If you are a Twitter user then you would know about the popular re-tweet function. When you receive a Twitter post , or a Tweet that you like you can do a re-tweet on it by clicking on the Retweet button in that post. The message will get posted to your account with a mention about the original person who wrote it (RT @johnsmith). This is a great way of spreading interesting or important posts on Twitter and often these messages spread virally. Ever since Facebook tried to buy Twitter (see post) they have been trying to emulate Twitter’s operations; and it’s no surprise when Facebook decided to have its own version of Twitter’s re-tweet functionality. It doesn’t have a cool name yet like ‘re-tweet’ or anything so people are just calling it the ‘Facebook Via Feature’. This new feature lets you make a re-post on another user’s shared items such as links.
This is how you do re-tweet (or Facebook via) on Facebook:
When you see a friend’s posted item in your news feed that you would like to re-post click the ‘share‘ button below it. A new window opens up and and you will see a mention ‘via johnsmith (Remove)‘ below the comment box. Write your comment in the box and click the Share-button. If you don’t want to use the via-feature then click the Remove-button before you post it on your profile. Once you have shared your friend’s post it will appear on your profile with a via link that points to your friend’s profile. Your friends will also see the item in their News Feed and they can in turn do a re-post creating a viral loop of the message. Pretty cool, eh? Go ahead now and give it a go… and let me know how you find this feature.
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Kris Olin, MSc (Econ.) * Editor in Chief at Social Media Revolver * Web Designer * SEO Specialist * Author of the Facebook Advertising Guide. Follow Kris on Twitter and LinkedIn. See his photos at Flickr.
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