It's spelled "desperate." And it is, if the poster never posts anything worth retweeting.

Great points on both sides. I mostly agree with the Yes side, though I think DMS is right about social media being about personal decisions. I just think the reader of the post can be trusted enough to make the decision whether or not "Please Retweet" is on there. I'd be interested in what other people have to say on this.

I agree with DMS. I have tried using "Please Retweet" and it doesn't really work for the reasons he states. People will decide what they think is valuable and re-share it. I also agree that the best way to get people to reshare it to reach out directly to someone you hope will share it, explain why it is valuable and hope that they agree and will reshare the information. 

I don't do it myself, but it's not a command. It's not saying, "Retweet" or "PLEASE RETWEET." To me (and this may only be me), it's "graciously" asking you to retweet by beginning w/ "Please." You can so no (by not retweeting).

@Gretchen: very good point. Retweets should happen naturally, but if you've got one you really want an influencer to repost, reaching out to them makes a lot of sense.

Philosophically, I agree with David, but tactically, and ultimately, I agree with Dan. It's like the age-old conflict between branding and direct marketing...certain calls to action are proven to be effective, even if they seem obvious or don't have a nice "branding" feel to them. A couple of thoughts: 
- I DON'T think adding "please RT" takes away from the reader's ability to make a decision--it's still personal. They just might be prompted to CONSIDER retweeting when they otherwise may not have considered it. (And of course, if more consider, more ultimately will retweet.) 
- I DO think context should be considered. Using Hubspot as an example, if they are promoting a free seminar, then asking others to RT is like spreading the good word. On the other hand, if a Hubspotter tweeted that the company just won an award, asking people to RT, even though Hubspot would probably like it (and it might even be relevant to the audience), could come across as very cocky and a turnoff. IMO, that wouldn't be worth getting the incremental tweets when there are better options for Hubspot to get visibility and word-of-mouth. But that tradeoff is subjective; my point being simply that context should be considered.

This is a hard one for me too. I honestly feel "cheap" including it on my tweets. I've tried it once or twice, but I'm not sure how much it ended up helping. At the end of the day, I didn't respect myself for doing it, so I've since stopped. I agree with DMS, great content should stand on its own merits. 
 
Joe

I can see an argument for both sides, but ultimately I tend to agree with DMS.  
 
It turns me off when I see a "please RT" because I don't want someone else telling me what I should consider valuable...I want to make that call for myself (perhaps that's just part of my defiant nature though). 
 
If your content is truly remarkable people will want to share it.

A lot depends on the nature and purpose of the original tweet. There is a HUGE difference between 'Special offer on my product today, please retweet' and 'Raise money to combat diabetes, please retweet'. I think the second example may distort Dan's numbers where he claims that Please RT lifts the number of RTs.

I have used "please retweet" and received a number of RT's. *But* I use it sparinginly, and usually only on posts such as "blood bank at critical level, need O+" for example, much like Homer's example above. I have about the same rate of retweets whether I use or refrain from using RT. I see the value to both arguements, it truly falls to content I believe.

I'm in agreement with David. I like to decide what to RT instead of someone telling me to RT. I get a little turned off when I see 'PLS RT'. I'll retweet if I frickin' feel like it. ;) 
 
I feel like the people that RT just because someone asked them to, doesn't even care about the information being tweeted. They just did it because they wanted some recognition for retweeting something that someone (most likely an influencer) just asked them to.  
 
But hey, if it works, it works. Who am I to disagree? To each their own! Personally, I won't be asking anyone to RT. :)

I just realized that #4 on the list above is the word "retweet". Added to "please retweet" (#11) the combination is probably closer to the top spot. that seems odd, though, I feel like I always see "please" with RT

At first I used the think asking for an RT was acceptable, especially in the days when Twitter was new to the scene and few people understood what "Pls RT" meant. 
 
 
 
I later began to feel after seeing so many people asking for retweets that it was indeed a sign of desperation. But of course sometimes you have to sleep on things to see how they look the next morning. 
 
 
 
In more traditional marketing we still include call to action like "please call now", even though people know very well what a phone number is and they also know if the product or service offering is enticing to want them to pick up that phone. 
 
 
 
So its naturaL that tweets will also include call to action, including visiting websites, messaging the sender and, of course, retweeting. 
 
 
 
In my opinion, it's a matter of judgement, a matter of balance. If your tweet is interesting or important ask people to retweet, but if you are simply offering a service or product via your twitter account, don't expect people to retweet when they may not even have had a chance to use your product or service yet, let alone endorse it. 
 
 
 
Equally, consistancy often becomes invisible, so make sure that not all your messages include an RT request. In fact, I would guess that infrequent retweet requests may have a better result because they stand out more. 
 
 
 
Great post guys. 
 
 
 
Jon

More in-depth experiment is needed for more scenarios. E.g. when a twitter user uses the tactic repeatedly.

I get that noobs might not realize they can RT content, but at some point, don't most people figure it out? I just find "please RT" annoying. I'll RT if it's something that caught my eye and seemed worthy of sharing. Asking me to RT it isn't going to change my criteria.

Despite the data that seems to prove that tweets with 'Please RT' do get retweeted more I'm still not so sure. Do the tweets get retweeted more because people are asked, or because the content of the tweets is, on average, more worthy of a retweet than the average tweet? It's really hard to tell, and since many people get annoyed by it I avoid adding 'please RT' to most of my tweets.

Seeing that word 'desperate' kind of made me laugh - I think asking someone to 'like' me FB page is also desperate. 
 
Then again, these are desperate times we live it (no matter how it's spelled)

I've found that if you have something important to say, and you want to get it all over the internet very quickly, asking people to retweet something can be incredibly helpful. Do it too often, and you're annoying, though.

Instead of Plz RT, I'm going to start using RT Damnit! I only use Plz RT when trying to get word out abt a tweetup. Interesting controversy on such a piddly subject. Thanks for the Saturday laughs.

You make some choices when marketing and part of that is when to give a little extra push. As a great proponent of inbound marketing and good content as the path to recognition and client connection, I will say that sometimes you just have to give it a little push - especially at the beginning of a marketing campaign. 
 
When I first saw this study/recommenation a few months ago - I decided it was a little too outbound. But I wouldn't rule it out in every case. I do notice that even Hubspot has put the lid on it for the most part - or what I should say is that I haven't noticed it as much lately.

This is a subject that could be debated endlessly, I must admit I have never used the"re-tweet please" on any of my postings and have always left that decision to my followers. 
Maybe its worth a test period to see the difference in results.

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او 
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I don't see why we can't add the "Please Retweet" as it will give a clear direction to all my twitter followers to do me a favour and help me spread the tweet (i.e: Word of Mouth)

Interesting that 'retweet' comes in at 4th on the list. I suspect people say things such as 'retweet' if you agree etc? and not necessarily Please Retweet. Also Pls RT is more frequently used. This doesn't seem to appear in the the list? I recall reading some hubspot research not so long ago that measured responses and indicated that users were 4 times more likely to RT if you asked them to do so. I am an advocate of the call to action mentality. I also think that it depends on the type of tweet. If you are encouraging debate and engagement - then RT is more applicable. If you are simply sharing your blog post or opinion - then asking for others to RT is indeed desperate. It's on those tweets that you would hope that the merit of what you have written will encourage them to RT - rather than you asking for it. Like everything - there's a time and a place and it depends on the nature of the communication.

Awesome debate here. Thank you all for jumping in. Fun to see everyone's opinion on this!

I didn't like asking people to RT, but after testing it I have found it really works:) 
 
-Chris

Notice how many times DMS uses "I" or "me" in this conversation. The biggest error a marketer can make is assuming all people think the way you do. 
 
Of course, if know the people you want to attract are the ones who think like you, then that's fine :)