Welcome To The Twitterverse: Etiquette
Your friends have dragged you kicking and screaming into the 21st century, the Attention Age! You’ve come up with a witty avatar for yourself, and you are ready to take Web 2.0 by storm. To avoid you falling smack on your pretty face in front of the world’s information mavens, we have some finer points for you to memorize before you start tweeting. We call it Tweetiquette.
Listen First
1) Listen First! Don’t start talking till you have heard the conversation. Listen to what people are saying, how they say it, and what their tone is. There are people talking about every topic on Twitter, listen good and learn. Remember that thing they talked about in school between listening and hearing.
2) Be Polite. Don’t start acting the fool on the first day. Make a good impression and let people get to know you before you start whipping out the sarcastic putdowns and witty repartee. All things in time, and start off on the best foot first.
3) Attribute when appropriate. Twitter is a huge exchange for information and entertainment. It is yours for free (better be!)! But, if you are retweeting (reposting information provided by another tweeter) then you better give them a shout out, a via, a hollah! Something! People will notice, and will get peeved. I will!
4) Don’t spam us silly. Even if you are promoting your company, blog, charity, crazy mantra, whatever – don’t pound it out all day long. Talk about what people want to hear, and slip that marketing message in every so often. You will find your followers respond to it. Say stuff we want to hear!
5) Be yourself! Don’t be me, honestly – one of me is enough. Don’t try to be Ashton or Oprah. Don’t try to appeal to the masses. People are out there who will talk to you and interact. It might take time, you might have to do some introductions and you might have to keep trying – but eventually, you will find some amazing online friends!
6) Have fun! Don’t be afraid to screw up one of my above rules. These are not the 10 Commandments of the Internet. (I am as handsome as a young Charlton Heston, but that is where the comparison runs to an end…) It is okay to make mistakes, to learn as you go, to put your foot into your mouth, and to fake it till you make it…
Now feel free to contact me on Twitter if you have questions or concerns. I’ll try to be your mentor if I can – but I have a feeling you won’t need it. The online world is filled with a lot of great people – weird people, but all great.