The Battle of RT vs. MT

I was recently asked by a client what the protocol was regarding the use of RT vs. MT when using Twitter. Since not everyone knows what MT means, I thought I would provide a little clarification on the battle of RT vs. MT.

If you are retweeting someone verbatim, then “RT @username:” is the standard format to use. If you modify a tweet, the proper protocol would be to use “MT @username” instead. This lets the reader know that it is a “Modified Tweet” instead of a “Retweet.”

The key question in all of this is how much modification warrants going with MT vs. RT? If you are just changing a couple of characters to save space, and not changing the tweet substantially, then you may stick with a RT. If you begin to cut out a sentence, change words or tweak it quite a bit, then you should go with MT instead.

Happy RT & MTing!

Carey