A lot of people still miss the point of Twitter’s original functions. It was not exactly made to be a huge chatroom. Though having a conversation on Twitter is great, for some of your followers, it may make them unfollow you. There are people that believe having thousands of followers is the way to get ahead. It only does in your own mind if you do not influence anyone. Influencing your followers means engaging them in what you have to share.
I have put together a short Creed for Twitter Tweeps (“tweep” is the actual word for people who use Twitter.)
The Creed of a Twitter Tweep
- You are not obligated to follow back everyone.
- You are in control of your content, so make sure you are aware of articles you Retweet. Retweeting an article blindly could affect your trust if the article is not up to par with what your followers expect.
- Do not expect others to follow you back even if you keep sending them tweets. It does not necessarily mean you are being ignored, but they may be a bit busy to respond to every tweet, especially celebrities on Twitter.
- You should use Twitter for more than connecting with others. There are sites that send their articles through the Twitter stream that could prove beneficial to you or even just be of interest. (Be open and expand your knowledge.)
- Advertising is okay, but excessive advertising is seen as spam. Be cautious and do not become a spammer. In fact, you might want to disclose your advertisements with the hashtag #ad or #sponsored.
- (For Newbies) It is okay to have more than one Twitter account if you are a person who tweets as an individual, for a company, or even for a particular website if you have more than one website. Example, you might like to have a personal Twitter account, and one for your website or company.
- Do tweet your blog articles to your followers. How will they know about you or what you write about if you do not share your content with them? Just don’t blast them with tons of articles you’ve written.
- Be active and choose your conversations wisely. While someone might be offensive, it is best to just unfollow or block, and not give them the joy of your ire.
- The number of followers are NOT important. It is the quality and trust. You can have thousands of followers, but what benefit is that when none of them have any interest in what you want to share? Without quality or trust, there is no influence among your followers.
Of course, there are more that can be added. I have left this a bit open so you, the reader might be motivated to add to this list. What would you add to this Twitter Tweep creed?
Nile, great point about not having to following everyone back. I’ve been using lists more instead. So that way I can be more organized and stay on topics easier. I am more careful nowadays on what I retweet than when I first started on Twitter. #7 I do less these days but should probably do it more often. I tend to do it the first day and maybe if I use the buffer I’ll add a few. Love to knwo how often you do your own Nile.
Yes i agree with you Nile, The present trend on twitter is just blatantly following as many users as possible and expecting them to follow back. It is not a useful or effective approach to increase your social media visibility as you said.
Nice post Nile !
I know some of these points quite well as i have been punished by twitter a couple of times ! 😀
Thanks for sharing the information .
-Pramod
Great post Nile..There are some people making Fun of all Politician and many others .Tweeter is an media to share information and not to do spamming. Thank you Nile for sharing this article.
hi thanks for this nice article It only does in your own mind if you do not influence anyone.
nice and helpfull
thanks for sharing this info ,nice and helpfull
Hi Nile,
Thanks for reminding. I guess I’m lagging behind in using Twitter. More on this the automated tools and the services like JustRetweet are making my twitter stream more messy. I guess, its now time to clean up and improve strategy.
This is really great! Thank you for sharing this. It’s very informative.
Mix links with chats. Super tips Nile! I am one for linking up heavily, sharing blog posts frequently. Then I follow up with chatting to prove that I am not a bot. Good combo.
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Well, i don’t follow those people i really don’t know. Some points here are very helpful. I did some mistakes that you mentioned and so i will keep all the tips above. Thanks!
Although we are not obligated to follow back, I noticed that if that person noticed you are no following back, then they do would unfollow. Thats why I always follow back.
I dont really followback if someone follows me . Will keep all the points in my mind .
Hi Nile,
this great information in regards to twitter.
Can you set up a second twitter account with the same email?
In regards to tweeting our own posts I like the ‘Tweet old posts’ plugin where you can set the frequency and also exclude post etc from being tweeted.
What frequency would you use, how many times a day?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Cheers,
Yorinda
I agree about not following everyone back. I’ve gone back and forth with that over the years, but I’ve leaned more toward not following everyone and I’m definitely sticking to that now. Another point I’d add to your list is no auto DMs. I personally ignore them and find them irritating.