Twitter Dos and Don’ts for Moms

My mom tip today is aimed at moms who tweet, because let’s face it, if you’re a reader here, you’re most likely a Tweeter, or at least have some curiosity. I’ve been at this Twitter thing for a bit and have developed a few insights from a mom perspective, for better or worse. Want to hear them? Ok, here it goes.

Am I a complete idiot from the 80s if I feel I need to have some kind of connection with all my Twitter folks? Well pass the wine coolers then, because that’s my sad little hangup.

At first, I had a handful of Twitter friends. I followed people I knew and a few I admired. I even followed a couple of celebrities for the heck of it, knowing they probably had someone else tweeting for them.

Then I got to know a lot of fellow bloggers and my list grew.

When I signed up for a blog conference and did a group blog development virtual seminar, we all linked up to follow each other and my list grew further.

I subscribe to the belief that if you’re interested in following me, I want to get to know you too and will follow back. There are a few exceptions (I get to that later), but on a whole, I’ll follow back. So as more people followed me, I did the same.

That’s when things started to get out of control.

When I discovered Tweet Deck, I started to get a handle on it all. I could put those I follow into lists I created so I could better track everyone I wanted to track.

Note to self, this works much better when you take the time to actually PUT those folks into lists.

At one point I discovered I was following close to 900 people and maybe 50 of them were in a list. Opps.

In a guilty fit of desire to do right by those who want to follow my ramblings, insight and occasional helpful idea I started sifting through the list of those I follow to get to know them a little better. But if you’re going to do this, be super macro organized because Twitter only lets you have 20 lists (which I found out by accident when I wanted to create another 10.)

So in all of this learning about Twitter as I go, I began to discover a few things that really matter to me when using this service. I know there are a million pieces of advice out there on how to use Twitter, Twitter ediquette, etc. But this is one social media lover, mom blogger, networker, social butterfly take. This and $4.75 at the downtown Seattle Starbucks will get you a pumpkin spice latte.

Heligirl’s Twitter dos:

If someone follows you, follow back. It’s an honor to have someone want to follow your tweets. Give them a chance. You might like that person right back. Now, here are the exceptions I follow. If it’s a spammer, porn, or someone who’s tweets are offensive, I’ll turn around and block them. Contrary to popular belief, you’re not more special if you have a million followers and you follow 6. That’s reserved for celebrities, and ONLY celebrities (brands, take note here). Personally, when I see someone like that who isn’t a celebrity, I tend to think they’re a snob and I won’t follow.

Reply when someone mentions you. Twitter is there for mini conversations. Have them. You never know what new friendships are around the corner.

Use a real photo or image of you or your brand (be it blog, product, cause, etc.). Granted, I say that and my avatar is the drawing from my blog, but that’s the branding of the blog. People who follow the blog will recognize it. I’d also say to keep the image and don’t change it regularly. People who like you recognize your avatar and changing it throws them for a loop. They (meaning I) may miss something you say.

Write an informative bio. When I get followed, I look at the bio and last tweets to determine if the person is real or spam, then decide if the person is interesting. If there isn’t a bio, I’m a little leary. Let your personality shine through!

Be yourself. Have fun with your tweets. Share little things you see, hear, feel.

Twitter don’ts:

Don’t follow a bunch of people just to get followers, then unfollow them. I recently had some event planner do that, touting the people I follow as being a part of their event. I was asked to follow back. I did. They dropped me. Guess who got dropped from my feed? When someone or a company is determining if you have pull, they’re looking at how many are following you, not how many you follow. Manage your followers with an application like Tweet Deck, not through rude unfollows.

Don’t only tweet blog posts, Facebook updates or other automatic feeds. Twitter is a place to have conversations. People drop you if all you do is auto post. It’s OK to post links to blog posts, Facebook updates, giveaways, sales, etc. Be sure you’re also engaging folks and making other tweets too.

Do you have any Twitter favorite practices or complete pet peeves? Please do, tell all.

Tagged as: Twitter