Goodbye TweetMeme: Twitter Launches Its Own Retweet Button

The rumors are now official. Today, Twitter released its own Tweet Button to allow website owners to encourage visitors to Retweet articles and pages. The new Tweet Button replaces the current industry leader, TweetMeme, though Twitter has worked out a licensing deal with TweetMeme for some of the technology they have already developed.

Twitter’s Tweet Button comes with some additional options: as well as multiple formatting choices, it also allows website owners who install the button to suggest Twitter accounts to follow for people who use the button on their site. Although the design of the button is different, it works in the same way as TweetMeme in that it allows users to easily share stories on Twitter and provides a counter for the number of times each article or page has been shared. The release of this new button is the next step in Twitter’s expansion and filling the gaps in its core service offerings.

Marketing Takeaway

For marketers who create content online, Twitter provides one major reason to switch to the new Tweet Button from TweetMeme’s existing button: suggested followers. A common goal of many businesses on Twitter is to increase followers and reach. By installing the new button, businesses can then add their corporate Twitter account(s), which will be recommended when new site visitors use the Tweet Button. As a marketer, switching to the new Tweet Button now makes sense to take advantage of this current benefit as well as future benefits that will likely come from Twitter as it improves its API.

Do you plan to switch to the new Tweet Button for your website?

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Posted by Kipp Bodnar on Thu, Aug 12, 2010 @ 01:00 PM