At the recent Mums On the Go with Three event several ppl asked about twitter and said they were slightly scared of it. I found that bewildering, but on further discussion it appeared they were afraid of transgressing against unwritten rules of etiquette. Most of us assured them that there are no such rules, other than of general politeness anyway, but since then I’ve been thinking.
There are things that really wind me up. And I think they wind other ppl up as well. Certainly if I discuss them I get ppl expressing the same opinion as me, though it’s possible that I’m just too scary and other ppl daren’t disagree 😉
So, don’t do the auto dm. Tbh, I don’t even know how to do this. What I mean is when you start following someone, sometimes you’ll receive a DM shortly afterwards that says something like “thanks for following, looking forward to getting to know you” maybe even with a link to a website. I’m sorry, but this just makes you look self important. Either say hi to new followers yourself, or don’t, but don’t do the auto DM. The other thing that is annoying about it is that if you haven’t followed back the person can’t respond that way, which just seems rude.
Don’t RT ff lists with you on it just for the sake of it. Or indeed general mentions of yourself. This is the equivalent of repeating a conversation loudly, you just wouldn’t do it would you? You wouldn’t stand in a room at a party and repeat it every time someone mentioned your name, so don’t do it on twitter.
Don’t ask someone to DM you without checking you are following them first. It saves time, if you’re a brand or pr it looks way more professional to get it right first time, particularly if you’ve just asked a competition winner to get in touch.
Do make friends. Jump into conversations, they aren’t private, they’re on the internet. If someone reacts as if they are private, consider unfollowing them.
There’s something not to get hung up on. Don’t worry about whether someone is following you or not. Some ppl use lists so could be reading your tweets regularly without following (remember what I said about not being private!), sometimes twitter throws a wobbly and unfollows for the fun of it. And sometimes ppl just need to wind it back in. It’s rarely personal. And if it is, there’s always the block option.
If privacy worries you, either don’t use twitter, or consider protecting your tweets. They are still on the internet, but you have to approve following requests.
Above all, do have fun 🙂
Did I miss anything out? Let me know in the usual place. Or on twitter 🙂
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