Yes, I make up words! What is Twittiquette you ask! It’s simple… Twitter Etiquette. Let’s get started with the definitions. For any of you who don’t know what Twitter is, Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc. , which offers a social networking and micro blogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user’s profile page. –Wikipedia Now, I’m going to assume that everyone knows what etiquette is but, if by some small chance I’m wrong I’ve got you covered. Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group. –Wikipedia
I’d like to disclose that these are my thoughts and they didn’t come out of the general Twitter Etiquette Rule book. Does one of those even exist? Let’s jump right in! A BIG controversy has always been… Who to follow? Are you required by some law in the Twitter world that you are to follow everyone that follows you. The answer is NO! It would be nice but, people do have their reasons for NOT reciprocating the Twitter love.
There are a few things that I don’t follow for 1.) If you have thousands of followers and you are following thousands but have ZERO tweets, I DO NOT follow. 2.) If you’re follow to following ration has a huge gap (ex: you follow 100 people but, you have 10,000 followers) I DO NOT follow. I’m all about engaging and I can see by your numbers that you don’t really engage with your followers. You can’t even see their tweets because you don’t follow them. 3.) If your twitter account is full of self promotion links and feeds and you are not personally engaging, I DO NOT follow. 4.) If you follow me to gain my follow and then immediately unfollow me, I immediately unfollow you back! *There are reports for these things* 5.) If you tweet in a foreign language, common sense prevails… I don’t follow because I can’t understand you. 6.) Total lack of acknowledgement on more than one occasion, I’ll unfollow. 7.) I’ll unfollow Inactive Twitter Users. Just delete your account! Why keep it sitting there collecting dust?
Reasons I will follow are: 1.) we share the same interests and can share information and network. 2.) You have an even follow to following ratio. 3.) You’re an active Tweeter! 4.) You actually take time out to engage with your tweeps. 5.) You’re new to blogging and Twitter! #ISupport 6.) You share valuable content and I don’t mind Re-Tweeting and giving you credit. 7.) If you are a polite tweeter and don’t cause chaos in the twitterverse. This means your NOT a cyber bully! Yes, those exist too! (To date I’ve never been in a Twittercation = Twitter Altercation)
There are a few twitter tools that I use to try and keep my twitter account as clean as I can. My current follow to following ratio is uneven by about 400. I follow 400 more people than my awesome twitter followers. I’ll be cleaning house soon! Take a look and see if any of these applications can help you manage your Twitter account. **Edited to update current twitter tools**
Twitoria tells you how many people are really following you and also allows you to see who is inactive so you can unfollow, if you want.
My Tweeple allows you to manage all of your tweeps in one place. You can see who follows you, who isn’t and block people! It instantly updates on twitter, that’s a plus!
Twitter Karma is GREAT! I’ve gotten myself out of Twitter jail many a night using Twitter Karma. It shows you who follows you, who you are following and allows you to block if necessary.
ManageFlitter allows you to really keep a clean account. There is a FREE and PAID version. Unfollow Inactive Users, Unfollow people that aren’t following you back and see who is considered spam. You can also see people who don’t tweet in English. People with no profile photo are also in a category and you can also see the follow ratio.
Local Tweeps is a tool that allows you to search for local tweeters within your community. I love to have Tweeps from all over the world but, they may not care when I tweet about the weather in my city. I tweet about the weather often, Mother Nature is frequently confused in North Carolina!