Be Social On Twitter (Part 2, more or less)

The other day I posted about the social & philosophical aspects of scheduled tweets on Twitter. I come down firmly in the circle of belief that any time you post or schedule is okay as long as you the social being are available at those times should conversation or engagement spring to life.

For me, a discussion along those lines also brings to mind other things I notice across the twitterverse where folks “who should know better” are less than social about what they’re posting and how. Regular folks having conversations have all the freedom in the world to interact as they please. But in my mind, professionals interacting for professional reasons should be able to raise the bar a bit and do things a little more thoughtfully. So here’s a list of five items that I think are bad form, and how to make corrections in your own style so you can avoid some of these traps.

I know this is a complete judgment call on my

part; your mileage may vary:

• Posting links to information “as your own” without giving credit within the 140 character limits of the tweet – I know it’s tough to get all the information you want into such a short space, but when you post links to other articles without giving credit upfront, I think you’re doing it wrong. When using a “tweet this” from a blog or news site, it usually gives the credentials necessary. If not, you’re smart enough to add them. But here’s what happens: I see you posting lots of good information, titles to articles and such, and for whatever reason I don’t actually click through to read. In my perception, you’ve taken credit for the writing. You’re getting some cred for having the information, especially if I don’t read through. Save 20 chars at the end to give an @ reply/attribution – it’s the right thing to do.
• Same thing, slightly different: always posting links to articles with nothing else added “from you” – with this, all you do it post and RT articles online, but we never get the added benefit of why or what you thought was important. And frankly, I question whether you’ve actually read the piece or not, whether you’re just passing the info along to look the part (see above). Add your personal, “I thought she nailed it” or “check what he wrote on point 3″, something that gives us the tweet readers something to hold onto as we do in fact click through this time.
• Using multiple accounts to tweet the same thing – In business environments with multiple channels for any communication, having multiple twitter handles is a part of the job. And I love Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for making it easy on the folks in charge to post information in multiple directions, track the analytics coming back, and keeping everything in line in a central app. But being creative should be as important as getting the information to the masses. If five different channels are always tweeting the same one message, then four of those channels are obsolete. Instead, post once, RT from another, maybe add more info from the next, etc. If there’s any chance your audiences overlap, make the extra keystrokes to make all your channels worth following.
• Using bad grammar- liberally, and without apology - please learn how to write, how to use verbs and subjects in harmony together, and the difference between your/you’re and there/their. And for all that’s holy, it’s “y’all”.
• Only tweeting your specials, your highlights, your news – okay, I fall into this category with some of the channels I’m in charge of, and I understand the need if there’s not enough manpower to make a business channel “more personal” or “more conversational”. But that’s not a perfect solution, and if yours is a smaller local business then I think it’s an all around bad idea to only communicate the special of the day. Be conversational, in the moment, interacting with your loyal friends and customers. Be timely – set your notifications so you know someone’s trying to get your attention and then make time to respond. That’s the plus you wanted from social media – now put the time and effort to be real about it.

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