Not every bird on Twitter is a high flyer. Here are some insights and observations on what makes for effective interaction on the microsharing network.
The Used Car Salesman
Peddling goods or services all the time? Better to back off — no one wants to interact with a virtual used car salesman. Twitter isn’t the classifieds, and using every tweet to announce a special deal or push a product can be a turn off.
The Lifestreamer
There is a time and place for sharing all the little details of your life, and the occasional personal anecdote can add spice to your tweets. But a play-by-play update of the horrible flu virus ravaging your family might better be left unsaid.
The Pre-Packaged Publisher
It’s easy to click the sparkly “Tweet this!” buttons on other news and shopping sites, but how many people want to click on tweets that are obviously pre-written? Put your own spin on soundbites published from other sites to make the content more personalized.
The Read-Only Lurker
The lurker uses Twitter as a source of information but rarely contributes their own thoughts or insights. Hitting the retweet button is a great way to emerge from the shadows. Dare to share an opinion or two.
The Mystery Guest
It’s hard to tell who’s behind that profile when the picture is the default Twitter egg. Is it a real person or a spambot? Show your true self, cellphone self-portraits are allowed! And avoid using a logo to represent yourself (unless you’re manning a corporate account, that is).
The Authentic Self
Traditional psychology theory aside, the best way to use Twitter is to engage with an audience of like-minded people. Whether you’re into woodworking or web development, seek out others with like interests.
Timely, relevant snippets to web content and informed opinions will increase clout. Work to develop a curated thought process, and soon you’ll be shaping the digital landscape 140 characters at a time.
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 11th, 2011 at 13:14 and is filed under social media, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.