So you want to join the Twitter. You think of a cool username, sign up and get excited at the thought that you have complete freedom (140 characters worth) to tweet about whatever you want. You seek out the most popular Twitterers and start following them along with hundreds of others. How simple, you think. Now, the time has come for your first tweet:

“Hey all! Check out my blog www.pleasereadmyblognow.com!”

Hmm, no responses and not many people following you back. Let’s try that again:

“Glad to finally be on Twitter all. Leave some love on my latest post!”

Ok, we get it – it’s about you. Unfortunately, other people aren’t as accepting to your philosophy and won’t listen to you. Why, you ask? It’s because you’ve become a broadcaster – someone who constantly tweets about themselves and their blog/site. You fail to get involved with the community and end up providing little to no value to your network.

Wait – don’t give up on Twitter already because no one is listening to the broadcaster in you. As with any network, group or forum, there are always basic cultural mores to understand that’ll help you become a better communicator. Twitter has a few of its own that will help your experience:

1. Do NOT link/friend Whore

Sending out tweets and DMs (direct messages) to tell people to check out your blog or sign up for your RSS feed (trust me, I’ve gotten this numerous times) is not proper Twitter etiquette and is considered spamming.

The same goes for mass following people. Clicking ‘follow’ on several hundred people at a time is not building your network. Profiles with skewed following to follower ratios (e.g. 2,000 following – 57 followers) will typically be looked at as spam.

Continually doing these activities will put a huge ding on your online reputation before it even takes off.

2. Two-way Street

Be human and actually talk to people and not at them. Follow those you find interesting but make sure you communicate and make it a two-way conversation. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing against about talking about something you worked on and getting other’s opinions on it, but maintain a proper balance of that. No one likes a friend who talks about themselves all the time. Keep the dialogue free and open for both sides.

3. It’s a Marathon

With any circle of friends, online or offline, time and effort are keys to building positive relationships. There’s no need to rush in and follow a thousand people to try to gain attention; instead, steadily increase your network while communicating and building relationships with your current Twitter friends. Show that you truly care and spend time getting to know them. Focusing on the amount of effort you put into these relationships will give you more credibility within the community and help grow your network.

Twitter is often mistaken as a broadcasting platform for people to spit out anything and everything. In the end, adhering to the Twitter culture and being respectful of the tips listed above will influence your experience on Twitter and whether you’re looked at as a conversation starter or a broadcaster.

Let’s get the conversation started and hear from you. What do you personally do to better communicate with your network? What other tips can we add to the list?

PS from Darren: Thanks for this post Sonny. It’s actually been a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for a while and one that I want to post a follow up post on tomorrow where I’ll ask – ‘when is it ok to ‘broadcast’ rather than ‘converse’?’ Subscribe to our RSS feed to make sure you get notified when this next post goes live.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Do you Converse or Broadcast? How to Build (or Kill) Relationships on Twitter