Useful Tips for Twitter

These days it seems that you can’t escape stories about the latest social networking phenomenon, Twitter.  With all the hype and celebrity endorsements, lots of people are asking “how do I use Twitter?”.

There are plenty of sites out there that will tell you how to use Twitter, but not so many to warn you of the pitfalls.If you take a minute to learn from this list of handy Twitter tips then you’ll be Twittering away with the best of them.

DO watch what you say.Unless your updates are protected, anyone can see what you are currently Tweeting.Bear in mind the story of the girl who managed to Tweet her way out of a job because a hiring manager read her thoughts on the position she interviewed for.

DON’T use Twitter for a chat client.  No one wants to their screen full of irrelevant Tweets from a conversation they’re forced to eavesdrop on.

DO remember to retweet other people.  This can be a good way to build up a following of likeminded Twitterers.

DON’T endlessly try to sell things.Okay, we get it – you have your own blog.Twitter is by no means one way traffic – tweet back!

DO follow people back, but….

DON’T be offended if someone doesn’t follow you back.Users with tens of thousands of followers are unlikely to see your Tweet through the hundreds of other tweets anyway.

DO try to be funny, entertaining, informative and creative with your tweets.

DON’T auto-DM.This is the Twitter equivalent of spam and a faceless “hi – thanks for following” is impersonal and can be off-putting.

DO use it to ask other people for help.Once you have built up a reasonable following you’ll find it easy to find answers to your questions in no time.

DON’T twit anything if your message is going to exceed 140 characters.  Spreading a message over multiple tweets is just going to confuse and irritate your followers.

These handy hints should be enough to get you started.  If you are likely to spend a significant proportion of your online time on Twitter then there are plenty of guides on the net telling you how to use Twitter effectively.