Valleywag had a ridiculous post called 10 Things Twitter Users Should Not Do that ended up popping up several times today on the NewsGang feeds, which I read regularly. All of the post’s advice is horribly, horribly wrong. There is no should not do.
Here’s what you should do and why:
1. Follow as many people as you can; hopefully, a decent percentage of them will follow you in return. UPDATE: Notice that I said as many as you can. For some people, that will mean just their friends, but for others it will mean a lot more. The more you can, the better.
2. Don’t try to read everything in your Twitter feed. Scan it from time to time and pay careful attention to two things:
2a. People replying to you. Be polite. Engage them in conversation.
2b. People asking questions. Answer their questions if you can.
3. When you need a good answer to a question or a recommendation, ask it on Twitter and suddenly you’ll get what 9 times out of 10 end up being helpful answers from the people following you. Thank them. Ask them more questions. Engage them in conversations.
4. Use Twitter to quickly broadcast information. For example, today, we had to take Thatcher, my pet pug pictured on this blog, to the vet. She’d been to the dog park, been tackled roughly by a bulldog, and had been acting timid and shaking (very unlike her) ever since. Kristin picked me up panicked at 6pm, I darted out of the office and several of my coworkers who know me and know Thatcher were concerned. Fortunately, they follow me on Twitter and could see the updates sent hurriedly from the vet’s office that Thatcher was okay. This seems trivial if it doesn’t have anything to do with you, but it’s a vital part of community that Twitter taps into. Are you okay? Yes you are. I can tell from your Twitter stream. I’m okay too. We’re friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers separated by distance and a thousand other things, but here’s instant communication, time-stamped to let you know I’m okay. Even if all I’m tweeting is “need coffee” in the morning, that tells my parents in Mississippi that I’m still okay. That’s an amazing thing. Much better than the smoke signals our ancestors used to use to communicate between tribes.
5. #4 is extremely powerful on a one on one personal level between me and the people I know. However, it becomes something very powerful on a larger scale when something historic happens and someone is there tweeting it for the rest of us to witness.
Twitter is a great communication tool. Use it. That’s all.
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