How To Be A Good Tweeter

We have all needed to learn a new etiquette and something of a new language in order to operate in cyberspace. If you do not think so then maybe you do not know new phrases such as OMG and LOL but in fact you probably do.

Now that Twitter and other social networking sites are becoming the norm, there is another layer of etiquette and language that is developing and should be adhered to so that your ecommerce business will be viewed as having a clue Here are some pointers.

Twitter Vocabulary

Tweets: posts that you make on Twitter
Follow: When you select a persons tweets to read on a regular basis, they show up in your time line as you follow them
Followed: people who are following your tweets
Time line: Your homepage that shows all the messages you send and messages that people you are following send.
Protected profiles: You can only see the updates on these profiles if they follow you. Essentially a private Twitter profile.
Hash tags: Use of a # to label a topic
@: a reply to someone else twitter message
RT: a message that is used again because someone thinks it is particularly good

Short urls: Tweets are limited to 140 characters. If you want to send a long URL, you can create a short URL that redirects to the long URL.

Search feeds: Like a Google alert, a search feed sends you info every time a selected word or words are used.

Twitter mania

Yes it can be addictive but you must stop yourself from tweeting more than eight to ten times a day or more than three to five times an hour. Although Twitter can make you feel as though everyone cares about your every movement and blow by blow thoughts on a subject, in reality they simply do not. If you have so much to say that you are tweeting in excess (sort of like those people who have to keep hanging up and calling your voice mail again), then do it in another format such as a blog. This problem is sometimes referred to as Twitterrhea.

Twitter skeletons

As with any communications vehicle on the Internet, do be careful about what you say. Internet information can live on in perpetuity, even if you change opinions, businesses or life partners. If you do not think you can live with a comment unto your grave, think again before you write it.

Twitter airheads

Try to have something to actually say. As in Twitter mania above, people will only tolerate your forays for a cup of latte for so long before you get unfollowed because it is just not worth it.

Give credit

Do not retweet without giving credit to the original poster.

Respond in a timely way

It is perfectly fair to simply read tweets that people leave. However, if someone sends you a direct message or responds to something you have sent, it is important to respond. T of less would be like walking by someone in without saying hello back.