LIVING IN THE TWITTERVERSE - WITHOUT LOSING YOUR LIFE IN THE PROCESS (or How I Learned to go with the Twitter Flow…)

Twitter is an interesting phenomenon. Millions of people currently use it, some love it more than air, some put up with it but aren’t sure why, and oodles more have given it a try and beat a hasty retreat. There is no correlation across these groups with intelligence, writing ability, character or speed typing skills – so what gives?

This post is written primarily for the second group – those struggling to get what this whole Twitter thing is all about – although perhaps it will also encourage some people in the third group to giveTwitter another try.

This is not a “how to get started on Twitter” guide. There are hundreds of those and many are very well done. What follows are the lessons and insights I’ve gained over the past six weeks regarding how to participate in Twitter, give and receive value, enjoy the process, while keeping the whole thing in perspective. I hope this helps you in some way and would appreciate your feedback.

· Be clear about the topics you are interested in tweeting about.

· Be clear about the kind of people you’d like to connect with (your future tweeps) and reach out to them. Tools such as MrTweet and TwitterGrader can help here.

· Make it easy for people to find and understand you - create an accurate and informative profile, use your real name, upload a photo.

· This one is KEY: Ignore the competition for big numbers of followers! Let others beat their chest about this.

· Connect with who you think it makes sense to connect with. You are not duty bound to follow everyone who follows you.

· Don’t try to read every tweet (no-one will know!)

· When you are checking in, let it flow over you like water, and let the appropriate posts for reading/consideration/response catch your attention.

· Post or reply when you think you have something interesting to say or share, and don’t when you don’t.

· Reward tweeps for their valuable posts by retweeting them to your own twitosphere (aka forwarding).

· Set a time limit for your Twitter updates and stick to it.

· Try to check in regularly rather than disappearing for days on end and then making up for it with 39 posts in 2 hours.

· Use a tool such as Tweetdeck to help you organize and manage your twitosphere. I currently use all 10 columns available in Tweetdeck – some for groups and some for permanent keyphrase searches – and wish there were more of them.

· Some other tips on twetiquette:
o Send a personal thank you tweet to people who choose to follow you, whether you choose to follow them back or not.
o Stay on top of all general replies (i.e. a reply to you also seen by your network).
o Always acknowledge and reply to direct messages (i.e. messages seen only by you).
o Be careful of trying to be too funny. 140 character is not a lot to work with.
o Avoid sarcasm – it’s very easily missed and misunderstood.
o Be careful about being too controversial. Remember that twitter is the essence of viral. Before you send any tweet make sure you’d still be comfortable if it was read by 1,000 people – or one million – or your mother and Aunt Agnes.

· And lastly, don’t get caught up in the “secret handshake” of Twitter language, jargon and acronyms. If you pick up some along the way that’s great. On the other hand don’t sweat it. I’m sure I’ve managed to mangle and mis-use quite a number of twords in this one little post alone. In fact, make up some of your own (like I just did)! Twictionary is a good reference if you want to try and get it right.

· Last rule – have fun always. (Actually, this has nothing to do with Twitter. It’s just a good general rule… )