Twitter Tips

I wrote these for a student originally and then thought it would be a great blog post.

1. Biography
Keep yours short and sweet. Think of it like a head line in a press release; it’s the meat and juice of who you are and what you do.

2. Don’t abuse #FollowFriday
It’s not your job to recommend people; it’s an option. If you feel there’s 50 people who your followers really could benefit from, then my suggestion would be to write a blog explaining what each of these 50 people have done to help you out. I’ve done this already (it’s not a list that long, but I plan on adding more to it). In the future, I plan on just tweeting the link out instead of multiple #ff. People will appreciate it.

3. Daily things
Don’t tweet about what you’re eating or drinking, unless you’re at a function and you can tie it into something professional.
Ex: you’re at #TwinCitiesSocialMediaUnderground (TCSMU) event or #YoungProfessionalCommunicatorsofTwinCities (YPCTC), etc…

4. Be you
Nothing irritates me more than someone who is tweeting about stuff just to sound important; you could potentially and eventually meet the people you’re having a conversation with in real life. Also, people talk. I just met someone last night who knows someone whose most likely getting canned, yet the employee has no idea it’s coming. Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk. I blogged about the fact that I used to just talk the talk and I openly admitted to it because I’ve changed and it’s all been for the better.
I don’t care if you tweet 5 times a day or 500 times a day; people who are interested in you (even potential employers) are watching you and are probably curious to know if you’re even getting any work done or if your tweets have any meat in them. Give people a reason to WANT to follow and talk about you and have conversations with you.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, but don’t forget to help yourself (aka: do your research) before you just start asking questions. This is BIG part of PR.
We, GEN-Y is considered the “Disconnected” generation; THINK before you TWEET.

5. Quotes
If there’s a quote that is just striking your fancy & it really pertains and means something to you, tweet about it. If you’re just tweeting because you think it’ll give you “popularity” then do the following: stop, drop and roll (move) on.

6. Recognize your followers
I’m not saying find out where they were born, where they live and who their kids and best friends are; do your research and understand who it is you’re following. If this person was “important” enough for you to keep in contact with in the first place then do your research and find out who they are. Wouldn’t you want people to do the same for you?
Treat your followers how you want to be treated. Just because it’s virtual, doesn’t mean you’re going to know them and don’t assume you ever really know them. There’s a big difference between virtual and real life and people forget that.

7. Auto DM’s
They’re ANNOYING, especially AUTO TWEETS.
Only DM someone if you’ve gotten to know them and you feel it’s necessary. There are other factors that you’ll come to figure out in your own time.

8. Grammar-error free tweets
It bugs the CRAP outta me when people don’t spell words correctly. It’s perfectly acceptable to dismiss vowels or abbreviate where needed, as long as people can understand what you’re saying. @PRCog does this all the time actually. Sometimes, I have difficulty translating.

9. Recognize when someone RT’s your tweets
First off, this can get OUT OF HAND. People will thank you “so much” or “very much” or “thank you for the love” when you retweet their stuff. WHY?? You don’t know them, they don’t know you, and it was one tweet. This is along the lines of abusing #ff. Yes, it’s great people are recognizing that you’re recognizing something they believe in, but it can also get very annoying.
If someone retweets your tweet and you want to get to know them better, this is your chance to have an informative conversation and who knows what it could lead to! Ask them why they liked the article so much –because that’s the whole reason they RT’ed it. But then again, some people…you just gotta wonder what’s going through their head.

10. What is Twitter even all about??
"The best way I can explain Twitter to new folks is to say it’s like going to a networking event, but it runs 24/7 and you don’t have to leave home." This quote is from my friend Rochelle Vetruis’s Facebook whose friend was explaining Twitter to someone (I think) or maybe just giving his/her opinion. Veturis is a PR Professional out of Orange County, Cali.
FYI: If you don’t have a solid list of people to follow on twitter, it’s not going to make sense to you and you’re probably going to get stuck, and highly annoyed/irritated fast. Therefore, ask and ye shall receive.

Just a short list of my opinions. Let me know what you think and as always, please feel free to leave me a comment!!