Good Works Grapevine

A reader requested some information on Twitter etiquette and I thought it ws a great idea for a blog post. I did a little research about what other people consider “Twitter Etiquette” and then added some of my own recommendations and pet peeves. I have to admit that what other people consider bad manners, I consider the price of doing business. Twitter is somewhat a free-for-all, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.  Please feel free to contribute or prove me wrong.

• If you have separate projects or announce events regularly, consider having a separate Twitter account for each project/event.
• Do what you can to not spam the discussion with automated Twitter messages. My personal fave is “I’m streaming live right now…come chat!” If you are disconnected or have lag, Twitter may receive multiple, duplicate automated posts. It’s annoying.
• Be considerate and offer a complete Twitter profile with your real photo, name and bio. I want to know who I’m talking to and whether I want to follow you.
• The topic of  the etiquette of “following” comes up a lot. And everyone has a different take. I don’t think that ‘who to follow’ is as much etiquette as strategy. Some evangelists like Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan follow anyone who follows them. Others, like Leo Laporte, only follow people that they are a relationship with. I personally follow anyone that a) has a complete profile and b) falls into my areas of interest. I’ve had a handful of followers that have nothing in common with me whatsoever - I usually don’t follow them. But, for the most part, I fall into the reciprocal follower category.
• It isn’t a must, but I try to DM (direct message) people who follow me to thank them for the connection. I think that it’s good manners and sometimes kick starts the conversation.
• Don’t follow people who annoy you. During the elections, I actually “unfollowed” several folks because I just got tired of the political noise. The cool thing about Twitter is that you can “unfollow” anyone you want. One of my favorite Twitter quotes is from Robert Scoble - “One thing I like about Twitter is that you don’t need to follow people you think are jerks.”
• SPAMMING and NOISE. Robert Scoble also talks about spam vs. noise. To paraphrase - if people are telling you that you’re spamming, you probably are. If folks don’t like Robert’s “noise” they can unfollow him. It’s just like turning the channel on the TV. Guy Kawasaki posts a lot as well - lots of informational stories with links. I personally enjoy it. SPAM and NOISE is really relative. Make your choice to follow or unfollow.
• Don’t Twitter while intoxicated. This is one of my favorites and I’m sure I’ve done it before. Inevitably, you’ll say something you’ll regret. Put down the mouse and go to bed.
• Don’t be rude. If it’s rude to say to someone face-to-face, it’s rude to say on Twitter. Mind your Ps and Qs.
• Watch your ratios of followers to following. If you are following a ton of people but not that many folks are following you, they’ll think you’re a spammer.