I am a twit and see twitter as my social media tool of choice with facebook in a not-so-close second place position. This twit began tweeting about two years ago on behalf of Designers on the Run and the attraction (at least on my side) hasn’t worn off.
So what is it about twitter that keeps me going back? The following list of 14 twitter attributes and usage examples is compiled by myself based on my own experience and therefore subject to scrutiny and debate:
- Keep it short and sweet. Twitter allows you to tweet/communicate to the world via 149 characters which should allow for thoughtful and a succinct choice of words. This should curb uneccessary waffling and boredom on the part of your followers but hopefully shouldn’t curb entirely meaningful messaging. Tools like bit.ly come into their own here as domain names that include the whole alphabet should be compressed. Sticking to 149 characters should also allow for more creativity on the part of the twit but like txt messaging may cause havoc with your punctuation and grammar. For a better user experience stay clear of text messaging lingo and use sparingly and as you see fit. Less of the LOL please unless you are a 16 year old who follows Justin Bieber (incidentally JB is the 3rd most followed twit in twitter land after Lady Gaga – find out more at http://twittercounter.com/pages/100)
- Be interesting and interested. I get to follow people and entities I have a genuine interest in. From designers to comedians, the world is your oyster and there are sure to be plenty of twits out there to whet your appetite for whatever tickles your fancy. It is also a really good way to get informed about news and events as they happen and conversely share your news and worthwhile information with your followers just make sure it’s news-worthy, tweeting about the weather does not make for very interesting tweets unless you are the met office or standing at a bus stop tweeting the stranger standing next to you. (Ironically I did tweet about the weather of sorts yesterday due to the impending volcanic ash cloud – take note freaky weather observations are ALWAYS allowed…)
- Job anyone? You may get work out of tweeting depending on who’s following you and how you ‘promote’ yourself. Beware of old-school salesmanship tactics here, if you don’t have anything else to talk about apart from your own merits then you risk losing followers and can come across as rather one-dimensional. It’s always best to nurture the twitter ties you build through genuine, interesting tweets.
- Create a dialogue. Following on from my previous point, tweeting is all about creating a dialogue between you and your followers and if your tweets are genuinely interesting then someone may ‘retweet’ them or reply to your tweet. Your comments may even become so popular that they’re coined into a hash tag (#) or your user name could start trending in the trend lists (although unless you are in the public eye, you stand a better chance of trending in your local list rather than at national level especially if you have a big following). If you want to refer to something popular or topical be sure to use the hash tag in return so that your tweet gets picked up in the live stream and trend lists.
- Follow me. It isn’t a popularity contest although it’s always nice when more than a handful of people follow you. You may choose to follow in return all your followers or just follow the people that genuinely interest you – the rules of twitter etiquette are fairly open ended and you basically have the freedom to follow who you wish. To see how you are ranking against the Justin Beibers of this world go to http://twittercounter.com/ to see how you rank locally go to http://www.updood.com/
- Professional v. personal profile. If you are using twitter for professional purposes it is advisable to separate your professional profile from your personal profile especially if you are assigned to represent your organisation or business. Your role and brand outlook should also define the ‘tone’ you take with your tweets and the level of professionalism you adopt.
- Fight good causes. Twitter is a great tool to promote good causes and campaigns, and charities and NGO’s of all sizes have been quick to realise the power of twitter as a marketing tool to raise their profile in an already competitive market. Tools like Twibbon make it easy to promote your chosen cause by adding a twibbon (graphic) to your twitter avatar (your profile picture) that represents your cause which in turn increases the exposure of your brand, cause or campaign. Find out more about twibbon here: http://twibbon.com/
© 2011+ twitter bird illustration by dotRUN. All rights reserved.
Part 2 coming soon…in the mean time let us know what you think. To follow my tweets go to http://www.twitter.com/dotrun_uk
