Twitter is a useful tool for both personal and business needs. If you are new to Twitter, it may be helpful to learn how to use it to your best advantage. Here are a few do’s and don’ts to get you started.
Twitter was revolutionary when it started. It’s a platform that uses short messages to communicate with others. It could be up-to-the-minute information about you or communication with clients and co-workers on projects and the like. And, you can follow others just like on other social networks.
With Twitter, there are very few established rules. Most of the advice given on how to use Twitter is about etiquette and using the service to connect with other business professionals, clients and the like.
Do’s on Twitter
So, let’s take a look at some of the positive things to do on Twitter.
* Follow others – It is not just about you; it’s also about connecting with people. Get involved in what is going on in your area of expertise. Follow people with similar interests. This gives you a higher visibility and can help establish you in that niche on Twitter. If you see something interesting, retweet it so others can follow too.
* Tweet – It’s just like posting on Facebook. Leave meaningful information for others. You can talk about yourself, but not too much. Intermingle some useful content with your conversational pieces.
* Create a compelling biography – Use your bio to its utmost. You have just a few characters so use keywords that are searchable to describe yourself and help others to search for you and find you.
* Be professional – This includes using proper grammar in your tweets. Abbreviations don’t lend themselves to professionalism.
Don’ts on Twitter
* Don’t tweet every second – You often hear about people who tweet about eating dinner, going to the bathroom and every other thing they do all day. This is not what people want to hear from you. In fact, it is one way to lose your ranking and current audience. It just clogs up the works for those following you.
* Be careful what you say – Once you have entered something on the internet, it will be there forever. Inflammatory tweets reflect negatively on you and can come back to haunt you later.
* Don’t be too negative – People who are always looking on the downside crash the party. Misery loves company, but you will lose yours if you persist.
* Learn to use hashtags properly – Hashtags can help you and others to follow a conversation more easily. But, use them the right way. Don’t put a hashtag on each word in your tweet. And, don’t hashtag a run-on tweet.
Using Twitter doesn’t have to be complicated or hard. Be yourself and use the above advice to make the most of your time there.
