog has a crazy mess of widgets – how many people are likely to share your post on multiple networks?
Instead of trying to get traffic from absolutely anywhere, why not focus on one or two decent traffic sources and do them really well?
Let me know your thoughts by adding a comment.
About Ben
Does having a Re-tweet button encourage people to tweet your posts? Imho, No. I think most blog readers are pretty well aware of HOW to share your content with their social networks IF they chose to. And I do have the Share This plug in that enables readers to share my work on any networks they belong to. But I only tweet (stumble, FB, etc) if I am really impressed by the post. And having a big in your face (tweet, stumble, digg, etc) button does Not impress me.
I have mixed feelings about this – on the one hand, I think there are some users who won’t even consider retweeting a post if they button isn’t there, but on the other I think that there is too much of a good thing. I do like seeing plugins like Sociable (which I have) or Sexy Bookmarks, because they give the option of using any method listed to spread word of a post the reader liked. Also, they tend to be at the bottom of the post and are less obtrusive.
I don’t usually tweet articles unless I find them very very interesting.
And then if I do, I’ll go out of my way to do it. But, the button is very convenient!
Hey Ben, Excellent blog btw. I think it does help to have it there. If someone likes it and wants to share it then having the button there makes it nice and easy with just one click. People might not bother otherwise. So in a word, yes.
Thanks for the comments. For the moment I’ve removed the button, but this was mainly because it didn’t work with the object cache plugin I was using. I may add it back as it did generate a few clicks…