Twitter has obviously exploded in popularity in recent years, and a lot of new people have signed up to find out what all the fuss is about.
If you're one of those new Twitter users, welcome to the Twitterverse! I put together this list of Twitter etiquette items to help you get up to speed.
Retweeting If you see a tweet you like, you can retweet it to share it with your own followers.
The two ways to do this are to use Twitter's "Retweet" button, which retweets it out automatically to your followers but doesn't allow you to add your own comment, or you can copy the original tweet, reply and paste it as a new tweet, and add "RT" before the person's @[name].
This allows you to add a comment before the "RT" and is a great way to share tweets.
The original poster will see your retweet on their @Mentions page, and will usually be grateful for the RT.
If you look on your @Mention page and see that someone has retweeted something you wrote, be sure to thank them! This can be as simple as a reply tweet saying "Thanks for the RT.
" Simple, yet polite.
One more thing about retweets: don't retweet your own retweets! I've seen this occasionally, and it just looks desperate and completely self-serving.
If you're tweeting out links to your blog posts or something similar, it's OK to do so more than once, but change up the message you actually tweet.
Repetitive tweets are boring and a good way to lose followers.
Self-promote appropriately This follows up on the last point.
Twitter is a great tool for self-promotion, i.
e.
promoting your blog, your book, your brand, etc.
But to use it effectively for this purpose requires balance and some tact.
If you have a new blog post, by all means tweet out a link! But just don't go overboard with it.
You see some people's Twitter profiles where it's all about them, all the time, and most of the time, this is simply a turn-off.
Try to mix it up a bit with interesting articles and links from other sources.
Your followers will appreciate it, and this will definitely make you more attractive to potential new followers compared to people who only self-promote.
Via, HT, or h/t If you see a tweet linking to an interesting article or blog post and you want to share the link with your followers, you can either retweet the original tweet, or you can simply send the link out yourself with your own tweet.
But if you use this second option, you should really give credit to the original poster for bringing it to your attention.
You can do this by saying "via @[name]" or "HT @[name]" or "h/t @[name].
" Via is pretty self-explanatory.
HT and h/t are short for either "hat tip" or "heard through.
" This is another great way to be polite to the person who made you aware of the content, and the person will usually be appreciative.
The opposite is also true, however; failure to be polite and give credit will cause some people to get upset.
Hashtags Hashtags are one of Twitter's unique features.
It allows users to "mark" a certain word or phrase to make it show up in searches and basically makes it easier for your tweet to become part of a larger conversation.
However, some people misuse this feature by putting a hashtag in front of every word in their tweet.
They do this thinking that their tweets will show up in more search results, leading to more followers, but it really just makes their tweets hard to read.
Use hashtags sparingly and appropriately.
Don't Auto-DM new followers I see a lot of people use this tactic, and it really drives me crazy.
A direct message (DM) is a private message from one person to another (i.
e.
doesn't show up in either person's stream).
Some people use software to send out an automatic DM (Auto-DM) when you start following them.
The first time you run into this, you see the direct message and think, "Wow, that person just reached out to me with a personal message!" and you feel pretty good.
Then you get them from other people and realize that it's a robot message.
If you ask me, it's totally impersonal and is a huge turn-off.
Definitely avoid using this.
Add a picture This is pretty basic, but it makes a big difference.
If someone follows me and they don't have a picture, I am much less likely to click over to their profile to see if I want to follow them back.
To me, a missing profile usually equals a spam account, and I will almost always ignore these when I see them.
If you want more followers, add a picture.
If you're one of those new Twitter users, welcome to the Twitterverse! I put together this list of Twitter etiquette items to help you get up to speed.
Retweeting If you see a tweet you like, you can retweet it to share it with your own followers.
The two ways to do this are to use Twitter's "Retweet" button, which retweets it out automatically to your followers but doesn't allow you to add your own comment, or you can copy the original tweet, reply and paste it as a new tweet, and add "RT" before the person's @[name].
This allows you to add a comment before the "RT" and is a great way to share tweets.
The original poster will see your retweet on their @Mentions page, and will usually be grateful for the RT.
If you look on your @Mention page and see that someone has retweeted something you wrote, be sure to thank them! This can be as simple as a reply tweet saying "Thanks for the RT.
" Simple, yet polite.
One more thing about retweets: don't retweet your own retweets! I've seen this occasionally, and it just looks desperate and completely self-serving.
If you're tweeting out links to your blog posts or something similar, it's OK to do so more than once, but change up the message you actually tweet.
Repetitive tweets are boring and a good way to lose followers.
Self-promote appropriately This follows up on the last point.
Twitter is a great tool for self-promotion, i.
e.
promoting your blog, your book, your brand, etc.
But to use it effectively for this purpose requires balance and some tact.
If you have a new blog post, by all means tweet out a link! But just don't go overboard with it.
You see some people's Twitter profiles where it's all about them, all the time, and most of the time, this is simply a turn-off.
Try to mix it up a bit with interesting articles and links from other sources.
Your followers will appreciate it, and this will definitely make you more attractive to potential new followers compared to people who only self-promote.
Via, HT, or h/t If you see a tweet linking to an interesting article or blog post and you want to share the link with your followers, you can either retweet the original tweet, or you can simply send the link out yourself with your own tweet.
But if you use this second option, you should really give credit to the original poster for bringing it to your attention.
You can do this by saying "via @[name]" or "HT @[name]" or "h/t @[name].
" Via is pretty self-explanatory.
HT and h/t are short for either "hat tip" or "heard through.
" This is another great way to be polite to the person who made you aware of the content, and the person will usually be appreciative.
The opposite is also true, however; failure to be polite and give credit will cause some people to get upset.
Hashtags Hashtags are one of Twitter's unique features.
It allows users to "mark" a certain word or phrase to make it show up in searches and basically makes it easier for your tweet to become part of a larger conversation.
However, some people misuse this feature by putting a hashtag in front of every word in their tweet.
They do this thinking that their tweets will show up in more search results, leading to more followers, but it really just makes their tweets hard to read.
Use hashtags sparingly and appropriately.
Don't Auto-DM new followers I see a lot of people use this tactic, and it really drives me crazy.
A direct message (DM) is a private message from one person to another (i.
e.
doesn't show up in either person's stream).
Some people use software to send out an automatic DM (Auto-DM) when you start following them.
The first time you run into this, you see the direct message and think, "Wow, that person just reached out to me with a personal message!" and you feel pretty good.
Then you get them from other people and realize that it's a robot message.
If you ask me, it's totally impersonal and is a huge turn-off.
Definitely avoid using this.
Add a picture This is pretty basic, but it makes a big difference.
If someone follows me and they don't have a picture, I am much less likely to click over to their profile to see if I want to follow them back.
To me, a missing profile usually equals a spam account, and I will almost always ignore these when I see them.
If you want more followers, add a picture.
Source...