How to Master Twitter Etiquette

5 of 8 in Series: The Essentials of Getting Connected and Communicating on Twitter

Many new Twitter users want to know what the rules are, or whether Twitter has standard protocol and etiquette. Beyond Twitter’s standard Terms of Service, Twitter etiquette is simple: Be genuine and non-deceptive and provide value. Otherwise, just use Twitter how it suits you.

Beyond the simple regulations, you can’t really use Twitter in a right or wrong way because no two people use it for exactly the same reasons. Although users love Twitter’s largely rule-free nature, some generally accepted behaviors have evolved over time. You can ease your transition into the culture of Twitter by getting familiar with these behaviors.

Be polite on Twitter for the most part, but no more or less so than you’re expected to be in the real world — just keep in mind that Twitter is a public forum.

You may encounter confusing, even conflicting, advice and back-seat tweeting from the handful of people on Twitter who aren’t comfortable without rules. Don’t take them too seriously; Twitter just isn’t that rigid.

Tweeting frequency

Some Twitter users are considered noisy because they tweet so much, whereas others can come across as standoffish because they don’t tweet frequently. A good rule when you’re starting out is to post at least four or five tweets per day. You most likely find yourself tweeting much more often than that, but if you aren’t yet fully comfortable with it, use that number to get started.

If you’re using Twitter for your business, or you plan to link to your products or posts on your personal blog, find a balance between the number of tweets that promote yourself and the number of tweets that provide value. You might think of this balance as an actual ratio.

For example, for every link of your own that you place on Twitter, send out at least five tweets that inform, engage, and converse. If conversation and engagement are your aim, you definitely want to keep a human voice in your Twitter stream at all times.

It’s worth thinking about who you want to reach. People new to Twitter and only following a few get bowled over by frequent tweeters simply because it’s all they see on their stream. A roaring chat with friends you already know is a fine use of Twitter, too, and would involve many more tweets a day than, say, a business user or someone just figuring out what they want to do with the platform.

Language and abbreviations in Tweets

Twitter’s lexicon has evolved over time to include unique words, phrases, and abbreviations that most regular users understand and recognize. Of course, you see a lot of puns involving the word “Twitter,” with the prefixes tw- or twi- added to the front: tweet, tweeple, tweetup, and so on. Not all members are fans of corny terms such as tweeple. Others think the Twitter-specific language is fun, or an easy and obvious way to delineate something as Twitter-specific.

Engaging others on Twitter

On Twitter, the name of the game is engagement. Whether you use Twitter for business or fun, you don’t just want to sit back and watch the stream flow by — you want to genuinely interact with people.

Don’t be shy about finding people who share your interests, even if you don’t know them (yet). Use Twitter Search to look for some of the most obscure keywords related to your work, hobbies, or passions. Then click through to the profiles of the people who wrote the tweets you find.

You’ll be amazed how good an idea you get of someone just by glancing at their last 20 tweets. Interested? Follow them. It’s not like other social networks where you’re really only expected to connect to folks you already know.

While you sift through the Twitter conversation, click the usernames that you see (as in @replies) and write to strangers offering your own opinion. It may take a few tries with a few different conversations before the chatting users include you in their conversation, but eventually they do.

But even if you don’t @reply, your tweets still appear in search, and other Twitter users can spot them. If you have something interesting to say, people start to reply to your tweets. If you seek out and use relevant keywords and #hashtags, you will start to connect with others who share your interests.

Your early days on Twitter will probably be pretty quiet when it comes to replies and conversation. All those twitterers are just getting to know you, after all. Don’t worry; after a few of your tweets appear in the timeline and you add a few contacts to your network, people will begin to notice you.

Twitter keeps tabs on “deceptive” activity and can ban accounts that impersonate celebrities or companies if those accounts don’t make it clear that they’re unofficial or parodies. This policy is a contentious point in the Twitter community: Many members were upset when the @cwalken account, belonging to an aspiring comedian pretending to be actor Christopher Walken, was deleted from the system.