If you look at the top right hand corner of any blog post on TechCrunch, you will see both the number of comments on it and the number of times it’s been retweeted (linked to and passed around on Twitter). Usually the retweet number is bigger than the number of comments because it is much easier to do. It counts as a vote for that post inasmuch as a passed link can be construed as a reader recommendation. Everyone who retweets a link is in effect recommending it to all of their followers, and it can help to drive traffic back to the original post. At least that is the theory.
But how many retweet buttons are actually out there and how many people click on them? When it comes to the spread of the buttons themselves, TweetMeme offered some stats today showing that its retweet buttons are now getting 1.6 billion impressions a month. That number has quadrupled in the past two months alone. New retweet market entrants have a lot of catching up to do. And Just wait until retweet buttons start appearing on individual comments as well.
What that means, however, is just that the buttons are appearing on blog posts and articles which collectively are viewed 1.6 billion times a month, not that they are clicked on that many times. I asked Tweetmeme founder Nick Halstead how many actual retweets do those buttons produce. He doesn’t have exact numbers for that yet, but his best guesstimate is 200,000 a day, or 6 million a month. That translates into a paltry 0.375 percent click-through rate.
There are a few caveats about this number. It doesn’t count people who click on the retweet button who are not members of Twitter. It only counts the overlap. So the actual number of clicks is no doubt higher. In fact, on the retweet button in RSS feeds and for people who are already logged into Twitter (which TweetMeme can measure), the click-through rate is 1 percent. But the vast majority of impressions are for people who are not logged in. So the real click-through rate is somewhere in between 0.375 percent and 1 percent.
The other thing to remember is that it can take fewer retweets to make an article go viral than, say, Diggs. Depending on how many followers each retweeter has and how many actually click on the link, a few retweets can be all it takes to drive a ton of people to that blog post. Twitter certainly drives a lot of traffic to TechCrunch, but we don’t really know how much of that is due to retweets.
TweetMeme is working on giving Websites who use its retweet button better insight into downstream traffic. Halstead also revealed that it is going to release an analytics service which measures traffic coming from retweets. He’d better hurry up with that before Twitter itself beats him to the punch.
It’s because most people run god awful shitty blogs with no real content or visitors and follow crap tutorials about getting better at blogging that suggest spamming twitter lots to make it more popular.
Same with the quality and meaning of people’s tweets!
+1 (sorry for the spam)
It doesn’t count people who click on the retweet button who are not members of Twitter. It only counts the overlap. So the actual number of clicks is no doubt higher.
>>>>>> Counting the overlaps on Retweet buttons is a fake data. Effective retweets are to be counted from the twitter users logins which gives the actual traffic stats.
TechCrench? Common!
How often do you retweet? – Global poll at http://qulse.com/q.jsp?id=27
Never. But I don’t have a constant need to attract attention to myself.
Oh sweet, sweet irony.
Actually, no. Somebody has to speak out against the madness. I’m Batman.
Yeah y’are.
Actually, when you consider the conversion rate of spam [1] this is actually a very high number. One thing to keep in mind is that so-called ad blocking software will likely alter path to account for well known artifacts and interstitial such as social sharing service code snippets. (i.e. AdBlock, etc…)
[1] http://www.icsi...spamalytics.pdf
I’m more likely to hit a “share” link than a “retweet” link.
i will ReTweet for that…
RT: @spankinapps i will ReTweet for that…
Interesting post. Tweetmeme analytics looks like a helpful tool for people who want to know more about their ReTweets.
I have to disagree with this:
“Usually the retweet number is bigger than the number of comments because it is much easier to do.”
While he is correct that it’s easier to “retweet” an article than to comment on one, they seem to be (at least to me) far different things. One is sharing an article, whether you agree with it or not, the other is providing commentary and thought on an article.
Or maybe I think they are different because I’m grouchy this morning?
Most RTs I see have some commentary however brief, and appreciatively so
I’d rather make a comment than retweet.
Exactly. Just hitting retweet all day and putting up tweets with no editorial is hardly adding value. My followers already know where to find the techcrunch RSS feed.
TechCrench huh. Ok, I’ll fix it.
Does Tweetmeme record button views or unique button views. That is very different, I could refresh my browser windows 1 billion times and say that I get 1 bullion impression a month.
by what measure is 0.375% CTR “paltry” ? Keep in mind most display advertisements get ~0.1% CTR.
No they don’t. The average (when you filter in all the adsense/punch the monkey type stuff) is .15-.2% (see emarketer reports).
Premium display ads are still seeing .5-1%, with some showing much higher than that.
I have *never* seen a campaign do .1% except on facebook.
Well, that’s my point. Ad rates will fall all over the map, but if emarketer is seeing 0.15-0.2% for CTR for adsense, then I see 0.3% for a retweet button as pretty good.
How about comments? how many people comment divided by the number page views? I bet that is somewhere in the <1% range as well.
I think calling this “paltry” without comparing to something doesn’t make sense.
Lets also not forget that looking at the global internet population, what percentage actually have a twitter account and actively tweet? From that number, how many are clicking the retweet button? We’re not looking at the same size audience as the Facebook member count here.
What does twitter have, something like 20m users (active or not)…>?
People that dont have/use twitter are probably a lot less likely to click that retweet button.
Comments > Twats
+1
I have twitter and have about 5 minutes everyday to read. I usually scan my twitter start page and quit. How do people keep organized and updated? Its a confusing mess to me.
Download Tweetdeck
“a paltry 0.375 percent click-through rate”…
What is paltry about that? Ever thought about how many impressions on your website turn out into a comment? I bet this is way below 0.375%.
Even a 0.375% chance to get such viral advertisment is sure anything else than paltry.
Agreed. 0.375% is actually a really impressive number if you ask me.
cool techcrunch too have retweet buttons… i don’t understand the meaning of retweeting
What retweet button? I blocked it using adblock in firefox and I will be sure do the same once it shows up on each comment.
And…. so why are you here?
Does this guestimate account for the retweets that occur directly on twitter? [the core viral component]
(i.e. once you retweet a post, someone who will see your tweet on twitter is I believe very likely to simply retweet your tweet rather than go back to the retweet button on the original post)
wow how this service are growing, it is realy useful, and gives traffic from the twitter
I think this Tweetmeme vs. Retweet stuff is a non-issue. What’s to keep Twitter from getting in on this game?
I fully expect that one day we will wake up and find that Twitter’s home page will look like Digg or Tweetmeme… and include Twitter search, too.
They will have their own button, to boot.
Thanks for running the numbers!
I’ve found something even more contextually useful than the ReTweeting. It is the ReTip feature found on the TipTop search enginge feeltiptop.com. TipTop’s ReTip looks like this:
@rose101 I like your top “retweeting” tip http://bit.ly/1sHsyK in TipTop at http://bit.ly/7TzR9 Share: http://bit.ly/BEZkA7
Link to the rose101’s Tweet: http://twitter....uses/3457281791
Link to the TipTop Search results page: http://feeltipt....com/retweeting
Click to Share this message: http://bit.ly/OYpAZN
Re-Tip in TipTop is indeed the best possible way today for reaching out to whoever you want to reach out to. It works like a charm. Come to FeelTipTop.com and use TipTop to discover and then Re-Tip to appreciate the very best people, ideas, tips, tweets, …
Thanks for running the numbers!
I’ve found something even more contextually useful than the ReTweeting. It is the ReTip feature found on the TipTop search engine feeltiptop.com. TipTop’s ReTip looks like this:
@rose101 I like your top “retweeting” tip http://bit.ly/1sHsyK in TipTop at http://bit.ly/7TzR9 Share: http://bit.ly/BEZkA7
Link to the rose101’s Tweet: http://twitter....uses/3457281791
Link to the TipTop Search results page: http://feeltipt....com/retweeting
Click to Share this message: http://bit.ly/OYpAZN
I don’t think 0.375% is paltry at all. If you go to the front page of TechCrunch you see 20 odd RT buttons, so you’re getting a RT every 13 visitors, assuming TechCrunch has the average click-through rate. Isn’t that pretty damn good?
ReTweeting is duplicating content without adding any value.
No value.
Adding to the Internet Content Waste.
Retweets of posts are most done for big blogs like yours.