If you are one of the nearly 200 million people who already use or are thinking of using twitter, then you have probably already heard of many twitter debacles. However, many of them could have been avoided very easily.
5 tips for you to consider when tweeting:
1. No redos on twitter. Consider what you are posting before you take the dive and send out your 280 character short story about how upset you are by @soandso and remember there is no effective means of recalling public tweets. Once they are out there, they are part of the public domain and sure to be scrutinized and reflect upon your brand.
2. Your tweets are owned by you. Once tweeted, your posts are public domain and indexed for searches and linked back to you. Don’t share anything you don’t want to be public information. Save this for direct messages if absolutely necessary and remember that even direct messages can be retweeted.
3. Tweet what is relevant to your brand. As an individual you represent a brand and that brand can be YOU, your employer, your cause or any other number of things. Make sure to keep this in mind when tweeting and keep your tweets relevant. The last thing you want to do is destroy your personal brand because of what you have decided to tweet in the heat of a twitter war or lapse of judgment.
4. Twitter is not Facebook. Don’t use twitter like you use facebook. Twitter is used to connect with people and to follow people of interest so you can stay in the conversation. It is not simply a status update. To be effective you have to use references and acknowledge individuals on a regular basis. This may be a retweet, reply, use of hash tags (#) or simply posting relevant content.
5. Twitter is best utilized via Twitter clients, such as HootSuite, which allows users to manage multiple accounts from one system while staying connected and engaged. These clients also provide analytics and allow you to shorten URLs and easily schedule your tweets.
Twitter is a highway of information and hopefully this will help you to more effectively consume and contribute to the vast amount of relevant information out there. Safe tweeting.