Earlier this week, Facebook finally released its version of Twitter’s retweet. Called the “via” feature, this lets a user repost another person’s shared item.

To use this feature:

1. Go to the newsfeed and then to a friend’s post.
2. Click “share”.
3. A new window will come up showing the item to be shared with “via [friend’s name]” and an option to remove it.
4. Click “share”.

If the “via [friend’s name]” is not removed, the item will appear on your profile with a “via” link to your friend’s profile, showing where the post came from. Your friends will also be able to see the post in their News Feeds. This creates a viral loop just like Twitter’s retweet.

However, when another friend re-shares the post that you got from your friend, this new post will “via” link to your re-post rather than to the original post creator.

In addition, presently the “via” feature only works for posted links. It still is not possible to re-share friends’ photos or status updates. There is a possibility though that in the future, it may include other posts as well.

With the tagging feature launched last year, this is one of the ways that Facebook is making publishing more social. Yet, unlike its Twitter version, Facebook’s users do not use sharing as often. Maybe given time, they will catch on.