Dos and Don'ts of Twitter

Maybe you saw Sam Crowe's article in the current Birding Business about using online resources or maybe you've heard everyone else out there talk about, but the hot social media site right now is Twitter.

Twitter is based on you having a profile on their site and updating a "micro blog" or your Twitter post (aka Tweet). A Tweet cannot have more than 140 characters including punctuation and spaces. When you start to follow different people on Twitter, others may follow you. If you write a Tweet that is funny or interesting to followers, they may pass it on or "ReTweet" it and hopefully you will get a bigger following.

But Twitter is not just about putting something out there, you also need interact with your followers. If someone wants to reply to you, they will put @username at the start of their Tweet. For example, my username on Twitter is birdchick. When a follower wants to reply to me or just ask a question, they will start their Tweet with @birdchick. I can check my @replies box on my Twitter Home Page and see if anyone asked a question or replied--even if I don't follow them. This makes Twitter more interactive, more fun for your readers, and a more effective marketing tool. If you don't want to interact on Twitter, do not expect a large following.

If you are just starting in Twitter and would like to know some basic etiquette, there's a good article on the Do's and Don'ts at PC Magazine to help you out.