13 Dos and Don'ts with Twitter by Eric Rodriguez

13 Dos and Don’ts with Twitter

13 Feb, 2009 by Eric Rodriguez

As we are Friday 13th 2009, I thought it would be nice to give 13 advices on how to use Twitter. So here are 13 DO’s and DON’Ts to get the best from this hype social media…

Focus on Content
A main characteristic of Twitter is the 140 characters limitation. So be sure to be concise & precise. You can say a lot even with 140 characters! And the best way to grow your followers community is to provide clean and clear ideas.
Be polite
This may seem obvious but there are already some abuse reported. So think twice when you tweet, because your short text will be publicly broadcast and read before you’ve got time to fall back. You’ll find a Twitter Etiquette here or here (if you need guidance;)
Do not give away your password
Last item in the obvious series, do not give your password to third parties. If you don’t know why, just ask yourself if you would like to give your phone and the PIN code to strangers. So now you’re warned, don’t cry for identity theft or messages you didn’t write yourself.
Control your tweet speed
This advice can be harder to follow. When you tweet, you’re not only sending a message to 1 or 2 friends but to a whole community. As each one tends to follow more than 2 friends, It can quickly become annoying when you’ve got a black sheep twittering every move each 5 seconds. If you don’t want to loose followers or friends, keep your tweet speed to a decent level. This way everyone can still communicate instead of hearing some white noise.
Use @, RT and #
There are 3 basics twitter syntax you can rely on:
- @ is the common identifier for people. You’ll use it a lot in directed (yet public) conversation.
- RT is to use when you forward a message you like and want to share with your own community.
- The # sign is used when you want to specify an event or subject. By using #, you ease the search or filter use to people only interested in a topic.
Choose with caution who you follow
At first, you will be tempted to add as many friends you can, like you do on Facebook. But the thing is Twitter is no Facebook: someone you follow will “send messages to you”. Imagine you follow 100 persons tweeting 5 times a day, it will be so messy you’ll begin to taste some “I’m getting too much spam” feeling.
Get an anti-spam
You may think I’m silly, but I think security software actors could someday provide a Twitter-AntiSpam. If you think this is a joke, you probably don’t know yet: “viraltweets” or “twitter le truc du jour“. So be cautious when you receive strange tweets, sometimes it is no good to click on every link. And if you get caught by some script retwitting this spam, at least clean you account and delete this unwanted message.
Less is More: use shortening tools
Due to the 140 characters limitation, you may find these shortening tools rather useful:
- To compress urls in a few bytes: bit.ly, tinyurl.com, snipurl.com (sn.im), is.gd , tr.im,….
- To share pictures: twitpic.com
- To compress text: 140it.com, tweetshrink.com, twonvert.com
- To share source code: snipt.org
You can also refer to this article about best practices to short-tweet.
Avoid pyramidal traps
If you still think the more followers you have, the best you are… you will probably get trapped in such pyramidal scheme like TweeterGetter. This website propose some “viral” approach to get followers. But the truth is you give your Twitter account to a stranger that will automatically build a pyramid of accounts. Viral marketing should not be confused with basic chain-letter scheme.
Monitor and engage your followers
Building a large and faithful community, do not hesitate to engage your new followers by thanking and trying to know them. This way you’ll build a win-win relation with people interested in what you have to say or share with.
Don’t forget your profile
Once you’ve got your brand new account, take some time to fill your profile details. It can be bad and at least new followers will have some information about you and your main interests. They may even go to your website, so there is no reason to not share such details. Moreover you can also personalize your Twitter page, so visitors will appreciate a appreciable welcome note.
Use adequate tools
There are a lot of Twitter related tools. Thanks to Xavier from Tweetag, you can print this handful cheat sheet card. This toolbox gather the main Twitter tools you may need. If you need more tools, you can refer to the Twitter apps db.
My favorite ones are: StockTwits, TweetDeck, TweetWheel and MicroPlaza (if you’re lucky enough to have a beta invite). There are a lot of others but you’ll find easily other tools lists.
Split personal and professional accounts
It is considered as a good practice to have both a personal and a professional email account. And it’s the same for Twitter! If you really are using a twitter account for business needs, you may prefer to split your personal and professional tweets. I know that social media are all about the person engaging a community, but I’m not sure the “Safe at home at 6h12 in the morning after 2 vodka and 1/2 whisky bottle” tweet will enjoy your professional followers