Short answer for those who don’t want to read any further? Yes, in my opinion it’s very bad! But only when used in a certain way. Longer answer below.
Firstly, if you don’t use Twitter this blog post is probably meaningless to you. But it might still be useful to read if you ever consider venturing onto the social media platform.
So what on earth is a quote retweet? On Twitter there are two types of retweet. The standard retweet, which will share someone else’s post on your newsfeed. The second type is the quote retweet. This type allows you the share another tweeter’s post while also adding a comment of your own. So what’s bad about that?
When you use a standard retweet, all likes and comments go against the original tweet. This means that all attention goes to the original tweeter. Which is great if you’re uploading artwork because you want that attention and that positivity.
However, when you use the quote retweet all likes and comments go against the retweet. This gives all the attention to the retweeter, not the original artist. If you use this you are essentially taking away any glory from the original tweet and giving it to yourself.
So why does the quote retweet exist if it’s bad? Note that here I’m explicitly talking about artists sharing their artwork. The quote retweet can be a great tool for adding your own commentary on top of an existing tweet to your own followers. But that commentary has to be relevant and worthwhile. What am I talking about here? Take this recent Jelly Ear fungi picture I recently uploaded:
I will say that these are some of the better ones. Simple retweets with just a name of the original tweeter or ‘Love this’ are common. Each one of these ‘quotes’ could easily have been a comment on the on the original image, but instead the tweeters choose to use quote retweet and bring the attention to their own comment, rather than the original piece (and tweeter).
Do these users know that they’re doing something wrong? Most likely not. The quote retweet has been part of Twitter for some time now and it’s a useful tool that Twitter wants you to make use of the cause more engagement across their platform.
However, one area that I have seen recently that I cannot abide. You may already know my dislike of lists (click here if not). I find lists on their own already annoying. ‘Hey, drop your shots, I’ll RT all’. That key part here is about retweeting all ‘dropped shots’. Lately a lot of these lists have been using the quote retweet. So they’re essentially saying:
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Show me your best art and add it to my tweet
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Quote retweeting what they consider to be the best to their own timeline
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Getting all the glory for said art
The original artist gets very little out of this process. Sure, they are getting mentioned by a larger account, but a standard retweet on a regular basis in this regard would go a lot further to making sure that the original artist and tweeter is getting credit for their hard work.
At the end of the day I’m a simple hobby photography. I like using Twitter, and I love the community. I don’t think everyone is using the quote retweet feature with this intent, and many simply mis-understand how it works. Or at least that’s what I would like to think. I’ve made many mistakes in the past, and will do so in the future. All I can hope is that this post educates others and that I’m called out when I do something similar.
Update 23 January 2022
As pointed out to me by the wonderful Chris Love (check out his website here, it’s full of awesome images: https://www.chrislovephotography.co.uk/) the quote retweet can be a powerful tool for lending your own alignment to another artist that is more visible than a simple retweet, and shows respect and trust for that artist. I agree wholeheartedly with this, and all I really ask is rather than a simple message, put a little thought into that quote retweet to let the world know why you love that artist and why anyone should follow them.
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