Twitter Rules

Is there such a thing as Twitter etiquette? Maybe not officially, but I want to suggest some unofficial ideas for appropriate Twitter behavior. I was very resistant to the whole idea of joining Twitter and thus tweeting my every thought. I observed the phenomenon for awhile before I finally decided to join in on the fun. I have a Myspace account and a Facebook account, so I felt that Twitter would just be one more way to reach out to people (from the comfort of home). I like that you can only use 140 characters to get your thought or point across. It keeps it short and sweet.

If you would like to get to know the ins and outs of Twitter, I will list some websites under resources. What I am more concerned about is a thing I call Twitter respect. Many of you know that Twitter is a haven for celebrities, and celebrity egos. It seems nowadays that any celebrity you can think of is Twittering. I follow a few of these folks, like Meghan McCain, who lets you know right away when she is getting yet another speeding ticket. I follow Oprah, because I keep hoping she will randomly select me to get a new car for free. Ellen Degeneres always has something funny to tweet, and Joan Rivers is the funniest, foul mouthed 70+ year old woman on Twitter. Overall, I don't follow too many celebrities on Twitter. I like my "tweeps" to be regular people just like me.

Here are my suggestions for my fellow Twitter users. Take from them what you will and before you wonder if I'm talking about you in this article, yes, I probably am.

TWITTER ETIQUETTE:

Let's start with the celebrity Twitter users. I think people forget that most of these celebrities we are "following" on Twitter, have anywhere from 10,000-1,000,000 other followers besides us. If you send a tweet to a celebrity, the chances are good that 100 other people sent one at the same time to the same person. Your celebrity may never see your tweet and even if they do, it's not likely they will tweet a message back directly to you. It happens on occasion, but it is rare. Don't get your feelings hurt about it and then send out a silly tweet about what a rotten person the celebrity is because they won't answer you. It makes you seem like a stalker, and 13 years old. Just resist the urge.

TWITTER ETIQUETTE:

Swear words aren't nice things to read, but in Twitter land, people are free to cuss. If someone you follow on Twitter uses cuss words and you don't like it, you have one bad option and two good options. The bad option is to send them a message that other people will see, that chastises them about their vulgar language. No one wants to be lectured by some anonymous person on the web. If it's me, I don't want to be lectured by anyone, at anytime, ever. The two positive ways to handle an issue with a fellow tweep is to send them a direct message with your complaint or to simply block them. Problem solved.

TWITTER ETIQUETTE:

Don't make threats to or about your fellow tweeps. You are not nearly as anonymous as you think you are. I have read tweets that some people send out to celebrities, maybe thinking they are being funny. It's possible they think they can scare the person they are threatening. What I can tell you as a former police officer is that these Twitter bullies do not understand that they may be breaking the law. Sending threats out, even online, that you are going to hurt or kill someone, is a crime in most states. It may get you arrested and a restraining order issued on you. Don't be stupid, don't make threats.

TWITTER ETIQUETTE:

Using Twitter to give everyone 20 updates a day on what you are doing, is annoying. It's especially irritating when you put out 10 tweets in a row. Doing that defeats the purpose of the 140 character limit. It also takes up the full page of all the people who have been kind enough to follow you on Twitter. Most people will do what I do and simply delete that person from their Twitter account. If you need to write that many tweets in a row, you should probably write a blog about it somewhere else or maybe an entire article for Associated Content. Why not get paid, right?

Another way to show some "Twitter respect" is by not having a lengthy back and forth conversation that everyone gets to read. You fill up your followers pages by doing this. This is Twitter, not AIM or some other instant messenger chat box. You have the option to send the person a "direct message" so you may converse with them online without everyone seeing what you wrote. I have found myself guilty of this a couple of times. However, when I was on the receiving end of it, I realized how rude it really was. I vow not to do it again, probably, and I hope you take the same vow.

Twitter is a really nice way to meet people from all over the world and share a piece of your self with them. If we use Twitter etiquette, it can be that much more enjoyable for everyone.

Source: Twitter.com