Working With 140: Twelve Ways To Improve Your Twitter Presence

I've been an avid tweeter for roughly six months. Twitter is not an easy medium to navigate or grasp fully when you first get started. It takes practice to figure out what kinds of things you should or shouldn't be doing. I am by no means an expert, but these are just a few things I've noticed while trying to get better at it myself. 

• Be generous with people. It's easy to dismiss folks when you don't know them, especially if you find their tweets annoying. But, some of the most rewarding experiences I've had on Twitter have been because someone showed kindness in taking time to interact and be welcoming. Being gracious with people is one useful life skill that translates perfectly to Twitter. 
  
• Don't be a know-it-all. This is a big one. Many of us are on Twitter because of a specific interest of which we feel very knowledgeable. Be careful not to condescend to people - tone is very important. You may not intend to sound pompous but there may be better ways to convey the information without alienating people. Remember those people you'd roll your eyes at in school? You don't want to be that person on Twitter. 
• Trust me, nobody really cares about the mundane happenings of your life. If you had a pleasant visit to the bathroom, hooray for you! Hopefully, you had some luxury TP at your disposal. But, Twitter's not the place for that sort of thing. Remember, people are following you because they, at one point, found something you said of interest. Don't bore your followers with throwaway tweets. 

• Follow people. If (like one of the people on my timeline) you have single digit follows, then you are not taking the time to engage with folks. Twitter is best when it's a two-way medium. Worse yet, it gives the impression you have a needlessly inflated sense of self. Also, if you've noticed you're interacting with one person on a regular basis (provided they're not annoying), throw them a follow. This is part of building goodwill that will always come back to you down the road. 

• If you are going to retweet something, don't just "quote tweet" and add "RT" or "LOL." Unless you have something pertinent to add to what is being tweeted, allow the original tweeter to get all the credit for their idea. It's also a good idea, if you must "quote tweet", to go ahead and retweet the original tweet anyway. Otherwise, it's tantamount to a bit of Twitter plagiarism. Let the original tweet rack up all the retweets and follows its deserves. 

• On a similar note, always link to photos and words that are not your own. I am guilty of this. Sometimes it slips my mind in the exuberance of wanting to share something really funny, or a pressing bit of news. But, it's always best to treat sharing as you would doing college research. You won't get expelled from Twitter, but you will be judged by a vast majority of followers. 

• If you don't know what's going on in a series of tweets, stay out of it. This is likely the offence I am most guilty of. Instead of asking the original tweeter every last detail about something they're talking about/has happened. Maybe you're not at your computer and on a mobile device? In which case, most of us have smartphones - "Google" it! We might think we're being engaging, but it would be better to be able to tweet something of use right away. 

• The concise nature of Twitter - having to condense thoughts into 140 characters or less - makes an adherence to proper sentence structures unnecessary. Nonetheless, your tweets must still be understandable. Abbreviations are great and save a lot of precious characters when composing your tweet, but too many can make reading your tweet cumbersome. 
• Don't butt into other folks' threads unless you have something meaningful to contribute. Perhaps you have the answer to a question that somebody is querying, Or, you have something funny to add - that works well too. However, if you're injecting yourself to start or continue something that's really none of your business, then perhaps you should resist the urge. This is a lesson (I hope) I've learned over the last few months. 

• Try to not take things too personally. Sometimes a lot gets lost or misinterpreted in a tweet. Sometimes it's better to take a step back and forget that the offending tweet ever happened. Once you've moved on, you'll likely find that person still has lots of tweets you still want on your timeline. Remember that someone has likely found you annoying at some point and brushed it off. 

• Avoid Twitter arguments. If you have a point to be made, make it and move on. It's not a good look to be spamming someone's timeline with crude language or what is almost always an unnecessary spat. Nobody's got time to sift through your anger. You run the risk of losing any goodwill you may have earned with your followers. 
  
• Be sure about it before unfollowing/blocking someone. The "mute" function comes in handy in these situations. Maybe the person is having a bad day and is not at their Twitter best in that moment. It's always best to accumulate a broader sample size before writing somebody off. Months down the road when you may want to follow that person again, your serving of humble pie may be a tad awkward.