5 Tips Mom won’t tell you about Twitter

When I first started using Twitter, I was completely clueless about the do’s, don’ts and proper etiquette of tweeting. I was lucky I had a good friend, @mikekmcclure, who helped hook me up. Here are a few things my Mom never told me about Twitter but Mike did:

1.    When someone RT (re-tweets) one of your messages, acknowledge it, and say “Thanks”, either by a direct message or @reply. If several people RT your messages it’s OK to say thanks to all of them in one tweet.

2.    When you get a new follower, send them a direct message and once again, say “Thank you for following”. You can either do this manually, or, there are programs that will automate the Thank you. If you choose to automate, just be careful with the wording of your reply.

3.    Make sure that your tweets aren’t always about you, what you do, and how wonderful you are. You know you’re great but the rest of the world doesn’t care as much as you do. One of the best ways to get followers is to provide information that is useful to them (even if it isn’t for you).

4.    Let your personality peek through.  Have a sense of humor and/or point of view. After all, this is called Social Media, with an emphasis on SOCIAL. Here are a couple of examples;

a.   “@wendyCphotos Dear God - I don't ask for much, been pretty patient with all this rain, can I just have 1 day with my camera? PLS? Amen!”

b.   “@mikemorawski "Take a meeting" didn't think anybody said that in real life. So silly. Where are u going to go with it? Worse, so here I sit listening.”

5.    There isn’t a hard and fast rule for the proper blend of informational/personal/business tweets. If 90% of your tweets are just about your business, than just know that a lot of people are going to tune you out. If there is a blend somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% informational/ 20% personal/ 30% business a lot more people will want to hear what you’re saying.

 

Have more ideas? Please feel free to post them in the comment section.

Mike Morawski

Chief Instigation Officer

Comments

[Mike McClure]

Aw, shucks... I didn't even think you were listening.