A Brief and Informal Twitter Etiquette Guide

August 1, 2009 · Comments

twitter spammers I love Twitter. I think the service is a wonderful tool that permits a whole new way of communicating. The thing is, it’s also a place where newcomers might often make some mistakes in their choices that will likely be taken in a negative manner, and will likely result in an unfollow or a block from other Twitter users. The idea to write a brief and informal twitter etiquette guide came from my new friend Zaven, who asked whether, in some cases, people might just be behaving in a social structure that makes sense to their culture, but not mine. He might be right. With that as a motivator, here are some guidelines for Twitter to consider. NOTE: these come with the You’re Doing It Wrong seal of “don’t take anyone’s word for law, least of all Chris Brogan’s.”

Maybe, as this is fleshed out, you’ll have some ideas to add or subtract to the guide, and we can update it accordingly. Fair?

A (less) Brief and Informal Twitter Etiquette Guide

  • A complete bio and avatar pic (I like people’s faces, but do what you will) is always a good idea. We want to know who you are. (inspired by Kendra).
  • It’s helpful to be transparent about your work/employer in your profile, if your use of Twitter has any implications for your day job. (from Eden Spodek)
  • Face to face you get a sense of how your idea is being received. No such thing on Twitter. So play nice. (from Carolyn Stephens)
  • Be yourself. It is ok and welcome to be different on twitter. (from Sudha Jamthe)


  • It’s okay to follow people you don’t know on Twitter. They can choose whether or not to follow you back.
  • It’s okay to unfollow people on Twitter. Unfollowing doesn’t automatically mean “I don’t like you.” There are many other reasons.
  • It’s okay to @reply someone a question or comment vs direct message, especially if it’s an idea where others might weigh in or add a perspective.
  • It’s better to direct message someone if you’re making 1:1 plans or having a very focused, personal conversation.
  • It’s not polite to direct message people you don’t know well with your automated quiz results or similar. It’s great that YOU like those quizzed, but others see it as spam.
  • Most folks don’t like seeing those “I just used whateveryoucallit.com to gain 300 new followers right now!” services. – (from Steve Woodruff).
  • Some people are not a fan of auto reply messages that are sent in direct messages when someone follows you on Twitter. They (and by “they,” I also mean “I”) consider these robot behavior.
  • Promoting others and talking with others is a great way to show your participation to the community.
  • Only blurting out your information and links doesn’t usually come off as friendly or community-minded.
  • Tim O’Reilly suggests that @replies have lots of detail in them, so that others picking up the conversation can understand the response (example: turn “yes” into “Yes, I really love the new G.I. Joe movie.”)


  • You don’t have to read every tweet.
  • You don’t have to respond to every @mention.
  • You aren’t obligated to reply to every direct message.
  • If someone direct messages you and you find that you cant message them back because he or she isn’t following you, a simple @reply stating, “I went to send you a direct message back but you’re not currently following me” is good manners. – (inspired by Kendra). *NOTE: Twitter sometimes loses follower relationships during clean ups. It doesn’t always mean that someone actively unfollowed you.
  • However, the more you can respond, the more people tend to stay with you and build relationships.
  • When retweeting other people’s works, it’s okay to truncate a bit to be able to retweet. Please preserve the link and also the original person’s Twitter name. (ex: RT @mackcollier “Twitter lives and dies on retweeting.”)
  • When retweeting someone else’s retweet, it’s sometimes okay to drop the secondary source and just retweet the original poster of the information. (example showing a change to a retweet): “RT @chrisbrogan RT @mackcollier Twitter lives and dies on retweeting” turns into “RT @mackcollier Twitter lives and dies on retweeting.” (make sense? agree?)
  • Want to avoid the above problem? Make your retweets more retweetable.
  • It’s Ok to have multiple twitter identities (from Jack Bresler)
  • It’s OK to disregard robots. (from Jack Bresler)
  • If you’re running a customer service Twitter account, it’s polite to follow back the people following you. (from Ted Coine).
  • Unless you have the author’s consent, it also may be unwise to pull from another feed stream, like mybloglog, and place the information into the twitter stream (from WWAHHMpreneur)
  • Swearing/cursing might well be bad etiquette, and feels like swearing loudly in a public place. (from BizyBiz) . *Note: I sometimes swear. Sorry. :(
  • Pitching your blog might not be the next best move directly after a follow. (inspired by cherylandonian)
  • Don’t get hung up on the numbers, that’s not what matters. Its a case of who you know not how many you know. (from Justin Parks)
  • People might unfollow you if you tweet excessively (falls into Chris’s “You’re Doing it Wrong” category). – (from Chloe Wilkinson)
  • It’s OK (heck, it’s recommended) to actively BLOCK followers you don’t want following you. – (from Bonnie Lowe)
  • Check your links before you tweet them! (from Sure)


  • If you can, cite the source of the link you’re posting. – (from Carlos R Hernandez)
  • and what else?

What else would you want to tell people who are new to Twitter? Do you agree or disagree with my ideas? What else will we do to help new people get acquainted?

Your thoughts are important.


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tagged as: , ,

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • I have taken to just unfollowing anyone who posts the same tweet over and over (usually a link to their own blog post) or who send auto-DM's. I use twitter to connect with my readers, not to wade through automated/spam messages. I say to newbies on twitter - use your common sense - use it as a tool to connect, not aggravate.
  • Please forgive me; sometimes my friendfeed re-posts my tweets, and I'm still figuring out how to control the way all of that flows.
  • an idea for "When retweeting someone else’s retweet, it’s sometimes okay to drop the secondary source and just retweet the original poster of the information."
    for this case, instead of "RT", i use RW (ReWriting).
  • cbemerine
    Actually I take the opposite view, assuming there is room to include them, include all people who ReTweeted (RT) the tweet and give them their due. Chances are you would not have known about the tweet had it not been for the chain that ReTweeted it, therefore always try to keep the entire chain, when possible.

    I have un followed a couple of Twitter accounts that were RT information without giving credit as it is dishonest.
  • I can agree with all of your points. Unfortunately there are a number of PR and marketing firms saying nearly the opposite of how to use Twitter for business. They see Twitter as nothing but another form of Billboard which, like on the highways, clutters up the view and makes the journey miserable...
  • One I was guilty of early on was assuming I was "in" with some of the brighter lights I was following. My advice would be to to approach bigwigs in your niche as you would a respected teacher, not with sarcasm.
  • Pretty standard stuff here, biggest advice I can give is to participate 9x more than you follow people for numbers. You'll build a solid community where size really doesn't matter. :-)
  • BoonKwee
    This is a fairly comprehensive informal guide. I am still undecided about the retweet source though. Technically, the person who is in my first degree contact is the 'source' of the tweet. Without that first degree contact, I wouldn't get to know about the tweet. Anyone else feels the same way?
  • HarpArora
    I'm with you. I keep both the original source and my source in the RT - for exactly the reason you mentioned, to give credit to my source as well. If there are others in btwn & I need extra space, I'll delete the ones in the middle.
  • I wholeheartedly agree with your suggested Twitter guide. I have added my own pet item below:

    People should consider that swearing on twitter is very bad etiquette, as it is like choosing to swear loudly in all public places, in all situations and amongst any audience, Everyone around cannot avoid hearing you.. There are no self censorship choices when writing in a public place.
  • Twitter isn't like a public place, though. If I'm in a shopping mall and hear someone swearing loudly, I don't have the option of clicking a button to silence them entirely as I do on Twitter.

    I'd turn this guideline around: if you don't like what someone's doing with their Twitter stream - be it spamming, posting quiz results, or using foul language - don't make a big deal about it. Just unfollow them. If you value the rest of their stream too much to unfollow, then you're making the choice to take the bad with the good.
  • "... Twitter isn't like a public place ..."

    Disagree Chris.

    Twitter is as public as you can get. If social media is part of your online identity, the way you behave is exposed for the world to see - the good, bad and ugly. I've been collecting such examples to see if I can answer the question, "do people say online what they wouldn't offline? ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/7215...

    If "words are bullets", search engines could result in some pretty embarrassing ammunition.
  • BoonKwee
    I agree. The power to follow and unfollow is entirely in your own hands and you can make up your own personal or company policy about this. And I like what you said about 'make a big deal about it', I don't see the need to 'threaten' unfollows in your twitter stream. In a way it's tantamount to twitter 'bullying'.

    Sometimes I think we forget the social part of social media.
  • When I first started using twitter, I apparently made the big mistake of using DM to thank someone for following me and to send her a link to a latest post of mine. It was not an automatic DM. I wrote it directly to her using her name and honestly thought, given her profile that she would be interested in the post. I followed her and she followed me back. She got a little snarky with me and we ended up working it out, but was I so wrong? She ended up reading my post and RTing it in the end, so I was correct that she would have interest in it. I understand the auto DM annoyance, because I get annoyed by that as well, but I don't think people should automatically get bent out of shape about DMs before they actually see what it says - sometimes "strangers" can have something relevant to offer you directly.
  • If you DM'd to thank them, why the plug for your site? If she's following you, and you've tweeted the link, she'll see it in her tweetstream.

    Would you introduce yourself at a cocktail party the same way? Do you begin a conversation with a person you've just met by saying, "Nice to meet you...here's my card...here's what I do/write/say for a living" and then walk away? If you have a link, just tweet it. DM only if they've ASKED you for a link or more info or if you've established a relationship.
  • As I said, I HONESTLY thought the post was relevant to her (and so did she, as it turned out). Who said I was walking away? It was my attempt to thank her, show her something I thought would be relevant, and begin a "relationship". You have to start somewhere, right? I did tweet the link to the post, but it was the previous day and she had thousands of people she was following, so I just honestly wanted to make sure she saw the post because I knew it was relevant to her. I don't think there is anyone who reads every tweet in their tweetstream - no one would get anything else done!
  • shelleydelayne
    In my experience, if someone DM's me a link saying: I see you like X, check out 'link' -- or something similar that indicates WHY they're sending it to me directly, that indicates they have a reason for sending it other than "I want to plug my 'whatever' " -- then I appreciate it.

    If someone DM's me a link with no explanation, I will generally unfollow them immediately without ever checking out the link, because I assume it's spam.
  • You covered things pretty well there Chris. I would say to people new to twitter:

    Don't get hung up on the numbers, that's not what matters. Its a case of who you know not how many you know.
  • I agree. When I first jumped in, I was all about the amount of people following/followed. It didn't take long to realize I was sifting through a lot of spam. As Chris points out, it is OK to unfollow folks. Your point is valid, at least for me. Quality, not quantity.
  • Awww Chris.... were you bored :) I expect a higher caliber of post from you than this. "Twitter Guides" and "Twitter Rules" posts are a dime a dozen.

    There are no twitter "rules". If you treat it like you were dealing or talking to people in the real world you are OK. There is no right and wrong. There is no black and white. Do whatever you damn well please, and don't get your panties in a wad if someone else does the same.

    It is not revolutionary. It is just chatting. And not even good, live chatting which is where the cool part of chatting came from. It is stateless chatting with message length limitations. So it is chatting with continuity and length restrictions.
  • Hi Patrick.

    This post actually came at the request of @Zaven, who was calling me out for being a bit preachy at a conference about which Twitter practices were commonly known and which ones were maybe just assumed.

    It's okay not to like a certain post of mine. Given the several hundred I've put up over the years, I'm pretty sure I won't hit with you all the time.

    Thanks for the critique.
  • You don't seem to think very much of twitter. So why bother?
  • re:

    "I expect a higher caliber of post from you than this..."

    Not every post serves the same audience. Not every post resonates with each individual in the same way. As others have said "Remember: This Is All Opt-In" (http://altitudebranding.com/2009/07/remember-th...). While I subscribe to this blog, I don't read every post. Some I love; others not so much.

    Re Twitter, as @JackBresler says, "why bother?"

    DJ Waldow
    @djwaldow
  • Auto reply messages are bad enough, but those including a question can be even worse. You presume the person wants to know or discuss something, even though it's an auto reply. It is really annoying, if you respond and never hear from that person again.
  • Chris, as usual, you're being a great help to the twitterverse. You are one of the main soc.med. experts that I follow because you're usually on point. You have said here many of the things I was thinking/doing but just didn't write down, yet.

    My 2-cents on this:

    [1-cent]
    Learn how to use automated tools WISELY. In other words, if you don't know what you're doing, leave automated twitter tools alone. Twitter is starting to monitor more closely and enforce their terms of service more strictly. You don't want to have your account suspended or deleted and end up losing all of those awesome contacts that you have made.
    I speak from experience on this, as well, and have changed my usage to line up more closely with twitter's T.O.S.

    [2-cents]
    The following are serious pet peeves! (plus unethical and may even be T.O.S. violations):
    *do not use an automated tool to post the twitter usernames of those who have followed or unfollowed you in the open, public tweet stream
    *do not create such types of public tweet streams, as you will be alienating all those whose privacy you've violated, unless they just love being publically outed by a third party, which is highly unlikely
    *unless you have the author's consent, it also may be unwise to pull from another feed stream, like mybloglog, and place the information into the twitter stream; I have seen this with companies who specialize in creating buzz on behalf of their clients
  • kellylux
    Chris, this is great stuff..even for those of us who use Twitter on a fairly regular basis. I just figured out yesterday how to see my @ messages. We're all on a learning curve here...Kelly
  • Chris, I love the article as a relative newcomer to Twitter myself. Thanks! Here's one I'd add, as a customer service author: businesses appear arrogant and unfriendly when they don't follow their followers back. Individuals do too, but that's more their personal choice than an issue of brand value. Am I way off here? I defer to your expertise. - Ted Coine http://savvycapitalist.blogspot.com
  • Update suggestions:

    It's Ok to have multiple twitter identities.

    It's impolite to just have them up there and never drop in to see who has communicated what to you.

    It's OK to disregard robots
  • Great ideas, Jack. I'll add #1 and #3, as I will have to think a bit more about #2.
  • 8corinneedwards
    Hi Chris -

    Excellent.

    Regarding this point -

    "When retweeting someone else’s retweet, it’s sometimes okay to drop the secondary source and just retweet the original poster of the information. (example showing a change to a retweet): “RT @chrisbrogan RT @mackcollier Twitter lives and dies on retweeting” turns into “RT @mackcollier Twitter lives and dies on retweeting.” (make sense? agree?)"

    I would suggest that if you want RT's don't take up the whole 140 characters. People may not want to take the time to do the editing.
  • We see eye to eye. I wrote about shortening tweets to make it better. (Just added a link to that in the main post).
  • I agree - when I'm writing something I want retweeted I make sure that there's room for RT and my id at the beginning of it. I can't tell you how many times I've retweeted something (something that they want to be retweeted no less!!) that was too long after adding their id to it. So let's add, "make it easy to retweet your material if you want it retweeted."
  • cathyaron
    Great article, thank you for sharing this etiquette! Following these principals will make the best of the Twitterverse!
  • I started greeting new followers via DM (not via robots). Just as a test. So far only got one reply back... But I hope it helps me to connect more with my followers.
  • I haven't been successful replying to DM from windows mobile and often do not use a Text reply. If many use robots, it also explains why you don't get replies
  • Wonderful guide. I would add this. It's ok to share your honest opinion about things as long as you respect the opinions of others. There's a major difference between fact and opinion and you know what they say about opinions, right?

    For example, someone will tweet "I think Amy Adams is gorgeous!"
    some might reply "I think she's a dog!" which isn't nice (and insane lol)
    The better response would've been "Really? She doesn't do much for me"
    It doesn't disrespect the original opinion and shares your own (however wrong!) opinion at the same time. :)
  • I would add the following...

    It's not cool to take another's work (article or blog post) and tweet it without citing where it came (person's Twitter handle, blog name, or author's name).

    I was recently followed by a social media agency CEO whose Twitter stream was populated by articles/posts written by others. It was shocking to see that it was also apparent that he was ignoring the blogger's "Re-Tweet" button. This phenomena seems to be on the increase whether being a newbie or not. Ignorance? Unawareness? Manipulation?

    Sadly, upon tweeting to ask why he chooses to do this came...silence.

    My response...block.
  • what do the #hashtags mean?
  • Are you saying that's a tip?
  • Great list Chris, will bookmark it!
  • pedroramirezcaviedes
    I think this makes all the common sense possible, ideally tweets even if they are personal should be provocative enough so followers and other people say or react about them, don't you think?

    By looking at your DM inbox I think it makes a strong case for something to be done to stop spam, it is so easy to do it that it will at some point bring the whole system to a crawl.

    Saludos desde México,
    Pedro
  • Check your links before you tweet them! I am forever getting links that don't work and I can't retweet that. Often I am bummed because the links look like they would have led somewhere great!
  • This is a more recent development, and while I'm pretty sure the guilty parties are getting their (bad) advice elsewhere, I'll add it here- tweeting good mornings and good nights to a large number of people who you haven't had any other conversation with. It's meant to grab their attention I'm sure but it only grabs mine in a negative way. Have a conversation, get to know me, then I'll be DELIGHTED that you said good morning to me!

    And worse- don't RT someone else's good mornings! What could possibly be the point of that?
  • bonnielowe
    It's OK (heck, it's recommended) to actively BLOCK followers you don't want following you.

    Keep tabs on who's following you and do NOT automatically follow everyone back! If you see spam or bot crap like "Check out my sexy videos at..." block them. You don't want those kinds of followers associated with your account.
  • "Unless you have the author’s consent, it also may be unwise to pull from another feed stream, like mybloglog, and place the information into the twitter stream (from WWAHHMpreneur) "

    Not sure about that one. Are you including a blog's feed? Wouldn't an author be happy if you chose to automatically share all of their content on twitter?

    Also one that perhaps should be added is the "don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to see" rule. Remember that anything you tweet will be available for anyone to see so you may want to hold back certain things.

    @DavidSpinks
  • Not sure. I don't personally care if someone tweets my blog posts out. There are three robots doing that now (not sure who owns the robots). But I can see how someone might find that a bit weird.
  • Well say you have a service involved in social media, and you love Mashable and you trust them to make every single post worth sharing. Is it wrong to create a twitterfeed that shares their posts? It's valuable to the people following you, it shares the blogger's content...I agree that everything is better when it's not robotic, but this is one area where I'm not sure it's that bad...if done right.
  • Use care when amending a tweet to RT it. Have you changed the entire meaning of the original message? To your point about being more retweetable, tweets under 125 characters are easier to share.
  • I've noticed an inordinate amount of drunk-twittering lately. I think the occasional outburst is forgivable, but I want to say please, for the love of all that is holy, don't let half your stream or more be about your alcohol consumption.

    Also, about retweeting: If you're going to retweet something, it should make sense to everyone reading it. I get annoyed when I see a bunch of "RT @so_and_so @youalleverybody ZOMG LOL! <-- I know, right?"
  • Great point. I don't tend to want to follow drunk tweeters, but then, that's just an easy unfollow. Yes? I guess that falls into my mental "your mileage may vary" part.
  • What about following people you know, if they start to follow you, must you follow them? I could be rude not to! What do you think?
  • It's a great question. There are lots of people who I know personally who don't follow me. The reason: I tweet more than they do. I think I'm okay with it. Wonder what others think?
  • Following back shouldn't be an obligation. Follow people who provide content that is valuable to you or that you enjoy connecting with. You don't owe someone a favor to follow them back if they're not going to make your experience better.

    It's not rude, it's just how you choose to use the tool.
  • I think it's ok, maybe they just twitter about hobbies or stuff you don't share - if you have a lively discussion elsewhere, i think it's ok.

    i had a tough time when my boss started following me. i couldn't really block him, but had to change my tone on twitter. couldn't write as much opinionated aobut work anymore...
  • The "boss-issue" is very important, I think. Didn't happen to me on Twitter - yet. But my boss wanted to be friends on facebook and I didn't accept him. Told him that I use Facebook only for personal friends and family. I guess the same thing applies to Twitter.
  • Facebook has so many more controls than Twitter anyone can see what you say on twitter (by default) unless you chose not to make your profile public
  • My rule of thumb about whether to follow someone I know, who I might be less interested in the content or frequency of their tweets: which is more important to me, A) managing my inbound information flow or B) my real life relationship with that person.

    Almost always, I will choose Option B - the relationship is even more important to me. That's just how I do business.

    Just a thought: if you're consistently prioritizing your inbound information flow ahead of the underlying relationships with people you know, consider rethinking your priorities.

    Of course, that come with the You’re Doing It Wrong seal of “don’t take anyone’s word for law, least of all mine.

    @davideckoff
  • My tip: Stop signing up for those websites that offer you thousands of followers. People are tired of seeing the tweets promoting those sites and many will unfollow you in a heartbeat.

    The tweets might as well say, "This great website will make 20,000 people unfollow you! Click here to sign up!"
  • The last person I unfollowed, even tho i knew this was a real person, in 4 posts out of 5, promoted their site. (Since I followed them, about 10 tweets earlier has just promoted their sire)
    Which is ok but the tweet was as followed:
    url.com #url #url #url #url #url #url #url #url #url #url ... etc

    And that were 4 tweets out of 5!! The 5th was one of the WORST jokes I ever read. If before I was thinking of giving another chance, then being on the fence, leaning over, THAT pushed me to the UNfollowing side.
  • chloewilkinson
    Establish a balance. Keeping Twitter 'noise' to a minimum and determining a good number of tweets are important. Occasionally something interesting might happen or be about to happen, and in that case it is okay to tweet more. For example in the lead up to or after a big news story.

    Please remember that Twitter is not a service on which you should lurk. If you want to get followers you have to have something to say. Also it's good to remember that your personal profile shows a history of all your tweets so if somebody comes to it and it’s just empty, or you only post a mundane update every day or so, why should they bother following you?
  • Marla
    Thank you for listing the protocol on retweeting a retweet! I'm relatively new to Twitter and have been wondering about that. I kept meaning to ask someone, but now I don't have to. I personally detest automated DM messages after you follow someone. They're so impersonal.
  • chloewilkinson
    Establish a balance. Keeping Twitter 'noise' to a minimum and determining a good number of tweets are important. Occasionally something interesting might happen or be about to happen, and in that case it is okay to tweet more. For example in the lead up to or after a big news story.

    Please remember that Twitter is not a service on which you should lurk. If you want to get followers you have to have something to say. Also it's good to remember that your personal profile shows a history of all your tweets so if somebody comes to it and it’s just empty, or you only post a mundane update every day or so, why should they bother following you?
  • One questions and one comment:

    Q: would you consider tweeting your blips as spammy as dm-ing or blasting your quiz scores? (I may have been guilty of this in the past)

    Comment: I think @micah or someone on the panel mentioned that if you are going to participate in Follow Friday, you shouldn't just ramble off a bunch of names, but also include a tidbit as to why people should follow them (i.e. #FF @chrisbrogan because he says douche a lot and loves him some social media).

    BTW, great job on the panel yesterday at #twiistup
  • I think your mileage may vary on the first question. I personally don't care what people's quiz scores are, but that's just me. Lots of people don't like what I have to tweet about.

    Your idea about followfriday is right.

    And thanks. I'm glad you liked it. : )
  • Before all of these great tips, please have a complete profile and pic. Let people know who you are and what your intentions are. We will be more inclined to follow you back.
    Also, if you DM me and you are not following me. I can't respond to your DM.
  • Great one. I like it. : )
  • I had one of those DMs today as well. I wished someone a nice holiday, and he DMd me (twice!) with a "Thank you". So I remarked it on my public timeline - without naming the person.
    But I agree completely with you. it is annoying.
  • Now that's a great primer!
  • Be yourself. It is ok and welcome to be different on twitter. I enjoy being exposed to so many new cultures and learn whats important to my friends because of their tweets.

    There is no one way to use twitter so don't believe it if anyone says so. Some say they use it like an IM, some like email, find what works for you within the limits of being considerate to people you call our with a @mention or DM.
  • This is exactly the kind of accessible guide those new to Twitter, such as myself, find useful. Old pros may find these guides trivial, but they're not the intended audience. Cheers for encouraging signal above noise.
  • Newbie to Twitter but not to you, Chris. Q: I desperately want to curb 'tmi' and wonder if the 'autopost' features of FB status line are 'in or out' re: netiquette? Also feel sheepish NOT returning/acknowledging a follow, but know that's the 'disease to please' kickin' in and I need to get over myself to keep it from a cluttered resource stream, right?
  • Personally, I don't like crossing streams (linking facebook to twitter), but that falls into my "You're Doing It Wrong" category, meaning that it's a preference.

    As for the returning and acknowledging a follow, I seem to see this different than most folks. I don't think acknowledging is a big to do because it's just the START of a relationship. But that's me.
  • Chris, your opening comments show that you are a master of diplomacy. Your mother should be proud. They are also a perfect example of how important it is to measure your words when you are online. Face to face you get a sense of how your idea is being received. No such thing on Twitter. So play nice.
    Networking is networking whether it's Twitter or at a Chamber of Commerce mixer. The stranger who shoves a business card in my face is just like the Twit who follows me because he/she picked up on a keyword in one of my posts. NO, I don't want to follow (do business with) you! I don't know you.
    So my rule is Be Prepared: before you join the convo, write a bio, add a photo, and most of all read what others are writing and learn how to participate.
    Too much information?
  • That's GREAT advice, Carolyn. I appreciate all your participation in this community over the last year or so. I never say it enough, but I'm glad that you come here.
  • Chris, this is a great list. One of my biggest pet peeves is when you receive an email notification from a follower who is following thousands of people and has 0 tweets. I don't see the point in that at all.
  • monikaginoseast
    Chris, as a newbie tweeter I must know: Is it wrong to send a DM coupon for my business if someone has signed on to follow me?
  • If the first thing a person, that decides to follow you, hears is a DM with a link to your site... I'd say, some people would unfollow for that.
  • monikaginoseast
    katharinavienna that is good advice. What if its after some time? If people are following my business, don't they want something? If they don't, do they just want someone to follow them and then they won't care about what I send...?
  • If you got the link in your Twitter Profile, or Tweet about news and stuff, it's ok. But for me, a DM where someone plugs their company means unfollow.

    Why not post it as a tweet? you can write: "I offer coupons to my followers - DM me, if you'd like some, and I DM you back with the code"
  • monikaginoseast
    Yes! thank you!
  • Rebecca_M
    What is the etiquette for commenting on others' tweets with which you disagree? One fellow I follow is quite vocal about misinterpretig others' tweets and blog posts and then unfairly and very self-righteously criticizing. When I pointed out (as tactfully as I could) that he seemed to be unfairly attacking others, he attacked my integrity, unfollowed, and blocked me.
  • There are plenty of losers out there. Disagree all you want. Attack the issue, not the person, and be respectful or risk counter-attack.

    Make sense?
  • @chrisbrogan This will make a good handout for my computer class, if that's OK with you. Thanks!
  • I'd like to add it is ok to @reply someone not following in response to something they said. It is not ok to @reply someone not following you a topic of your choice just to get their attention. Even if it's not a spam/link topic. Especially if you send the same @reply to multiple people. That is still spam.
  • Chris,
    Thanks for this. I particularly agree with your 4th point about switching to DM when having a long personal exchange (or better yet, go to the 'Facebook Lounge!') I don't want to hear the details of your surgery or the how the diet is going or 'witty' banter that goes on and on, clogging my stream and making me want to scream 'get a room!'

    On the other side of that coin, the Twitter experience can be richer if you mine your favorite Tweeters' 'following' list for gems, so that you can benefit from their exchanges (providing they don't get to far into child-rearing tips or what's for dinner tonight, yaaawn!)

    Biggest mistakes I see newbies make are technical, like not leaving a space before the @ sign so that it doesn't show up as a reply to the receiver.
  • bonnielowe
    Along the lines of what Heather said, try to make your replies easier to understand. (I don't care much about whether others totally understand the exchange between two tweeple, but sometimes the person you're replying to won't have a clue because he/she won't read your reply until several hours later.)

    I always try to begin my replies with a helpful reminder of the topic, e.g., "Re: Twitter etiquette, I (blah, blah, blah)." That's sometimes tricky with a 140-character limit, but it sure makes it easier on those reading your replies.
  • Avoid, at all cost, Twitter "follower" services that guarantee that you'll get x amount of followers, and then, when you participate, a tweet shows up under your name in your Twitterstream saying something like "I used Twit-O-Matic and got a zillion new followers - you can too!" It's a fast way to get unfollowed.
  • Chris,

    I like to cross-stream as you call it. I sometimes find an interesting url shared on facebook and if that friend is on twitter I'll likely tweet a response with a link to their url.

    These days I am increasingly responding to emails via tweets to help get friends comfortable with twitter and also to reduce emails. Its a disservice to some conversations to keep them bottled in email or IM between two people, so I set it free by bringing it to twitter.
  • Chris, thank you so much for these wise words. As someone new to Twitter, I was wondering whether sending an auto-DM to thank people who follow is polite or rude. Having originally started with the darn thing on (still cringing that I ever thought it was polite; ouch, brutal newbie mistake), it's now permanently off thanks to your post.

    A question for you / the community at large about RT-ing: if you find great information that you want to share & honor the original tweeter(s)... but the text of the original post is not particularly descriptive of the content (or of the point that you are wishing to emphasize in the information), is it ok to rewrite the text portion if you keep the "@name" of the original poster(s) and original link? If so, what do you think is the most polite way to do it - to use the traditional "RT" or "RW" for ReWrite as suggested in one of the previous comments?

    Thanks again, for those of us still getting our social media sea legs this post is incredibly helpful!
  • I would say you can rewrite it and add a (via @blabla ) at the end.
  • Chris & Rene - Sound advice. Much appreciated. Thank you both!
  • I think the rewrite thing is okay. In magazine articles, a rewrite is usually [bracketed], so maybe that's the best way here?
  • I wrote a blog post a while back about approaches to twitter and it was more prohibitive than this. I've chilled out a lot about it but I'm still a big fan of the block button. Your guidelines here would be a great starting point for a new twitterer.

    My experience has been that you CAN end up with very famous people following you but there are real people behind the avatars and they're just the same as anyone else: some are more than happy to DM regularly and some aren't. It's the same as 'the real world' - you have to feel your way around, screw up a bit, and work out the rules for each relationship as you go. Everyone messes up. Most people forgive you if they trust that you respect them.

    I thought I was being a bit petty for hating auto-replies so much. Really glad you don't like them either.

    The only thing I'd add to this is that sometimes it's a good idea to explain yourself if you're acting out of character. For instance, at the moment I'm winning a popularity contest on twitter and a fair number of posts are about that, so every now and then I explain this as I'm not a big fan of blatant self-promotion and I don't want new followers to think all I ever do is demand votes. It also works if you're having a rant. Obviously nobody should ever rant but sometimes you really need to. If it happens, you need to break off and explain 'I'm having a rant. Sorry everyone. I'll be done in a sec' or something or else new followers get a really skewed view of you. (Rants are best DMed BTW if/when they happen). I'd say only debate with people you respect enough to try to resolve the issue/see things from their perspective. If someone just offends you: block them.

    Oh.. and treat twitter like a party. Interact. Follow the people you find interesting but don't hound them to follow you back. Have fun!

    Rebecca - word nerd
    http://rebeccawoodhead.com
  • Em
    Good Lord. I was on Rebecca Woodhead's Twitter stream a few months back and I couldn't keep up with the spam of constant self-promotion. The quickest unfollow in history for me. At least be honest about it...
  • I share your key thoughts on this, so much so that I recently wrote
    "11 Sure-Fire Ways to Get Me to Unfollow You on Twitter." http://bit.ly/ilis6

    Each platform has its own rules of etiquette, but the problem (or challenge) is that etiquette is in the eye of the beholder. We all think we're conducting ourselves appropriately and that it is the "other person's" problem if they don't get it.

    The beauty of social media and networking is that it allows us to "try people on" and see who fits. If someone's style or content doesn't suit us, we just return them (no questions asked and no receipt needed).
  • It's nice to @ someone you've started following to either start or respond to a conversation so you'll get to know each other better.

    It's also helpful to be transparent about your work/employer in your profile if your use of Twitter has any implications for your day job. For example, if you're always tweeting about cars and work at for auto maker, let people know.
  • Irant
    A few more I'll list:

    I think a mistake some make is to @ someone with a large following, writing the tweet in such a way as one would think it were endorsed by that person isn't a good idea.

    With respect to swearing - I swear too, and that's part of who I am. If you don't like swearing then the issue in my mind is not a "don't do that because I don't like it" but an issue of "I don't like it, so I'll unfollow and /or block you." Twitter is NOT about anyone defining what others' acceptable behavior should be.

    I agree with your statement that it is OK to just retain the original source of a tweet if you have to, although ideally the tweet will allow you to acknowledge the original source of the information AND the source that brought the information to your attention.

    I've found that if there is someone I am following that consistently makes their tweets too long to retweet, I just stop trying (unfortunately, some of these folks have good information to share); I also have gotten to the point where I may or may not even read their tweets. This supports the "make your tweets retweetable" point, so that you can fully participate in the community.

    I think continually complaining in tweets about spammers is becoming the new spam - "I'm so sick of spammers; if you're a spammer don't even follow me; etc.) I don't want to read through any number of tweets in a day listening to someone complain about spam; I don't want to do this for the same reason I don't want to be spammed - it's a waste of my time.

    I like how @alohaarleen approaches spammers and other "dubious" twits - she calls them out directly, and with her unique voice. I think @ing a spammer directly, calling them out is a great way to police this community, just as a day in the stocks in front of all your neighbors was a great way to police communities three or four hundred years ago.
  • My habits:
    Do not RT commercials tweets like "For win free pillow from our store http://our_company.com follow @our_company and RT this tweet". Its really spammy and not polite to your followers.
    Do not thank for following. I want to follow you if I have done it. Rather mention or RT when appropriate.
    Do not thank for RT. I RT posts I like, not because of thanks. If you wanna thank, RT what consider valuable or recommend on #followfriday(allwas mention why to follow)

    and make it fun :)
  • teemorris
    Chris, this is why I asked you to write the Foreword for my book. Thanks. :^)
  • Carolyn
    I'd be disappointed to see Twitter become homogenized with everyone following the same set of rules. The tool is fresh enough to leave room for surprise innovation in content and/or design. Whether building relationships or billboards the choice is in the hands of the user.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: