Twitter Etiquette

Like any social environment there is an inherent etiquette involved with using Twitter and a level of behaviour expected of you if you’re to take part successfully.

Once you’ve signed up and starting using Twitter keep the following do’s and don’ts in mind to ensure a successful experience.

Think of Twitter as a social environment - mind your manners & start talking (& listening) Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your mother to read
Do spend time filling out your profile before you start following people Don’t jump into self promotion or “the hard sell”
Do be sincere and be yourself, let your personality shine through Don’t be boring! Post interesting news, thoughts and links for your followers to read
Do try to connect with the people you follow to discover the value of Twitter Don’t think of Twitter as a one way broadcast medium, it’s about conversation and community
Remember, if you use Twitter for business let people see a sneak peek of your organisation and the person running the account Don’t hide behind a logo, be easy to relate to and add a photo of yourself to your profile
Do build your network slowly and carefully Don’t think of your network as a numbers game, aim for quality over quantity
Do post often enough to build relationships with other users Don’t post so often that you will flood your follower’s stream
Do keep abbreviates in your posts to a minimum Don’t abbreviate your message so much that it becomes illegible
Do interact and reply to other users when you have something useful to add Don’t have a public conversation that should be private. If your conversation is relevant to only you and another use the Direct Message functionality
Do reguarly check your @username mentions to see what’s being said to you and about you Don’t forget to use search.twitter.com to search for people based on interests or locations and widen your network or monitor what’s being said about you