How to count retweets

Question

Hi,

I am trying to create a flash retweet button, and i want to know how to count the retweets for a specific status. Can anybody help me?

Thanks in advance, Alex

Answer 1

Have a look at the Twitter API documentation on retweets.

Here's an example:

http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/retweets/16208928355.json

Just finish with id.format.

Answer 2

I just thought I should add (from the Twitter API Retweet documentation):

statuses/retweets Returns up to 100 of the first retweets of a given tweet.

So it looks like there is a limit of 100. There is also rate-limiting on this part of the Twitter API:

API rate limited (about rate limiting): 1 call per request

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Rate-limiting

Sorry to provide a problem and not a solution. To get around this you might be able to use Tweetmeme with the Tweetmeme API:

http://www.webmaster-source.com/2009/11/23/count-your-retweets-with-the-tweetmeme-api/

This would only work if you had some sort of URL in the Tweet (e.g. a shortened bit.ly URL). Sorry I have misunderstood this.

As an aside, I am looking at using this approach to allow website users to Tweet a particular bit of content from a page (similar to using the page meta-tags with Facebook Open Graph 'Like' buttons):

http://ejohn.org/blog/retweet/

So I guess what I'm advocating for is tracking the shortened link as a method for tracking retweets, and also as a means of tracking 'tweets' from a landing page. Has anyone done anything similar to this?