Is there a right way to tweet? Should one try and learn writing a tweet? Isn’t a tweet supposed to be informal? Although the questions are different, the answers to all the above questions is “YESâ€! And hence writing a tweet is to be taken seriously and done carefully. Today, you are what you say online, so all the more important.
Now, on twitter, there are things to remember. Remember that you have just 140 chars to make an impression. There are so many timelines that you are on and there are so many other people vying with you there for the attention of the owner of that timeline. So the first thing that your tweet has to do is be good enough to hold attention for an above average time frame. The next challenge before your tweet is to be good enough to warrant an action, a click or an RT. There is also a third action that is possible, get favorited. If a tweet can get one of these done, then it is a good tweet. So you will ask me, how do I do that?
From the above, it is very clear that if you are writing tweets that explain the complicated process of you tying your shoelaces or the daunting task of having cereals without milk, they are not going to cut it. At best, they might help you to get unfollowed. So if you are thinking about that, forget it right away.
Write proper things, remember that it is your micro-blog that you are writing, treat it just like writing your blog. Bad grammar and wrong spellings are ok once in a while but not always. The catch on twitter is that the time that people spend reading your stuff is short and first impressions are often final and carved in stone. So if your followers think that you are a bad tweeter, then that is the impression that is going to stay. So, take the time and effort before and not after.
Remember that a large number of people use the old fashioned retweet very frequently. So, it makes sense to try to fit your tweets within the 140 char limit in such a way that anyone can retweet it along with your handle easily. If the whole tweet is long then the sense tends to get lost in transit as it gets edited. Also try and steer clear of cumbersome jargon or useless abbreviations. While doing that, please note that it is the “in†thing to use twitter slang like FTW, FAIL etc very freely.
Links in tweets or quotes, these are things that are directly related to the “image†or “brand†that you want to create for yourself. If you want to be seen and known as a person who shares great links all the time, go for it. If you want to be seen as an “inspirational†tweet, go for it. But I personally recommend a middle path, a right mix of the best of both worlds. What you do not want to become is a person who tweets only quotes and thank you messages all the time. And if you are thinking of adding the #FF tag to tweets that thank folks for RTs, forget it. That is a big no-no.
Try and stay away from radical outbursts and please do not indulge in profanities or innuendo in your tweets. These are not at all acceptable by any yardstick. People who tend to get carried away with rants also forget the line between ranting and rudeness. Keep that in mind always. Never ever tweet when you are angry, emotional or under the influence of alcohol. All these always lead to disasters of one type or other. Never ever tweet personal stuff that is better not shared. Try and stay away from tweeting vicious stuff about your boss or your workplace. When someone insults you, best way to tackle it is always ignoring it at moving on, an ugly spat just does no good to your image on twitter.
In summary, think before you tweet, tweet without errors and tweet regularly. That is all there is to mastering the fine art of tweeting.