Twitter is becoming a way of life. So it has it’s own culture grown around it. Many bloggers have written so many articles about this very fact. Specially people were worrying about Twitter etiquette or we can call it twittiquette :D. I don’t know if you should follow any rules in tweeting but I have my own set of… well I’ll call them habits. I don’t call them rules because I don’t necessarily so strictly follow them. But I always be careful to continue with these habits. Some of them are self defined while some are learnt from web and also other tweople.
So here goes my twitter habits list.
- I try to post something useful to everyone.
I do this most the time I tweet. Sharing knowledge, news or fun stuff are the best things we can do with Twitter. Those are the main reasons why I use twitter. And that’s why Twitter is so popular.
- I do not post too much of personal things.
Twitter asking “What are you doing?”. But things are changed, or more precisely “evolved”. So I don’t post so much personal stuff unless it’s cool, or useful to someone else or *Very* *Very* important to myself.
- I do not chat on Twitter.
I know very well that Twitter is not an IM client :P . And I know really well that I hate when I see 3-4 replies to same twitter name in a line.
- I do not post welcome messages to followers.
I think this is an annoyance for current followera. This is a good way to show that you are caring. But there are better ways doing that retweet, being in conversation (replying to tweets) are two of them. Or else there’s something called Direct Messages :P
- I send a short description with the links I post.
I’ve seen automagic link posts saying currently browsing ‘link’. No on will click those links unless they are there to just waste time (or atleast I won’t click such links unless I’m killing time). So I try to give a little idea on the content of the link.
If I find something cool on twitter I can just say ‘@dude cool!’. But this will be just garbage to people who follow me but do not follow dude. If I can Retweet (RT) AND say cool, That’s the best thing I can do to show my love. But I carefully decide when/how to do this.
Update 24/4/09 : Now You can thank on Twitter with Twollars.
- I haven’t set any automattic updates on my Twitter.
Yes I know I can set certain stuff to be automatically dumped in to my twitter timeline. But I don’t like it. I wanna keep things real, when I can. I don’t autopost, at least my blog content.
- I read most of tweets on my timeline.
This helps being in conversation. there’s no point of being on twitter if I don’t read the tweets of tweople I follow. But most probably, won’t read any @ replies going to people who I don’t know unless.. as always.. it’s important to me (I have good scanning capabilities built-in :) . so I scan through my timeline so effectively) .
- I don’t like to post 10-15 messages in a line.
I hate when I see my timeline flooded by a bunch of messages from a single tweeter (Unless there is something very interesting). So I try to avoid me doing it.
- I follow people who follow me & reply me.
I do this because I feel that they are really in conversation with me & so I should follow them.
- I’m friendly. I just be selective when I chose whom to follow.
I can’t explain this :) .
- I very very very very rarely post good mornings or good nights.
I don’t think it’s necessary unless it can add more spice to the moment or you have a new cool way to say it. IRC do not want away messages, Twitter do not want good mornings.
- If I unfollow I give a reason.
This will help her to know if somethings wrong & perhaps give reasons (and eventually stay friends forever :) ). If I just want to unfollow or I think you are a spam bot I won’t bother to give any reasons though.
Can’t call these habits, but I do these too…
- Having a profile image & a bio.
I check for these when I’m gonna follow some one. A good/creative bio would impress me. So I hope I can impress others with mine. I kept a link to my blogs about page in my twitter bio. But learned it’s not nice & wrote a bio inspired by the bio of my friend @seejay (I changed it :D ).
- A unique and/or clear theme for twitter page.
By the word ‘theme’, I mean ‘background & colors’. I created my Twitter background even before I see anyone else’s custom background. I just used my Twitter background to show my love to some things I really love. The theme is a good way to stand out. And keeping it simple & clear helps your followers reading your tweets without problems. Yes I always check Twitter pages of people I follow time to time even though I use a twitter client do most twitter activities.
I never ever say that ‘you should’, or at least ‘you better’ follow these habits. These are just personal opinions of me. If you too feel anyone or other is good, you can follow them. Just help to make a better twitterverse, the way you can. Anything to add (or remove)?, place your thoughts in comments. And if these habits make you feel that I’m worth a follow Here is my Twitter :)
