New to Twitter? Not sure where to start?
Never fear – here’s a list of must do’s we’ve compiled for anyone starting out on Twitter.
Quite often we’ve seen regular users forget these basics too. We’ve certainly been guilty of it.
The key is to respect your fellow tweeters in the twitter space if you want them to engage with you.
Ensure you abide by these 15 rules to maintain proper Twitter Etiquette.
1. Say thank you: Remember to occasionally thank users who retweet you, @mention you or link to your blog post. Don’t we all feel good when thanked?
2. Use hashtags: While hashtags are a great way to get your tweet noticed by the twitterverse, make sure you don’t over use them. Use a maximum of 2-3 hashtags per tweet.
3. Be polite: Don’t tweet anything you wouldn’t say in person. It remains on the social web forever and cannot be deleted. So remind yourself to be polite, always!
4. Interact a lot: Interact, interact and interact not just with your followers but also with people who do not follow you yet. The more you engage with them, the higher are their chances of them following you and responding to you.
5. Be consistent: Don’t tweet all at once. If you have limited time in hand, schedule your tweets every week or every fortnight using auto publish tools like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. Remember you have to be consistent not sporadic in your approach.
6. Followers first, brand second: Tweet what your followers like to hear, not what you want to say. This is not a one way communication platform but a two-way interaction forum, so respect to your followers’ interests.
7. Respond quickly: Have a fast turn around time for follower queries and mentions. Someone writing to you now, may not be on Twitter a couple hours later. Hence you have just lost an opportunity for a conversation if you’ve not responded on time.
8. Restrict your characters: Although Twitter allows for your tweet to be 140 characters in length, stick to 120 characters only. This will leave room for others to retweet you.
9. Have a personal tone of voice: Even though you may be tweeting for a professional business or brand, keep a personal tone of voice if not informal. Remember users tweet, brands don’t. Similarly, people interact with other people not brands.
10. Be creative: Share thoughts, ideas, comments or stories. Ask for opinions. Give out the latest on your brand. Anything unique and of interest to your followers will be appreciated by them.
11. Strive for engagement: Quality engagement is key. Don’t strive for followers, but for high levels of engagement. Increase in followers will happen automatically if you’re providing users with worthwhile content to engage with.
12. Say no to auto follow: Do not use auto follow tools, be selective. Look out for bots, you don’t want to be seen following them! Identify your most active followers and follow them. Find influential people in your business/industry to follow.
13. No spamming: Do not spam your followers with sales related tweets. Remember they are not on Twitter to hear about the price or specifications of your products. Instead, find out for ways to engage your followers around exciting aspects of your brand’s content. At least 2 out of every 3 tweets that you post should be generic or informational and not related to your brand!
14. Listen to conversations: Listen to what your followers are talking about. Keep an ear for what they’re saying about you. What are their sentiments towards your brand? Are there common topics of interest they are discussing that you could add to?
15. Be prepared for crisis: Keep calm during a crisis, and do not lose your cool. If the matter can be handled online, do so politely. If not, it’s best to take the matter offline.
Is there anything you’d like to add to this list? Share your thoughts in the comments below.