Six Basics of Twitter Tweet Etiquette

Website design By BotEap.comTwitter is a community of people seeking knowledge. Like any other community, there are guidelines on how to communicate and treat each other. Here are some basics related to appreciation, grammar, and information sharing to remember if you choose to acknowledge others or communicate with followers on Twitter.

Website design By BotEap.comexpress gratitude

  • If others retweet (RT) something you’ve tweeted, you should send thank you messages. Regardless of whether they write it as a new RT with a mention (@) of the account name or if they used Twitter’s built-in retweet option. The thank you message can be sent as a direct message (DM) to your account only. Or the thank you can be done as a mention using @ or the mention option in a new tweet that everyone below can see.
  • If a general question is sent to followers, be sure to send a thank you via DM, mention, or reply option for any helpful responses.
Website design By BotEap.comdo not be rude

  • If others mention your account, a thank you with the appropriate response and a reference to what was in the original tweet can be sent via a mention of your account. If the answer is not going to be positive, it is better to do it as a direct message so that the rudeness does not spread through the twittersphere. Acknowledgment of a mention is nice, but most Twitter users don’t consider it mandatory.
  • Also, don’t be rude. Although it happens in most communities, profanity or profanity symbols and other obscenities are not welcome or appreciated by most readers, and may even be confusing to some. So unless the desire is to be blocked or not followed, avoid doing this.
Website design By BotEap.comGramatical rules

  • You only get 140 characters to share your message in a tweet. Therefore, most readers think it’s okay to abbreviate words and use numbers or letters to replace full words when necessary (Example 2=too, 4=for, w=with, not +=and). However, most people prefer to be able to quickly understand what they’re reading, so avoid doing this when the message fits into less than Twitter’s maximum character range.
  • Although some tweeters occasionally use text message formats, which is acceptable if the majority of their followers do the same and these people are the only target audience. Complete sentences that follow standard grammar rules are preferable for clear communication to a large audience. Full text sentences are easy to read and understand. Not using proper grammar can give the impression that the sender is not literate.
Website design By BotEap.comshare good things

  • When you receive a great quote, a good link to an article, or other interesting information from a follower or other resources, feel free to share it with your followers via a custom retweet or tweet. Many online article sites and blogs have a button set up where you can instantly share a link to the article as a tweet if you log into a Twitter account.
  • If during a Twitter search for a particular topic of the hashtag (#) a good tidbit is found, feel free to retweet it as well. Also, check out the original Tweeter by clicking on their account name to see if they present a lot of relevant information in case you want to follow them too.
Website design By BotEap.comdon’t spam

  • Sharing is good, however, tweeting too much can get you labeled a spammer. There are some people who send a tweet every 1-2 minutes after a while, others stop reading those tweets or choose to unfollow, block or spam these multiple tweeters. So think before you set up one of those autosenders to create tweets, hire someone to tweet on her behalf, or spend all your time on your phone or computer developing tweet material.
  • This does not mean that products, services or gifts should not be shared through Twitter. It just means don’t overdo it. After all, most people like to hear about free offers and be the first to know about a new product or business. Many on Twitter will even be willing to try these things out and communicate their findings to followers via new tweets or retweets of the original text.
Website design By BotEap.comProcess direct messages

  • If someone sends a question via DM, it’s polite to reply via DM, especially if you have something relevant to share. However, not all DMs require a response, as many are strictly “For Your Information” (FYI) to tell you more about the person who is recently following you.
  • If it is going to be a private conversation, use the TO option in the direct message window and not @ so that the information stays between two users and is not available to the twitasphere.
Website design By BotEap.comThese basics for showing gratitude, sharing information, replying, and using grammar should help make Twitter a better communication tool so followers know what they might find interesting. Remember that Twitter is a community of people seeking knowledge, but they don’t expect information overload, as can happen when the proper etiquette is not used.

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