How to Write Kickass Twitter Posts

Social networks come and go, but Twitter has staying power. Even though it has frequent technical problems, Twitter is a vibrant community which has become an important network for business intelligence, news, and camaraderie for me and the tweeters I follow and who follow me.

Some people consistently write Twitter posts that inform, break news, engage, or raise thoughtful questions.

Others tell us what they’re having for lunch or when they’re going to work out. Or what cute thing their cat is doing now. Yawn.

Here are some winning practices of top tweeters:

1. Don’t be pedantic. We don’t care what you’re eating for lunch, or that you just woke up.
2. Don’t use Twitter just to pimp your blog posts.
3. Don’t rant (unless you are Vaspers.)
4. Don’t pimp your clients all day
5. Don’t over-tweet. If you need half a dozen tweets to make your point, do one that points to a blog post.
6. Don't share breaking news that you can't confirm.
7. Do link to interesting articles, sites, blog posts.
8. Do continue your conversation with another tweetie offline after a couple of @someone tweets
9. Do include links in as many of your posts as possible.
10. Don’t be dull.
11. Do pick up the phone and call tweeties with whom you interact often.
12. Answer and ask questions.
13. Be polite
14. Don’t be boring.
15. Don’t be overly critical of other people’s points of view.
16. Don't be promiscuous with the "Follow" button. There are only so many hours in a day.
17. Don't feel bad about blocking people. You don't have to let everyone and his dog follow you. Twitter is a network, the benefit should be two-way.

BL, you do a good job of setting up your practices for "business" and "professional" tweets. But for those of us who choose to mix up "personal" twittering throughout the dat, some of those practices will not be followed. Like reading an RSS feed, sometimes you gloss over those that have no appeal to you, but are always on the lookout for something that will be a benefit.

Randy

Ok you are right - what someone had for breakfast doesn't make a great tweet. But the brilliance of Twitter is that you build a picture of the personal lives and personalities of people you hardly know at the same time as piecing together what their professional lives are all about. I can say stuff about my business on twitter that I could not say at a live business networking event. A different culture.

Yeah, I always get attacked when I state the "rules" or even the "values" that guide effective use of a web object, blogging, or socnets.

Some people use Twitter for promoting their own crap, like Guy Kawasaki. Always tweeting links to his moronic Truemors rumor mill site.

Others use Twitter to just chat about mundane, irrelevant, private matters.

Many use Twitter to assert their alleged celebrity status, by only tweeting about what airport they're in and what stupid boring technology conference they're attending (drunkenly).

A few use Twitter to report news, share valuable insights, link to relevant sites, link to other people's blog posts, and to ask questions or express feelings that others can relate to.

The worst is primary or exclusive use fo Twitter for self-promotion. The trivia I can ignore and be happy people are connecting. But the psycho-capitalist self-promotions are really annoying.

Actually, I might want to know what Rachael Ray had for breakfast... :)

Whether it's business tweeting, personal tweeting, or a mixture, the best way to approach things is to ask yourself, "Am I making a contribution to my community?" If you're generally contributing, you you should be OK.

Oh, and don't steal; give credit where credit is due.

Also some people might be twittering to their family and close friends, who very well indeed want to know they're eating cheerios for breakfast and not doughnuts.

Great suggestions and comments.

I really like the "randomness" of Twitter. I think sometimes social networks can take themselves too seriously in terms of what constitutes self-promotion. I actually get annoyed sometimes at the people who write long posts just to show they're an "expert" rather than writing the more personal type posts because they want to show they're all business -- not social. The reality is that if they're in business and on a network they're one way or the other self-promoting. So I like the fact that Twitter can range from what you had to breakfast to that next power lunch that you're having. No self-important rules -- just Tweet, Tweet, Tweet :)

I also think that there is a risk of trying too hard. There are a lot of twits out there that only ever "microblog" using twitter. They never share anything that describes their personality or their personal life. I can get that from anywhere. I agree that you should aim for interesting content, but I think the tedium has to be there, too.
Just don't tell me when you are tweeting from the toilet!

One thing I do notice, in all the "marketing guides" I read for Twitter, is the universal contempt the marketers have for the real lives of their targets. If you're not using Twitter to push something at people and make money for yourself, you're contemptible. Apparently.

But funny -- it seems to me that Twitter was actually originally designed exactly to do what these people are doing: giving very quick updates on their status, whether it's having lunch or making a spectacular sale to a top client.