How to Tweet: What is a Twitter MT?

Today’s How to Twitter tip comes thanks to a question that was passed along to me this afternoon…

#Noob question for twitter guru @forechecker: Thought MT was just an autocorrect for RT, but seeing it more and more. What’s it mean? Thanks — TwoToneTrav (@TwoToneTrav) January 4, 2013

This is a good one, because occasionally you will see MT in a tweet used similarly to RT, so what’s the deal here?

RT = Retweet, MT = Modified Tweet

A big part of the Joy of Twitter is passing along funny or interesting tweets that you see in your timeline, most often by re-tweeting them. You may insert your own comment at the beginning, then add “RT”, the original user’s handle, and the original tweet.

Here’s an example of mine from a couple days ago:

“Pekka” falls just short. RT @wsmv: What are the most popular baby names in Tennessee?wsmv.com/story/20486727… — Dirk Hoag (@Forechecker) January 2, 2013

Sometimes, however, you need to edit that original tweet, either for context or to make sure everything fits under Twitter’s 140-character limit.

A popular (but not universal) convention holds that when you change the text of the original tweet, you should use “MT” (for Modified Tweet) so that readers know that you’ve done something there. Again, here’s an example of this at work.

Original Tweet:

People fear child abductions, shark attacks, plane flights–WRONG. This chart makes a brilliant point: j.mp/WbWXip — David Pogue (@Pogue) January 4, 2013

Modified Tweet, as shared by another user:

Ah, death vs taxes: MT @pogue: People fear shark attacks, plane flights–WRONG. This chart makes a brilliant point: j.mp/WbWXip — Katherine Harmon (@katherineharmon) January 4, 2013

Note that in order for @katherineharmon to share that original tweet (along with her comment) with her followers, she snipped the words “child abductions” to squeeze under the 140-character maximum. That’s a perfect demonstration of when you would use a Twitter MT.

Again, it should be noted that this is not a universal rule, so you won’t find it in Twitter’s FAQ regarding re-tweets. It is a nice way to provide additional clarity to your followers, however, so it’s not a bad idea to use it when you can. At the very least, now you know what MT means when you see messages like this pop up in your timeline!

Thanks to @TwoToneTrav for the question – if you have one yourself, feel free to catch me on Twitter (@Forechecker), or use the contact form here on the site!