I keep seeing everyday how Twitter gets more and more popular, that’s great! But most users are from Facebook, and they’re used to do things Facebook way: upload every photo they took, grammar errors, liking everything, change the profile picture every 2 days… Stuff like that. Lately, there is a huge Facebook-to-Twitter migration, and now Twitter is starting to be a social network instead of a microblogging service. If you are a noobie, please take read carefully these tips.
The main question:
Why do people change from one to another?
> Twitter is a lot less invasive than Facebook.
That explains everything.
Let’s begin, the Username.
The username must be something easy to remember, and easy to type. Not only that, it has to be as short as possible. Go with something original, something that represents you; the name product if a product, your nickname or name if person.
DON’T USE NUMBERS! This is not a mail address, there are thousands of names that you can use but people are too lazy to try them. To know if a username is available, just type https://twitter.com/XXXXXXX, where XXXXXXX is the person username (https://twitter.com/tatosgr).
A few examples of a short, easy to remember and explicit usernames are:
@tatosgr
@ceoSteveJobs
@ericschmidt
See? Simple, elegant, easy to remember, to type, and short as possible.
Tweeting
Never, ABSOLUBTELLY NEVER ASK FOR FOLLOWERS! This is not Facebook! You can’t just ask for a followback (you follow and that person follows you, and vice versa). To earn a follower you must be interesting. Try this:
Watch your grammar, here it matters
Don’t upload pictures as if was a Facebook album, use an external service and then link to the album or account
When quoting, always name the person who said it, we share, not steal
You can share anything, but this is mainly to share ideas, so if you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything. A few minutes without tweeting won’t cost you followers
When sharing links, put the title of the article/photo/video or whatever. In case there’s not, put a short description of it
Use a URL shortener, if necessary. If the link fits, don’t shrink it
PUT THE SOURCE! You won’t lose any credit for copying it. Instead, you’ll lose it if you steal it
ReTweeting (RT)
A ReTweet is repeating a Tweet in your TL (timeline) to your followers, so it also appear in theirs. Don’t RT everything, a RT is not a Like. Remember, we share ideas, so when RT, share a link from it source, share a nice and original quote, share something someone says that you think your followers will like, don’t just any quote you read from products. Again, this is Twitter, not Facebook. Don’t use RT as if was a Like.
HashTag
A hashtag is something people puts after a ‘#’. A hashtag is a tag (free software, Google, twitter). It represents a common word to use in searches. Google use tags in it search, Twitter hashtags.
Don’t put a hashtag in every tweet, people don’t like it. Except for products, they can put as many hashtags they like so they appear on the searches.
There are common HT, like:
#Win
#Fail
#EpicWin
#NowPlaying – #NP
#ForeverAlone
It can be anything. Sometimes people use it at the end of the tweet as an extra (#sarcasm, #obvious, #Inthingsnoonecares). But remember, use them wisely, it can cost you followers.
NOTE: You can create a personal hashtag in an specific tweet once in a while
Trending Topic (TT)
A TT is a HT that goes popular. When a lot of people use the same HT it becomes a HT and it appears on the Twitters home page.
TT
You don’t have to use it, unless you really want to. If you create a HT, and this gets to that list, you can tell everyone about it, that’s quite something to be proud of.
Security
If you want privacy, you can always put your tweets as privates so you won’t appear in the searches. Most times, this cost a few followers, but is worth it.
private
I hope you find this tips helpful, they may be a lot more, but these are the ones that comes to my mind at the moment. If you have one, share it with us in the comments and I’ll update the post with it.
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