ReTweeting or RT offers immense potential for businesses. With its rising popularity, ReTweets have captured the imagination of Twitterers.

Tweets are the status updates posted by Twitter users. When another user likes the status and wants to share it with others, they use the same update and ReTweet it by adding the user’s name. As RT is done for Tweets containing links, it offers a viral means of link exposure.

The idea of RT was started by someone who wanted to use another user’s tweet. As more and more users started (mis)using tweets for their own gain and posting RT as their own, the idea caught on like wildfire. Now there are services that use RT as a backdrop to gain advantage.

Tweetmeme is one such service offering content providers an additional button that they can add to a web page. This button allows a reader to tweet the page link on Twitter with ease. These tweets are in fact ReTweets. The more number of ReTweets equates to more popularity. Just like ‘comments’, ReTweets work as a measure of popularity.

Recently, Mesiab Labs launched a service identical to Tweetmeme. Twitter is also trying to make a foray in the field with its ‘Project ReTweet’.

The importance of ReTweeting in business circles is the prominent nature of the button displayed in the web pages. The role of ReTweets as a measure of popularity is another factor. The viral effect of ReTweets is helpful in attracting huge amounts of traffic to the page.