Contagious Learning: Reframing the Favorite

I'm curious to know your thoughts regarding the use of the "Favorite" on Twitter and hope I'm writing today to revolutionize its use! I've been on Twitter for over three years now and my overall observation is that the Twitter "Favorite" is used in the same vain as the "Like" on Facebook: if you like like/agree with a post (whatever the type) you click that star and move on. Here is what Twitter has to say about the Favorite:

I contend to you today, the last portion of this definition makes it a powerful tool!
Now, I confess, I did not read the Twitter instruction manual. I snipped that Favorite information because I thought it was interesting as well as relevant to this post. I'm not sure if it was my keen observation skills or just dumb luck (probably the latter), but one of the first things I noticed when I started exploring Twitter was that part of my profile were the number of tweets that I had Favorited. I clicked it and, Boom, there they were! While some see this as a number, my brain immediate saw this as a tool. Those that know me well know that I probably have some trouble remembering things if not specifically and carefully documented. I saw this Twitter idea of the Favorite as a great way to remember great things I saw!

Then entered If This Then That (@IFTTT)... This took the Favorite to a whole other level. IFTTT is an amazing app that allows you to connect various social, bookmarking, smartphones, apps with "if this, then that" "recipes". It is really quite impressive the things that you can do. My favorite recipe by far to date is a recipe that allows my Favorited tweets to be imported into my Diigo library!! Huge!! Those amazing articles out there on the Twitter are there to be tagged and organized in my Diigo library to be pulled out and used again at just the right time in whatever context! I certainly encourage you to check out the possibilities of the app!! They have expanded the choices greatly in the past year that I have used the app. The Favorite combine with IFTTT is so powerful!

So that where does that leaves us with the other part of the Twitter intent of the Favorite? Here is my call to action :

If someone posts something (quote, article, graphic) that you need to remember and reuse in another context, FAVORITE it! In the context of using Twitter for professional learning, the Favorite should be a tool of choice!
If it is something that you like or agree with, RETWEET it! Really, when you favorite a tweet, you tuck it away...keep it to yourself (which there is a time for as stated above). But if a tweet is 140 characters of greatness and it resonates with you, chances are, it will with someone else, too! SHARE it! We could think about it this way as well: we all got into this business to make an impact! When something is tweeted (conversation, blog post, article, etc.) the desire is to make an impact! Don't keep that impact to yourself! You have the ability via social media to make impact viral!
If it fits both criteria, do both! FAVORITE and RETWEET it!

Back to where we started. I'm curious to know your thoughts! Agree, disagree? Are there other tools out there take tweets to another level!

Happy Learning!