Twitter is always evolving. Users are constantly inventing new ways to organize and manage their messages. One of the newest conventions to catch on is the “MT” or Modified Tweet. This is similar to an “RT” or ReTweet, except instead of quoting a tweet exactly, the sender modifies the original message slightly—while (hopefully) retaining the original meaning—before sending it.
| Original Tweet by @timoreilly: “I finally figured out the future of profitable publishing. I’ve written all the secrets here: http://jmcd.me/zZJ1IO” |
| Retweet: “RT @timoreilly: I finally figured out the future of profitable publishing. I’ve written the secrets here http://jmcd.me/zZJ1IO” |
| Modified Tweet: “MT @timoreilly ‘I figured out the future of publishing.’ Well it’s about time! We’ve all been waiting.” |
This particular project takes the MT concept, and intensifies it for fun and engagement. This is a game of Twitter Telephone. It won’t drive traffic. Nor will it drive sales. But if you’re looking for something to remind people you’re around and put some pep into your Twitter audience on a sleepy afternoon, this game is quick, fun, and easy.
The concept is simple. Write a message or phrase and pass it on to ONE person by placing that user’s username at the beginning of your tweet. Add in the game’s hashtag (#tt) and ask the recipient of the tweet to change one word of the message and pass it on to another person.
| You tweet: “@leftlane ‘These pretzels are making me thirsty.’ #tt #twittertelephone #changethephraseandpassiton” |
| @leftlane tweets: “@kalenski ‘These pretzels are making me confused.’ #tt #twittertelephone #changethephraseandpassiton” |
| @kalenski tweets: “@charabbott ‘These pantsuits are making me confused.’ #tt #twittertelephone #changethephraseandpassiton” |
Watch the hashtag stream to see the message mutate over time. My hope is that the game catches on and that the #tt hashtag—for Twitter Telephone—will be recognizable enough to suffice as both an indicator of the game and directions for how to play. As you can see, the #twittertelephone and #changethephraseandpassiton tags eat up a lot of valuable real estate. Unfortunately, they’re helpful when introducing the game to your audience. If your phrase is so long that it makes adding these tags impossible, you could write up a blog post explaining the game and how it works, and then link to it in every tweet.
| You tweet: “@leftlane ‘These pretzels are making me thirsty.’ #tt http://jmcd.me/zQTSWk” |
| @leftlane tweets: “@kalenski ‘These pretzels are making me confused.’ #tt http://jmcd.me/zOLIyO” |
And so on.
If you’d like to incentivize the game a bit, you could offer prizes or gift certificates to the participants. You certainly don’t want or need to offer a prize to everyone who plays, but you might do well to offer every 10th, 20th, or 100th person who forwards the message a little something—even if it’s as simple as a tweet to your massive audience promoting the participant’s website or Twitter account.
One final note: As this game catches on, people will be inclined to shorten the name of the game from Twitter Telephone to simply, “Twelephone.” If you encounter this transformation, please beat the offending person with your shoe. You have my permission. I invented it.
Purple monkey dishwasher.