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• Feb. 10: “I want conversation, I want collective intelligence, but I also want sound journalism.”
• Jan. 4: Hyperlocal Sites to Boom
• Nov. 11: Seeing Spots

Twitter Do’s and Don’ts

Here are some additional Twitter tips, especially if you’re using Twitter for professional purposes and not just for personal conversation:

• DON’T expect Twitter to always be there for you. This service often experiences technical problems and has outages that can last from several minutes to several hours. So don’t rely on Twitter for crucial communication - always have a backup way to contact people you’ll need to reach. Also, don’t rely on Twitter as your sole means of providing live coverage.
   
• DO remember that everything you tweet could live forever. Even though you can delete individual tweets from the Web, Twitter distributes tweets in other ways (such as by RSS feed). Once you tweet it, it’s out there and can’t be fully recalled. Therefore…
   
• DON’T put yourself at risk. Don’t publicly tweet about anything that you might consider very private, embarrassing, risky or compromising.
   
• DO make yourself worth following. Be interesting, personable and helpful. More people will want to follow you if doing so is rewarding, educational and not boring. This isn’t simply about being likable - it’s a key strategy for cultivating a quality Twitter posse.
   
• DO engage directly with other users. I recommend that at least half of your tweets be responses to other users. You really do get what you give in this medium.
   
• DON’T automatically follow everyone who follows you. There are more and more Twitter spammers who try to gain an audience for their spam messages by enticing real users to follow them. Check out your new followers, and if they seem to be real people who offer relevant or interesting tweets, consider following them back. Avoid following users whose tweets sound like spam or random garbage. You don’t need the noise.
   
• DO subscribe to mainstream news alerts. Many news organizations, like the Denver Post, now have their own Twitter accounts where they post headlines and links to selected current coverage as it gets posted to their sites. If you find yourself leaving Twitter on regularly while at your computer, this can be a timely heads-up to what’s happening locally.
   
• DON’T try to catch up on old tweets. Twitter is very much an in-the-moment medium. It’s as if you’re walking into a party - you don’t need to worry about what people were talking about five minutes ago, just focus on what they’re saying right now. Similarly, don’t expect that your followers have read every tweet you’ve posted. Expect to repeat yourself.
   
• DO only follow people you find rewarding. Not everyone tweets well. Some people are just plain boring, annoying or overwhelming. Don’t feel obligated to follow people just because you know them in the real world or because they ask you to. In this medium, you absolutely must control the quality of input so you don’t get overwhelmed. If someone’s tweets stop offering you value, unfollow them and don’t feel guilty about it.

PREV: Twitter at Work in Citizen Media

NEXT: Useful Twitter Tools