18-Point Twitter Primer

I'm getting to know Twitter more these days, using it more, and enjoying it. I'm Timberry on Twitter. I'm frequently grateful to Twitter friends for pointing out good ideas, blogs, thoughts, pictures. Twitter enlivens my day, and brightens my writing.

I'm beginning to develop a sense of what to do and what not to do with Twitter. Not that I'm an expert, but I've been watching and thinking about it. And I've come up with a list of dos and don'ts.

Please don't ...

1. ... thank me for following you.
2. ... think less of me for not thanking you for following me.
3. ... send me sales messages as direct messages, as part of your thanking me or otherwise.
4. ... tweet mundane details of everyday life. Going home, watching television, having dinner ... feels like twitter clutter. I'm just sayin'.
5. ... tweet straight-out sales pitches. Don't promise me health or wealth or business success. I get enough spam in email, thanks. That stuff could spoil twitter. I will unfollow you immediately.
6. ... tweet embarrassing should-be-private sweet nothings for your significant relationships. I like that you love him or her or them, but tell them, not the tweeple.
7. ... argue with people in Twitter. And that's not to protect me, that's for your own good. Words tweeted in anger live on forever. Twitter help implies that there's a way to delete bad tweets, but I don't think it works. Angry words aren't biodegradable.

Please do tweet ...

8. ... interesting pictures, blog posts, websites, and news items. And I'm fine with you tweeting your own blog posts, especially. Give me a title and a URL and I'm fine with that, I'll click and read it if it catches my interest. If I weren't interested in what you're writing, I wouldn't have followed you. Don't be shy.
9. ... good quotes, pithy sayings, words that make me think.
10. ... about ideas, things that surprise you, new discoveries.
11. ... quick jokes, or humorous items, things that made you laugh.
12. ... thoughts, poems, especially haiku.
13. ... well written words, phrases, sentences, from real life, movies, songs, even overheard.
14. ... interesting, funny, or thought provoking pictures in twitpix.
15. ... words that teach, lessons.
16. ... quick reviews of books, movies, television, and music. If I follow you, I do care what you think, and what you like. Save me from bad stuff, and tip me off to good stuff. I'm glad you share.

And, by the way ...

17. Twitter is publishing. Let's all respect that. Let's not ruin it with too much advertising. Big promises mean small credibility. Share yourself, but be content, not spam.
18. Do onto others as you would have them tweet to thousands.

And, finally, thanks for reading this list. If nothing else, it lets me feel better.

Comments

[Biff Baxter]

Tim, you are soooo old school!

Twitter is takes too much effort.

Flutter is the new new thing!

http://smartstartup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/goodbye-twitter-hello-flutter.html

[drumz]

LOL

[w8aminute]

I can't wait until Twitter becomes as relevant as an IBM PCjr.....

[Catchingthewaves]

Re. No. 1:

I'm going to continue thanking followers of Catching The Waves until I get snowed under with an avalanche of tweets. People seem to enjoy it - almost as much as they enjoy reviews of legally free netlabel and/or Creative Commons albums. :)

@catchingthewave

http://soundthefreetrumpet.typepad.com/

[booker52]

I don't tweet, nor do I think I will.

[ESLundo]

19. Sometimes 140 characters seems about 139 too many.
20. Twitter is one of those examples where technology outpaces the business and social use.
21. Twitter is now the fastest way to broadcast headline news.
22. Never before has a new media product received such a big boost from old media. How many times does CNN give us their Twitter feed info.
23. Twittering is fun and easy. That's why we are all turning into Twits.

[Biff Baxter]

Twitter also has a killer drop off rate in the second month. IOW, it's a novelty which gets stale by within the first 30 days.

[James Decker]

. The mundane details of peoples lives are all twitter is.That and spamming. Externally imposed etiquette will always fail in an evolving community. That is why you can unfollow.

[septa44]

It's a good list, but subjective. What one considers good quotes or things that make you laugh, another might consider banal. We've all learned to roll our eyes when a friend forwards an email with a joke or a link to a YouTube video of a cat walking on two legs. The medium is different, but it's the same drivel.

Number 17 is well said, but I'm afraid that Twitter has to be exploited for revenue somehow, so that problem is only going to get worse.

Adam
http://www.twitterbacklash.com