Twitter Etiquette Tips

Written by Lissa Duty of  LissaDuty.com

In honor of Social Media day I wanted to make my contribution by adding some Twitter Etiquette Tips, or as I like to call it “Twitiquette”.

1.    Thank those that Retweet you and Mention you in their Twitter stream.

You can do this by Direct Messaging them or shouting back out their Twitter ID in your stream.  I shout them out in my stream because I feel if they were generous enough to Retweet/Mention me to their followers I should return the favor.  However, if you get retweeted or mentioned a lot you could end up polluting your stream.  Thank multiple Twitter users at one time to avoid this.

2.    When you Retweet other people don’t modify their original Tweet.

Sometimes you have to adjust it somewhat i.e. change for to 4 or and to &. The most important thing is the Retweet has the same meaning when you Retweet it.

3.    Adding your comments when you Retweet someone. Make sure any comments you add are at the beginning of the Tweet before the RT @.  Otherwise it looks like the comments you added are those of the original Tweet.

4.    Don’t hijack someone else’s Tweet! This is a big no-no and we do know who you offenders are and when you do it (in most cases)!  We will report you to Twitter and get your account shut down.

5.    If you find a Retweet in the stream of one of your friends and decide to Retweet it also, make sure and leave all the Twitter IDs in the Tweet.

You can remove the extra RT &: to have a few more character  spaces.  i.e. RT @lissaduty @pattyfarmer. This would indicate you are Retweeting me and I was Retweeting Patty Farmer.  If there are three Twitter IDs involved you could add this via @TwitterID at the end to represent the person that originally sent the Tweet.

6.    When you have a Twitter ID in a Tweet make sure and allow for the proper spacing.

If you Retweet and take out the space between the RT and the Twitter ID, the ID does not turn into a clickable link.  (i.e. RT@lissaduty – Wrong Way RT @lissaduty – Right Way)

7.    When you are Retweeting someone don’t ever change the link they shared for the post, etc …. to something else like a sales gimmick or link to your website.

I click on the links when people Retweet me and immediately report them for spam, if they do this.

8.    Participate in Twitter. Have conversation.  Don’t just be about self-promotion. You’ll get nowhere fast if you do this!  Make sure you are Retweeting others & doing Mentions also.  Don’t just be about yourself and getting Retweets.  It is about generosity.

9.    Make sure you are contributing to Twitter also.

What do I mean?  I mean don’t just continually Retweet other people and never add any of your own content, information that you have spent time to find into the mix. That is frustrating to others. I know it makes me not want to connect with users like this.

10.         Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you, not as they do!

I don’t think this needs further explanation, but in case you need more – try to lead by example on Twitter and help teach the newbies the proper Twitiquette. Not the cheating, self-promoting kind.

If you want more Twitquette tips, check out Twitter Tips (Contributed by users) on my website. I love feedback and can’t wait to hear from you!

Bio:  Lissa Duty, Virtual Assistant and Social Media Marketing Strategist found her passion for social media while working for another Dallas Web Design and Social Media firm.  She left them and started her business, LissaDuty.com, in late 2009 and she has been speaking and teaching others around the DFW Metroplex every since. She has implemented the same branding strategies for her clients that she teaches and uses for her own business. You can connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (http://twitter.com/LissaDuty & http://twitter.com/OnDutyVA).  You can visit her website for more about her and her services.