Twitiquette: The 5 Biggest Twitter Faux Pas

You know it's rude to talk loudly on the phone in a restaurant, to leave your ringer on in the movies, or to never reply to a personal email. But you know what doesn't have such clear dos and don'ts? The latest social networking rage -- Twitter. Twitter has taken off like a rocket ship -- CNN anchors can't stop blabbing about it, Ashton Kutcher has 847,666 followers (people who read his updates), and the Huffington Post has gotten on the bandwagon. Even though people use Twitter for a multitude of reasons -- to keep up with friends, share links, follow financial trends, tap into the collective brain or read celebrities' thoughts -- one of its primary functions is as a social networking tool. Social networking, a.k.a. interacting with other humans, is always fraught with potential missteps. There aren't necessarily clearly defined rules of social etiquette yet for Twitter, or, as I'm going to call it because everyone seems to put a prefix of tw- in front of all Twitter behavior -- Twitiquette. I'm fairly new to the game (who isn't?) but I've noticed some serious misuses and annoying behaviors. I think it's time to lay down the law -- here are the top 5 biggest Twitter no-nos.

1. Overtweeting. You may think that every five to ten minutes you have something brilliant to say that everyone would want to know about -- but unless you are personally witnessing the Hudson River plane crash, are on a ship that's being hijacked or in the middle of an earthquake, chances are you need to keep your tweeting in check. Don't indulge in narcissism. You may have interesting things to say or links to share, but don't overdo it. There is nothing more annoying than signing into your account and seeing a whole page of tweets from one person -- have a bit of a filter. I completely lost patience with an acquaintance who I thought was already on the verge of overtweeting. After 4 tweets in a row about bad service at a restaurant, I got annoyed and decided she wasn't worth following at all -- I removed her from my list. Overtweet, and risk the same actions from your followers.

2. Tweeting Over Talking. Since one big advantage to Twitter is that you can tweet from anywhere on your phone, a big no-no is choosing to tweet while you are actually in the middle of doing something, or having a conversation. It's sort of like checking your phone and texting while ignoring the person in front of you, except that in this case, it's completely gratuitous. Unlike texting, there's no one at the other end waiting for a reply, so when you pay more attention to your Twitter account than the people you are with, it's especially rude.

3. Forgetting Who Can See Your Tweets. Most people keep their accounts public, but even if yours is set to private, be wary of tweeting anything that you wouldn't want everyone to know. My boss, my coworkers, and people I've never met follow me on Twitter, so I always have that in the back of my mind. Once something is sent to the world wide Internet, you give up an amount of control over the information. A friend recently told me, "I just broke up with my girlfriend, so I won't be tweeting about my personal life at all, because she follows me on Twitter."

4. Stealing People's Witty Tweets Without Giving them Credit. Twitter is all about the well-stated phrase, the smart observation or the awesome link. Twitiquette dictates that if you can't just copy someone's else's tweet without indicating that it originally came from them. The way you do this is to write RT (which means re-tweet) and then put @(username). Otherwise, it's sort of like plagiarism. Maybe there won't be any Jayson Blair-like consequences, but it's just not cool.

5. Not Reciprocating When Someone With Whom You're Actually Friends Follows You. I follow Mark Bittman, a New York Times food writer, and I'm not remotely offended that he doesn't follow me back. However, If someone I'm actually friends with, who I'd have a drink with, or would talk to if I saw in the street, doesn't choose to follow me after I've initiated following them, that's just a plain ol' fashioned snub.

What do you think are the biggest Twitter faux pas? What are other rules of Twitiquette?

Oh, if you want to, ya know, follow me on Twitter, I promise not to break any of these rules.

Comments

[max08]

I've discovered great things via Twitter URLs that people have sent, and encountered some wonderful wits. I use Tweetdeck and ignore the marketing tweets.

Pet peeve? Celebrities who use ghostwriters without admitting it. At least MCHammer writes his own stuff.

Another pet peeve? Pundit shows not having a scrolling Twitter window so I can send and see reactions. Joe Scarborough says such idiotic stuff in the AM some times and it's like spearing spaghetti to go through msnbc's site to get to their feedback window. And I dont want the pundit selecting the tweets for me.

[mercymercyme]

Tweeting is for Tweety Bird and for twits.

[prTini]

My biggest Twitter pet peeve is when people are too self-promotional ... or when brands just push their own content and advertising messages. This isn't another advertising channel -- it's a social network. Companies can engage with consumers and participate in valuable discussions; but it's not an appropriate place to broadcast sales messages. When tweeting, don't forget to let your personality shine through. Above all, be human!!

Heather (@prtini)

[2morrowKnight]

This is a very good piece.

#4 and #5 are two of my biggest petpeeves as well. Though I've never actually had a problem with someone not crediting me with tweet. But I've see it done many times to others and its not cool.

I posted the link to this post yesterday and it was being Re-Tweeted a lot. This is just the type of piece to get people being more vigilant. Thanks. Follow me at: www.twitter.com/2morrowknight

Sincerely,

2morrowknight

[raker]

No more Twitter. No more ads masquerading as stories. No T-word for me, ever.

[Fleurdamour]

I think the biggest faux pas is joining Twitter and immediately jumping right into marketing activity. That is incredibly rude, and I promptly unfollow anyone who does that. I also drop anyone snarky - we've got enough of that already.

[Stephen C. Rose - Huffpost Blogger]

I agree. The least observed thing (in journalistic accounts I have seen including the NYT) about Twitter is the utter prevalence of folk who are involved in affiliate programs and other mlm and money "opportunities". Fortunately, the unfollow option is available and I have started using it when it is clear that the basic purpose of the Tweeter is to try to use Twitter as a source of leads and an avenue to success. It will be interesting to see if this prevalence sinks Twitter. Or whether its demonstrably useful characteristics will prevail. :

[InternationalObserver]

I think the only people who really need twitter are street hookers. They can alert friends as to which strangers car or house they are getting in to.

Otherwise ... it's pointless.

[raechel]

Twivial.

[staciek]

Thank you for writing this piece, I am also new to this whole movement of Twitter and I am not fully sold--however, I am doing my part to be informed and create a worthwhile opinion based on experience versus emotional reaction to the much of the madness you wrote about!
I am also wondering if I should tweet this ....! Well done.

[Gil76]

I use twitter once a day, or I will skip a few days. I joined because I saw a story on Nighline and I decided to check it out. I agree with the do's and don'ts. I don't need it that bad but it is interesting when you log on and someone else is following you. I only have a few followers, so it's cool. Don't have a facebook or myspace page; my daughters would be horrified!

[luzcannon]

Funny - people used to worry about Big Brother watching us. Now everyone seems to be jumping up and down trying to get Him to notice.

[Robyn Twango]

so true, so true

[thebigbike]

Twitiquette will ultimately be determined by the 12-15 year olds who going to be the "interconnected" generation. What anybody over 40 thinks about it is more or less irrelevant in terms of setting the future parameters of wireless "discourse"

[ChrisR]

Absolutely pathetic.

[Shirah Penn]

I agree that twittering does not take the place of face to face interaction. It is fun to connect with others from time to tweet!!love Gramma shirah

[DennyCrane]

I avoid Twitter and other social networking tools cause I think they encourage laziness. Why call someone when you can text, twitter or update your Facebook? It's great that we can stay connected with people more easily, but I think we've lost something by not actually hearing someone's voice or see their face.