From the category archives:

Twitter Etiquette

Are you acting dumb on Twitter and don’t know it?

September 2, 2011

Twitter is the last place in the world you need to say or do something ignorant. And yet it happens all the time. Twitter is full of information, and people who want to help you learn. It’s easy to get informed quickly here. Let’s take a look at four tips: Got a question? Do thirty [...]

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Why smart people post dumb tweets

August 31, 2011

Each of us has a kind of inner measuring stick that tells us when we’re doing something foolish or out-of-character. But there is a problem we overlook. Comic Emo Philips explains it succinctly: “I used to think that the human brain was the most fascinating part of the body. Then I realized, well, look what’s telling [...]

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Quit worrying about people that don’t want to follow you

August 19, 2011

Twitter is endlessly fascinating. There are almost no rules. You can irritate 99% of the people that read your tweets, and amazingly, still build a large community of followers from the other 1%. What the rest of us can learn from the “less sane” ones You’ve run across these folks. You can’t understand why they [...]

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The Twitter Psychology Infographic

August 16, 2011
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Ever been treated badly on Twitter?

August 15, 2011

TIP: If you are having trouble with an abusive person on Twitter, you need to read Twitter’s official help page. Why does being nice sometimes result in being ignored or treated rudely? It’s fair to expect that if we behave graciously towards someone, they will reciprocate. Of course, you should research who you are talking to first. Some people [...]

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When large media organizations ask me to rescind or correct a tweet

August 13, 2011

Disclaimer—I have a personal bias, and it is this: Organizations and people should take responsibility for their actions first, intentions second. Almost every day I encounter situations where a person’s stated values or an organization’s stated policies are in conflict with their actions. When the BBC asked me to tweet a correction Today, persons associated with [...]

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How to say Thank You on Social Media

August 11, 2011

I focus mainly on Twitter here, but this is true of most online situations. Many “thank you” messages (especially “thanks for following” DMs) are automated and hence impersonal, and so a lot of Twitter users view them as spam. Some people unfollow anyone who sends them an impersonal “thank you” via DM. Saying “thanks” may [...]

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How understanding Twitter etiquette can lead to big opportunities online

June 6, 2011

First I point out some things you may already know…but then I share a secret that very few people seem to know… A chain of Canadian newspapers interviewed me and Scott Stratten (@UnMarketing) last month. The topic was “Rules and etiquette of social media.” In “10 Guidelines to do doing well on Twitter” (excerpted from that interview), [...]

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The Twitter following controversy

February 7, 2011

I’ve learned that the more transparent I am, the faster I learn, and learning is really important to me. I keep getting comments from the anonymous Twitter user “Alan” complaining about how he/she thinks @TweetSmarter follows and unfollows people on Twitter. You can see those comments on many of the blog posts that are just [...]

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Why we didn’t tweet your link

January 16, 2011

We get asked a lot about sending links to us. First, realize around half of the posts suggested to us we have already seen. Of the remainder, about half don’t fit into the @TweetSmarter account (as outlined below). If you still want to to send us links, please read this whole post to understand what [...]

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