Twitter Tips

Be yourself. Twitter is a social networking site. The members are interested in YOU as a social being... "socializing". So don't be a phony.

Put a picture of yourself up there so people know who they're talking to. It's much more personal for other Twitter members to see you when tweeting.

Make every post special. Put some thought into what you say so that it is interesting or informative to the reader. Or make it funny. People love to laugh. Or post an interesting link or video. Twitter is what we make it.

Don't limit yourself to answering Twitter's only question; "What are you Doing?". That can be extremely boring for the reader. Twitter is now open to discussing just about anything so you might want to pretend that "What are you Doing?" is not even there.

Take advantage of cool apps (applications) for Twitter like Twitpic for posting images or Twellow, for finding people that have your same interests.

Twitter only gives you 140 characters to make a post. This is why they call it "micro-blogging". That said, your links to other places (urls) sometimes don't fit within that 140 character limit when you paste it in. Use tinyurl.com to shorten the url, then just copy and paste the new url in your post.

Join in a Twitter party now and then. It's a good way to meet new people and you'll probably get a lot more followers out of it too.

Retweet posts that are especially interesting. Retweeting is taking someone else's post and pasting it into your post with "RT" before it and their username so they get credit for the original.

When you're new to Twitter, spend some time lurking first. Watch what people do, how they post, etc. This way, you'll be more informed when you start out and (hopefully) won't make as many mistakes.

Don't "Twittersquat". This means reserving a bunch of user names to use later. Twitter doesn't like that and they'll shut your accounts down if they catch you doing it.

Do a search on Twitter to find your favorite bands and celebrities so you can follow them. You can also search for things you are interested in – such as blogging, knitting, and instrument you play – so that you can find other people with the same interests to follow.

Integrate your twitter account with other blogs and social networking sites. Post on twitter when you have posted blogs or when you have made updates to your sites. Also ask the people following you on those other sites to follow you on twitter.

Don’t over post. While twitter is about knowing the little things that are going on, what you like, current events, etc. …you can over post too. No one cares that you “made a huge sandwich”, “eating the sandwich I made”, “thoroughly enjoyed the sandwich”, “ate too big of a sandwich”. All of that is overkill. Make each post relevant.

There are a lot of people selling "get rich quick" products online. Do not click on this stuff! Most of it is a scam. Many times, they're not really selling anything. They just want your e-mail address so the can then spam you.

Also; they will trick you into conversation by asking you questions. If their user name is "makemoney01" or anything similar, avoid it like the plague!

Don't just click on any link that someone posts on Twitter. Make sure it feels right first. Otherwise, you're putting yourself at risk for getting a virus. Keep your virus software updated!

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For those of you that are aggressively following and unfollowing other Twitter users, be careful as you may get flagged as a spammer. Twitter has spam policies in place and ignoring those policies could get you terminated.

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Use Twitter's "lists" feature to categorize some of the people you're following. So for example, if you're following Giftys on twitter, you might put them in your lists area under "Shopping" or "Shopping Sites". If you're following Drum Bum, you can have them under category "Drumming" or "Music". If you have hundreds or even thousands of Twitter users, the list function helps keep people organized and easier to find.

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Be polite and follow the people who follow you... unless they're just super weird or creepy. LOL

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While it may promote micro-blogging, don't forget Twitter is a search engine too. On the right hand side you'll see a search bar. You can search for anything here.

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If you want to get people to your blog through Twitter, phrase your post as a question rather than a statement. For example, say, "Do you know the 10 deadliest sharks?" rather than "Deadly Sharks".

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