Developing a Digital Strategy 009 – Practicalities twitter etiquette

The number one rule in Twitter ettiquette is – Be Genuine. As a rule of thumb, think about what you are about to post and ask if you would say it in person.  For a company this translates to NO MARKETING SPEAK.  Get that?  NO PHONEY MARKETING SPEAK. Use normal language – people can tell a cheesy sales man a mile off (can’t you!?).

Practicalities of Twitter etiquette:

• If you are sharing things from you RSS feed, don’t forget to have some personal interactions well.
• Welcome your network/people/audience.  They’ve found you because they are interested in what you have to say.  Return the favour and follow them if you think they can add to your information or just welcome them, say Hi and thanks if decide not to follow them.
• Be helpful, ask questions – building relationships is the same as in face-to-face engagement.
• Share pictures and videos – but make the videos short unless they are exceptional.  I don’t know about you, but my attention span is under 53 seconds
• Share accomplishments and announcements
• Retweet funny, useful, relevant information.  Give credit where credit is due. There are two camps on retweeting – the first says you shouldn’t alter anything and include everyone who has retweeted before you (or the first ‘tweeter’) – the problem is, you only have a 140 characters.  The other camp, and my own practice is that I give credit but I will also shorten the tweet and add my own comments at the end if I think it’s relevant
• Never be personal in your criticism
• A note on when to follow back – some people will follow hundreds of people – that’s fine as long as you can manage them and they aren’t just auto responds
• Don’t do automatic DM responses.  You’ll notice that some people will send you an automatic direct message if you follow them. It’s tacky and there is nothing genuine about what they are saying.
• If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it on line.

THEN, once you’ve done all that you can promote your stuff.  That’s genuine because you’ve built your relationships, are interested in others and what they have to say and they will return the favour.  Seth Godin says it well when he describes social media groups and networks as tribes:

•    A tribe forms not because you force them to be together but because they want to connect.
•    Find a group that is disconnected but has a yearning
•    It is NOT about persuading them to want something they don’t have yet

If you need a quick reminder on how to get started here’s a quick summary: The Very Basic Twitterisms of Twitter

In summary

If anyone tells you social media is easy they’re obviously not doing it. It does get easier and almost, dare I say it, second nature, but only after you’ve got used to the sites and different ways of doing things that suit you.  And yes, it takes time, to do it properly it can take lots of time, certainly initially.  Is it worth it?  Well, if every day you add 5-10 new followers on different social networking sites in 2 weeks that’s 100 people who have voluntarily subscribed to YOU – most traditional marketing ‘techniques’ may struggle to do that. Why does it work – because you are ALSO following new sites. It’s an ever fluid and ever changing interweb.