Is Retweet The Next Digg This?

Twitter has taken on a life of its own. in the early days, their was no way to respond to other people until users came up with the idea to use the @ symbol to designate a reply. Now adays, the sharing of information on Twitter has created what is known as a Retweet. This is when someone republishes a message someone else wrote and is used as a means of sharing useful information. Depending on who picks up the message and retweets it, the information can be viewed by thousands of people.

This is where a site like TweetMeme comes into play. Tweetmeme contains a listing of the hottest stories on twitter based on the number of times they have been retweeted. The site features an area for the top tweets, sponsored tweets, a mobile version of the site but perhaps most importantly, an easy way to place a Retweet button on your website with every article to make sharing that content easier.

If you couldn’t tell by now, the whole thing works much in the same was as Digg with a few notable exceptions. First, there are no comments for the stories on the Tweetmeme website. There is also no way to bury a story because if it’s not popular, it won’t show up on the front page anyways. There are no categories so the front page has a higher chance of maintaining a diverse round of stories. The democracy of getting stories to the top is still there but for now, there is not a large majority of people dictating what makes it to the top and what doesn’t.

Overall, if you’re a Twitter user or looking at another way to get traffic to your blog, adding this Tweetmeme button is a 5 minute or less step that could equal major benefits if the right people pick up on your story. Besides, having the Tweetmeme button on your site is a good way to see how many times people have retweeted your blog post.