By Marsha Maung
Although there is no proper decorum to follow when it comes to Twitter or in Twitterverse as we addicts like to call it (as in, as soon as we log into Twitter in the morning, we issue a universal 'good morning, twitterverse!'), there are things that we do online that tells people to instantly unfollow us. But there are also things that we tweet about that make people say 'hang on, I think I want to hear what this person has to say'.
I'll outline a few simple ones here. There are more out there but twitterverse keeps changing so by the time you read this article, twitter might have changed and so would the 'rules'.
Staying positive stops people from unfollowing you. Even if you've tweeted the most ludicrous thing on earth recently, if you tweet positive stuff following that, people think that you are worth hanging onto. I just don't think that there are a lot of people who hate positive stuff. As in... 'Gosh, this person is too positive. I think I'll unfollow this person.' If so, then what this tweetfellow need is some serious sunshine.
Find interesting thing to say about you, your work, your company, the things that you use or do. Have a quote or two ready and then surf around for good one-liners and jokes. People love those stuff especially during the work day when they have nowhere to go and feeling frustrated.
Rant sparingly but if you have to rant, make it funny so that it doesn't turn people who are not into negative things off. It is good when you rant about slow internet service (those ISPs are all online on twitter now so you might just get their attention when you rant) or your teddy bear being soiled by your nephew but try not to get personal and vindictive on twitter. People are turned off by that sort of stuff.
People become careful around you because if it is not beyond you to get personal with others, it won't take much for you to get personally vindictive with them as well. They don't want to risk having their name or twitter address splattered in a virtual bloodbath.
RT generously if you find people saying good stuff that you think might benefit others too. Twitter is also about sharing yourself and your friends. And remember, whatever goes around, comes around. If you generously RT other people's tweets, they won't hesitate to do the same for you when you say something totally off-the-rocker funny or useful.
Space your tweets out. If there is something about twitter that totally annoys me is this - people who tweet every second. Literally, every second. They don't say anything for the longest time and then all the tweets come in...one shot! Even if they usually have something good to say and are positive people, I find myself wondering if I should just unfollow this person. The reason? They probably scheduled the tweet and forgot to manage the time properly. It is safe to schedule your tweets to come in once every hour or so.
Create a personality for yourself. Being all serious and business-like is one thing but to be more effective, it works better if your followers can attached themselves to a personality instead of a twitter account. Put a name to the person doing the tweeting, maybe even a face. For instance, I follow this anti-violence organization on twitter and what is interesting is that these volunteers address themselves whenever they logged on. So, if one person is signing off, they'll say 'OK, this is Sally signing off now. Next up will be Jenny from LA. Night'. And then when Jenny logs on, she will tweet, 'Good morning, folks. It sure is sunny over here in LA!'
Good luck tweeting!
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based [http://www.marshamaung.me]freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, writing web content, SEO stuff, managing her clients' online social networking accounts and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her [http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com]blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, chef...and just about everything else under the sun
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Twitter-Tricks&id=5275496] Twitter Tricks
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