Today I thought I'd share some of my personal do's and don'ts for Twitter (what is proper grammar for do's and don'ts. Any clues?)
Do
- Be friendly
- Be yourself
- Be helpful
- Offer encouragement
- Connect with other writers
- Support non-spammy promotion efforts of writer friends
- Use and follow helpful hashtags like #amwriting #writing #writetip #mywana, etc. It's even fun to use pointless hashtags, #likethisone
- Use a personal profile picture. It doesn't have to be a photo of yourself, but it should be something that shows you're not a spam bot. FYI--I'm leery of tweets by the Twitter egg, and by scantily clad women :/
- Share good information. If you come across something cool that other writers would find helpful, use the handy "share" buttons found on most blogs. If someone else tweets something awesome, retweet it.
- Respond personally to mentions. I use Tweetdeck to organize my tweets, and I have a column set up where I can see when someone mentions my name (usually by retweeting a tweet). It's so kind of people to do this, so I make sure to thank them personally.
Don't
- Rant
- Spam followers
- Ignore those who reach out
- Click on suspicious links. A tweet that says, "Someone said bad things about you" is a scam.
- Require approval for followers. Most people won't bother.
- Use foul language
- Use Twitter only for promotion
These are my own personal rules for using Twitter. If you're on Twitter, are there any tips you'd like to add to the list? If you're new to Twitter, are there any questions you'd like to ask? And if you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm @juliemusil. See you there!