What Exactly Does Liking a Tweet Do On twitter
On Twitter, there are a half-dozen ways to engage and communicate, but the most recent is the like. Given that Facebook likes are the norm for social contact these days, you’re not alone in thinking this is strange. The reason for this is that Twitter recently renamed its Favorite button to a Like button in order to better represent how people were using it.
Rather than simply talking about likes, I’ll go through each kind of Twitter interaction before returning to the subject of likes and how to utilize them.
Likes on Twitter
Twitter likes, formerly known as favorites, are the simplest and, until recently, most mystifying form of interaction on Twitter. They aren’t capable of doing much on their own. A like counter appears on tweets, and it indicates how many people have liked the tweet. Twitter likes, unlike Facebook likes, do not display a list of the individuals who have liked the tweet.
When you like a tweet, you can do a couple more things with it. For one thing, like a tweet adds it to your list of favorites. Did you realize you have a wish list of things you like? Yes, it is correct! You’ll see a list of “tabs” at the top of your Twitter profile if you login in and go to your own profile. Tweets, Following, Followers, and Likes are all examples of these terms. The default tab is Tweets, which includes the sub-tabs Tweets, Tweets & Replies, and Photos & Videos. The first is your default “filtered” feed, which contains anything you’ve publicly shared. The second is a less filtered version that includes people’s responses – more on that later – and the third is a filter that only displays pictures and videos you’ve tweeted.
Anyway, if you go to the Likes tab, you’ll see a reverse-ordered feed of all the tweets you’ve liked or favorited. This relates to something I’ll talk about later: one of the potential reasons for liking tweets and how individuals utilize likes.
In addition, when you like a tweet, the person who posted it gets informed. Because you’re technically like the tweet that contains the retweet, not the original tweet itself, if you like a retweet, the person who retweeted it will be informed.
Buzzfeed, of all places, conducted research on why people like tweets when they were still called favorites. Favorites were also dubbed “one of the most intricate and opaque forms of internet communication” by the researchers. That’s a big task for something that’s basically a thumbs up.
That’s all there is to it.
Tweets are popular for a variety of reasons (And Why You Should Too)
To return to the topic of likes, we may consider Buzzfeed’s research. Favorites, which are now known as likes, were formerly referred to as puzzling. It turns out that various individuals utilize them for different reasons. Some individuals took the word “favorite” seriously, and only gave them out sparingly. Others, who were raised on Facebook, used them as a lite version of likes.
Now that they ARE likes, they’re being used a lot more often. Still, let’s take a look at some of the many ways you may utilize likes.
- Adding Tweets to a Favorites List.
You know how I said you can view a list of all the tweets you’ve liked at any time? That’s how some people use it: as a list of amusing things, they can return to at any moment to relive memories, refer to specific postings later, and have on hand in general. I also like to use it to “bookmark” interesting resources for later.
2 Showing Your Appreciation.
This is perhaps the finest kind of similarity that can exist. In this instance, a Twitter like is just a remark that says, “I liked this post.” There isn’t anything more to it, and there isn’t anything less. After all, some individuals utilize social media in a literal sense. These are likely the same individuals that altered how they utilize the button when it went from favorite to like, despite the fact that the button’s functionality remained same.
3: Expressing Appreciation This is, if anything, a lower level of involvement than a statement of gratitude.
It’s just a sentence that says, “I noticed this post.” It’s also often used for one-way communications, such as when someone @mentions you and you’d want to recognize that you saw it but don’t want to publish it to your feed or don’t have anything to say in response.
4: Support is provided automatically.
This is something that companies do, and I’ve written about it before. Some businesses may build up bots to hunt for fresh material using certain hashtags, keywords, or other Twitter search results. The bot will like the post when such information arrives. It sometimes does more, and sometimes it doesn’t; either way, it’s a fully automated operation.
- Fishing for Follows Likes are sometimes used as a “notice me” signal.
They’re like someone’s post in the hopes that the person who liked their tweet would look into the account of the person who liked their post. A mutual follow is the ideal end result, although this is seldom the case. The liker usually receives nothing in return, and the likee just takes the like and goes on.
- Hate likes with passive aggressive.
Passive Aggressive Passive Aggressive Passive Aggressive Passive Aggressive Pass Surprisingly, when someone is upset or angry with another person, they will like all of the other party’s postings as a way of expressing, “I could say anything here, but I won’t.” Carrie Fisher is an intriguing example of this; she would like and retweet nasty messages just to taunt the writer, as if to indicate that the comments don’t bother her.
- Nonverbal Communication
On Twitter, there are many “shy” users who regularly check their feeds and follow individuals but don’t post or respond. Some just have nothing to say, while others believe they aren’t “allowed” to participate in discussions between elites or celebrities. As a result, all they do is like.
8: Detecting Theft in the Future.
Unfortunately, this occurs from time to time. A user may like popular material and store it for later viewing. That person reposts the same material without altering a week, a month, or a year later to make it seem as though they are the ones who created it. Regrettably, there isn’t much enforcement of the low-key plagiarism that takes on here.
Personal Engagement is number nine.
Someone may enjoy your article but choose not to retweet it since it does not match with their own content strategy. They don’t want to send your tweet to their audience because they don’t want to lose part of it, but they appreciate it nevertheless.
Affection Expression is number ten.
When you like someone, you may pay attention to what they say and digitally stalk them to keep track of them. Regardless of substance, some individuals obsessively like every post made by their friends, relatives, or crushes. They use it to express support, to get attention, or just to feel a sense of connection.
- Setting a Reminder
You notice an intriguing article and want to read it, but you don’t have time when you’re on the move. Some individuals just like the post rather than trying to remember the URL or losing it forever. They’ll return to their interests later and read the links they’ve saved. Remember that you can un-like a post just as simply as you might like it. It doesn’t even have a notice.
12: Helpful Advice.
This is similar to the Twitter crush concept, but it’s more of a mutually beneficial friendship. I have a lot of friends who are company owners, and some of them are having trouble getting started. I want to like their posts to express my support and to “seed” likes so that others who don’t want to be first may like them as well.
13: It was only a whim.
To be honest, some individuals have no idea what they’re doing and, as a result, they will like posts at random. Drug users, individuals who browse while high or intoxicated, and don’t have complete control over what they’re doing at any one moment, may also be included here.
Showing Sympathy is number 14 on the list.
The feeling of compassion is a contentious subject. Last year, it was reported that Facebook was developing on a “dislike button” that would express sympathy for bad events without requiring a post. The goal is to make expressing compassion more straightforward and less uncomfortable. Of course, the way they’re implemented is a little… juvenile.
Social Aggregation is number 15 on the list.
When tweets in certain areas – such as the hashtag monitoring link above – reach particular levels, there are sometimes individuals or organizations who monitor them. Faster, for example, searches for humorous postings that achieve a particular level of popularity and “awards” that user a faster, while also displaying that post to the Faster following base. However, they may want to rebrand. Like Star, I suppose, doesn’t have the same ring to it.
The 16th step is to enter the contest.
Many social media competitions, whether they are just on Twitter or use a cross-social entry mechanism like Gleam, need followers, likes, and retweets to participate. Many individuals like a lot of tweets that they don’t really like in order to join competitions and win rewards.
- Completely unintentional.
Over the years, Twitter for mobile has gone through a number of redesigns, and occasionally during the design process, the buttons are near to one another. Because the buttons are so close together, it’s quite typical for individuals with poor fine motor skills to like tweets they don’t really want to like.
Brand Reputation Aggregation is number 18 on the list.
Some companies appreciate any good feedback they get, so they compile a single feed of all favorable news they receive. They may then utilize this information in marketing or as social proof in the future.
Final Words
Twitter has been through a lot of transformations (especially Q4 2015). Here’s a brief rundown of retweets, mentions, and direct messages.
In this instance, retweets on Twitter refer to clicking the retweet button at the bottom of a post. When you retweet a tweet, you are retweeting the original poster of that tweet.
