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Tweetiquette – Twitter Etiquette, Top 10 Dos and Don'ts of Twitter

Tweetiquette – Twitter Etiquette, Top 10 Dos and Don'ts of Twitter
Sunday, 12 July 2009 14:40
Written by Neal Chambers

There are a lot of people on Twitter right now. Twitter is currently weighing in at around 23 million visitors in the U.S. alone. (according to compete.com) This makes it the 42^nd most visited website on the web and growing. But, most people seem a little unclear about the etiquette of proper tweeting. So, in the tradition of top 10 lists I give you the Dos and Don'ts of Twitter:

The Top 10 Dos of Twitter:

1. The most important thing about your Twitter account is your username. This will be used to identify you in the Twitter stream and how people will find your account (http://twitter.com/username) It's best to choose something easy to remember/spell. A perfect example of this is your real name (gasp!). Yes that's right, it's okay to use your real name online. The boogie monster isn't going to get you.

If your real name is not available though, you can always put an underscore in your name: real_name or add your middle initial. I highly recommend not adding random numbers at the end as this is difficult to remember and also looks spammy.

2. Write a 160 character bio that reflects what you do. For example, a teacher, a blogger, etc.. This is not the place to post inspiring quotes or funny sayings (unless you are really famous. If you are, can I have your autograph?) It is one of the places people look before they decide to follow you.

3. Be sure to upload a profile picture. Anything with your face and a smile will do. You can also show your personality with a few wacky pictures of you, but try to keep it simple and of your face because usually these photos show up fairly small (in the various apps that are used by Twitter-ers). Be sure to upload a high quality image at least 600x600. That way when people click to enlarge the picture they see more of you and not just bigger pixels.

4. Put your blog address for the link in your profile. It helps get you traffic, and if people want to find out more they can click through.

5. Make your tweets public! Again it's okay, nobody's going to get you. You can block all those weirdos that you don't want following you. Now of course you can use Twitter for a variety of things like classroom communication or private groups, and for this you will want to make your tweets private. However, if you are on Twitter to meet and network, which is where the real power is, then you will definitely want to keep these public.

6. Share useful links and comments. If you are reading something interesting, chances are someone else in your field will find it interesting too. So go ahead and post it. And be sure to use http://bit.ly not http://tinyurl.com (this is a service that should have died out a while ago). And please tell us about your blog posts! It's okay to self-promote as long as that is not the only thing you are promoting.

7. Spread the love. People all over the world, join in, join the love train, love train! That's right, the best way to network is spread the love. You can do this by retweeting other people's posts. You can't retweet directly on Twitter.com, but you can do it on Tweetdeck, Seesmic Desktop or most paid iPhone apps. Especially be sure to retweet other people's blog posts if you find them interesting.

8. Know your memes. The definition of a meme is a cultural gene. These are basically codes that people use to spread information virally. The most common one is #followfriday or #FF. People use this to promote others e.g. #Followfriday @nealchambers @Burcuakyol @kalinagoenglish ...

There is also #Teachertuesday which is the same thing but for teachers. A couple of others are #esl, #efl, and #jalt. #esl is the most commonly used for English language teachers, but it is sometimes used for Electronic Sports League, so you might see some random sports scores included in there.

9. Mix it up. Be sure to spread your tweets between @replies, links, retweets/reposts, and just general comments. Okay, so I'm a little guilty of not following this rule. I just looked at my feed and saw mostly links, but you like the links right? Right?

10. Try to set limits. Once you get started, you can get addicted. It's okay to unplug and walk away. Twitter is really cool, but it isn't that cool. Try to set limits for yourself and don't go Twitter crazy.

The Top 10 Don'ts of Twitter:

1. Follow spammers. There are a lot of people that just follow you to get you to follow them back. Anybody that has money, internet marketing guru, or social media guru in their bio or username is a dead give away. Also, trailing numbers in the username or _23ny or _25la or something similar towards the end is also a give away.

2. Auto-DM. This is when you send out automated direct messages, which are private tweets. A lot of people send these out when you first follow them. They usually contain some fairly impersonal message like "Thanks for the follow. I look forward to reading your tweets." These are okay, but if you can be more personal all the better.

3. Tweet something that should really be a blog comment or a blog post. Tweets are limited to 140 characters. That's the simplicity of the system. It's a place for simple comments and quotes not Shakespeare. Try to be as clear as possible in your alloted 140.

4. Tweet like a celebrity. The Britney Spears's and Paris Hiltons of Twitter can happily tell us all about their day to day activities. But, I'm sorry you're (probably) not a celebrity, so we don't need to know that you are watching TV with your cat. It's just not interesting.

In all seriousness, it is okay to put a little 'you' into your tweets, but don't go overboard with it. Again remember to mix it up.

5. Fall for the 400 followers a day scam. There are several websites that guarantee you thousands of followers a day. First, if you want to have 1000 brainless followers then, well, you don't understand Twitter, but second these scams fill your feed with spam. If you somehow fall victim to it, try changing your password. If you don't you will slowly get dropped by any of your followers that are paying attention.

6. Spam memes. Memes are for supporting others and plugging people not special deals e.g. #Teachertuesday - get a subscription to Twitter Explosion for $10! click here http://bit.ly/badspam

Some hashtags have very specific meanings, don't abuse them. For more info check out Mashable's excellent post on memes: http://mashable.com/2009/04/24/daily-twitter-memes/

7. Give up so easily. A lot of people try Twitter for a couple of days and then call it quits. It takes time and effort and regular maintenance to build and nurture a large network. Give it some time.

8. Hijack tweets. This is kind of a no-brainer, but I'll go over it anyway. Some people will take someone's tweet and retweet it, but change the link in the tweet. This makes it look like someone with credibility has endorsed your link. This is just plain evil. Don't do it.

9. Send out a tweet without reading it over first. Be sure to check if your tweet is clear and concise and makes sense. Also, if it is a piece of news, make sure you vet it before sending it out. Twitter is full of rumors and gossip, don't be a source of them. Also, be sure you aren't sending out anything hateful either. Keep strong emotions out of your tweets, it's just not the place.

10. Go bonkers on a power hungry quest for the most followers. Although I have to admit, it is pretty cool to have bragging rights for being in the Twitter elite for your given area or at the top of the list in wefollow.com. But try to maintain a healthy following that will help you grow, not just numbers.

Thanks to Karenne Sylvester for the idea for this post. You can follow her @kalinagoenglish

Did I miss something? Please be sure to put it in the comments. And I invite you to join me @nealchambers on Twitter so we can continue this conversation. You can also follow @englishspark for info on the latest blog posts. Also, please leave a message in our new Tweetboard and tell us what you think. To use Tweetboard just click the tab on the left of the site. Thanks for reading.

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