I have noticed recently that there has been a sudden increase in the favouriting of tweets. Now part of me would like to think my tweets have suddenly become a lot more insightful but I think the real reason is because not everyone is 100% sure what hitting that star button really means or what it does.
Why favourite tweets?
The main benefit of favouriting a tweet is to save it for later. By clicking on the star next to a tweet you are saving it to your ‘favourites’ folder. You can access this folder and see all your favourited tweets by logging into Twitter, selecting the ‘me’ tab then ‘favourites.’
Another reason you might want to favourite a tweet, and this is more of an aside, is to gain the attention of the creator of that tweet. When you favourite tweets people will get notifications, (like you do when someone retweets you). This can imply that you like the tweet however you must keep in mind that favouriting this tweet is private. It is not like a ‘like’ on Facebook. The creator of the tweet will not gain anything from you favouriting their tweet apart from being informed that you have done so.
What should you do to show appreciation for a tweet?
If you want to show appreciation for a tweet you should retweet the tweet and of course feel free to engage and start conversation with the creator.
How can you save a tweet to read it later?
Favourite it