50UpPowerWAYS TO

TwiTTer

2. Follow anyone who follows you and unfollow spammers /jerks. 3. Build lists to watch people who matter to you more closely.

IntentDon’t read EVERY tweet.It’s perfectly okay. You have permission. 1.

10. Everyone does it their own way. You’re doing it wrong, too- to someone.

9. Set an egg timer. Twitter is addictive.

7. Robot tweets are less sexy than human tweets. 8. Promote the new/less followed more than the “names.”

6. A lot of @replies shows a lot of humanity/engagement.

Retweet the good stuff from

others. Sharing is caring.

5.

4. Promote other people 12x to every 1 self-promotional tweet.

18. If software allows you to “post updates to Twitter” as well as to the app, don’t do that. We rarely want to see them.

technIcal11. A non-standard background and face avatar means we believe you may be human.

12. Leave 20 characters or more space in each tweet to improve retweeting. 13. Use Seesmic or tweetdeck or hootsuite so you can see more. 14. Linking one update to several communities is technically possible. It’s just not respectful of each community’s uniqueness.

16. Every time you use OAUTH to give apps permission to use your account, you open a potential security hole. Check your permissions monthly.

15. Make hashtags small and simple. We need room to tweet.

17. Tools like http://bit.ly let you see stats. Use them.

20. The best mobile app is the one that you feel comfortable using. We don’t know better.

19. If you develop software that pushes updates to Twitter, be VERY explicit how that works.

30. Just make money and then the boss won’t ask about ROI any more.

BUSIneSS21. Spamming us repeatedly is okay. We just unfollow you.

22. Spend more time in search than in chatting us up about your stuff. 23. Having different accounts for everything seems like the right move, until you realize it’s hard to grow multiple followings.

24. Finding people who need what you’re selling trumps advertising to us.

25. Retweeting someone’s nice words about you is lame and doesn’t buy you more attention. Let it stand.

If your link is an affiliate link or a client, say so (in parentheses).

29. Your customers might not be on Twitter. Use rapleaf to find them.

28. Invite your customers to Twitter, then make it worth it for them.

26. Use Twitter as a personalized communication tool, not another blast.

27.

Integrated 31. Twitter makes every event better. Post the hashtag everywhere. Make every speaker sign/label/name include a Twitter ID.

32. Apps like TweetChat.com make following event chats really easy. Put in a hashtag and go.

Tweeting the content of events is nice, but so is occasionally making a real live connection with the speaker.

35. It’s okay to tweet your blog posts, but try asking a question that leads readers into the post.

33. Please remove Twitter from LinkedIn. Use the #in tag instead and be selective.

34. Can you invite Twitter followers to your other social platforms, like LinkedIn or Facebook? Sure you can.

36. 37. I’m not into mixing my location apps with my tweets, but if you do, do it FROM the location app into Twitter, not the other way around.

38. Getting others to tweet your posts or news or registrations is useful, but sometimes comes off as a barrage or spam. Be prepared for that perception.

39. Tweets that point us to photos and/or video and/or music, etc, are always a great way to enhance the experience.

40. Spammy or no, events that tweet their attendance registration seem to drive attendance.

Off-tWItter 41. Are your tweets really what you want to show in your sidebar? Doesn’t that direct people away from your site?

47. Think of Twitter as a guidance system to what you think is interesting. A lot of that is likely off-Twitter.

46. Apps like VisibleTweets.com are neat, but can be very distracting at events.

44. If your only marketing efforts are on twitter, start building an email marketing list. never put your eggs in one basket.

42. If you use tweets on a screen at an event, be warned if you moderate. angry crowds can happen.

45. outside of the Twitter app, keep “Tw” names to a minimum. we’re not your “tweeps.”

49. Don’t forget to invite people from off-Twitter to follow you on Twitter. Include your actual Twitter ID (I see lots of “follow me on Twitter” with no details).

50. Tweetups are awesome, especially if you make them about more than just drinking and saying hi. (Though, hey, drinks can be nice.)

48. Asking questions on Twitter makes for very interesting commentary and opinions for blog posts.

43. Start thinking in 120 characters (remember? save 20). Every bit of this advice is tweetable.