FOLLOWING TWITTER RULES OF ETIQUETTE
. You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you.
. Don’t be offended if someone doesn’t return your follow or decides to unfollow you.
. Don’t be misleading. Make perfectly clear that you represent a business and are there to market your company, but also make sure that followers know you will
provide useful information about your product and services, not an endless stream of invites to go to your web site or visit your online store.
. Don’t be a robot. Mix it up and show your personal side.
. Keep the personal stuff private. Create a direct message when you only need to speak with one person.
. Keep the boring tweets to yourself.
. Use the @username rather than a direct message to reply to a conversation thread. This strategy injects your opinion into the thread.
. Don’t be argumentative.
. Don’t use direct messages to ask the options of followers you don’t know well. Post a general message to all of your followers and ask their opinion.
. Don’t use all caps when you send tweets.
. Respond to important messages.
. When you create a tweet that you want to be retweeted, keep it to no more than 120 characters. Followers then have a chance to retweet
your message and add a comment without truncating the tweet.
. If you set up a customer service Twitter account for your business, follow everyone who follows you. If you don’t follow
someone who follows you, this could be taken as a sign that you’re not interested in doing business with them.
. Don’t use foul language.
. Test links before you include them in a tweet, what is recommended is cutting and pasting the URL (including any short URL)
into your browser to ensure that the right web page appears.
. Don’t send tweets when you’re under the influence.
. Make sure that your complete words are spelled correctly and use proper punctuation.
Be sure to read the most recent Twitter rules before you start tweeting. You can find them at: http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/69214.