Give Credit For Tweet’s Sake. My 10 Twitter Rules.
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Tweeting, in 140 characters or less, is so “deck.” For all you “hipsters” out there, of course you know that means “cool.” And why not? Twitter is free and puts you at the helm of your own PR. You can start and grow relationships, promote your biz and even gain clients. Yet what Twitter and social media will inevitably be and do is not completely known. We’re all inventing the rules as we go. Here are a few I’ve created for myself.
1. Don’t bash politicians, pundits or parties. Especially if you’re looking for business. You can opine, you can gently persuade and educate. But don’t bash.
2. Tweet about more than thine own self (a marketing consultant). Instead, more often than not, I report on interesting cause marketing programs.
3. Shamelessly plug yourself with self control. (1 out of every 10 tweets.) For instance, if you follow me on Twitter ( sharnafulton ), you’ll see a tweet about this post. Which in turn, will hopefully lead you to my blog, www.peaceofthepie.com (So very sly, huh?) But I don’t abuse the privilege.
4. Have a “take.” You don’t have to run smack like Jim Rome or “kill” like a comic at the Funny Farm or even, naturally emit, like Shannon Paul, a certain social media panache My comfy style is to write a headline, then post the link to the story. Here’s a common format I use that I learned from an excellent writer, Joe Waters at http://selfishgiving.com/ What began a few years ago as tennis match amongst friends now raises thousands of $$$ for breast cancer. http://tinyurl.com/dzag6x
5. Think first. In the above tweet, I wanted to show how one woman’s big idea grew from grassroots to the bigtime in just a few years. It took me three and a half minutes to wordsmith it into 140. That’s what writing takes. (Time.)
6. For good karma, give credit generously. Here’s a similar format to the above but with a name. Thanks to people like Kimberly Shadwell Jordan, recycling has doubled in some areas of Denver. http://tinyurl.com/df3mms You can also share credit by doing a retweet which looks like this: please RT @sharnafulton — followed by the RT
7. Let www.tinyurl.com become your new best friend.
8. Be disciplined if you can. Tweet a certain amount of times per day about a subject you care about. They say it takes 21 days–or something like that to form–so start slow. One tweet a day?
9. Don’t be ho-hum. IE: I just landed in Vegas. I just fed my dog. Boooooring! On the other hand, I recently tweeted about Celtics Playoff Game #1. I think some people really liked this. Why? Maybe because I was there . In Boston. At the gahden. So maybe to be a good twitterer, you need a life?! Explore, learn, share, travel, be curious. (Look for my tweet about Lebron James tonight from Game 4 at Phillips Arena. )
10) Fact check. It’s called Google. ‘Nuff said.
No bashing politicians OR parties??
Geesh.. take all the fun out of it why dontcha. :)
Woody. Woody. Woody. Don’t pack up your blogging toys and go home just yet. If bashing politicians is your thing, who am I to stand in your way? Just don’t come crying to me when/if your clients stop buying.