Monday, February 4, 2013

Tweet Responsibly

I'm over at From the Write Angle today talking about the Opera Disease. If you click over, you'll see how it's connected to tweeting responsibly!

In my opinion, tweeting responsibly means following a few guidelines:
  • be friendly & interact with other people
  • ask questions
  • offer answers to questions
  • reply to people when they speak to you or RT your tweet
  • RT tweets you enjoy - but don't go nuts here! Do other stuff as well
  • for the most part, it's okay to jump into conversations
  • constantly selling and promoting your own links irritates everyone
  • only tweeting links (with no words) irritates everyone
  • auto-responding to a follow with an auto-tweet irritates everyone
Okay, maybe the last 3 only irritate me. Maybe.

Anything you'd like to add to the list? Do you get irritated too?

35 comments:

Shannon Lawrence said...

I'm a terrible Twitterer (Tweeter?) I admit it. I have Networked Blogs set to send out links to my posts. I do respond to posts/RT's to me. Every little once in awhile I say something on there. I try to tweet links to places taking submissions as I run across them (but I forget a lot of the time).

So, yeah, I'm learning and trying, but I suck at it! Thanks for the advice.

Shannon at The Warrior Muse

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I try and converse now and then, but I admit a lot of my Tweets have links. I just don't have time to hang out and chat all day. But promise I almost never promote!

Natalie Aguirre said...

I'm not on Twitter yet but hope to join in the next month. So your tips are helpful. But I wonder how good I'll do with it since like Alex I don't have too much time to hang out there. Any tips?

I'll try to remember not to just tweet links to contests though I confess I'll probably do some of that.

Jemi Fraser said...

Shannon - you don't suck at it!!! There is a learning curve, but it's a lot of fun once you're comfortable with it :)

Alex - You're a good tweeter! It's the folks who tweet their own links all the time who drive me nuts!

Natalie - I think you'll be great. I don't spend tons of time on there either. I think just joining in on a few conversations is good. We do want to know about the contests so those are good links! :)

T. Powell Coltrin said...

I have an account but haven't tweeted once. So much else to do, that I can't think about starting that yet.

~Sia McKye~ said...

I think the first thing is I have to be more consistent with twitter. I'm there occasionally, but I haven't had time to hang out much of anywhere the past few months.

I miss that.

Danette said...

I have given up on tweeting frankly- I got tired of many of the things you are mentioning and I got tired of Twitter interfering with who I wanted to interact with. I would only see the tweets of certain people and the people I directly interacted with had almost completely disappeared off my feed. It really annoyed me because I really enjoyed Tweeting with them. I now only retweet the occasional link that I think my followers will be interested in and my blogposts.

Nas said...

I find it irritating when I follow someone new and get a DM to the link of this person's book.

And maybe I'm guilty of all the things that irritate you, Jemi!

Jemi Fraser said...

Teresa - it's always one more thing isn't it. That's why I've haven't joined FB yet :)

Sia - it is fun - but I also find it's easy to let go - and when you pick it back up, that's okay too. One of the advantages of Twitter to me :)

Danette - that's too bad. I use TweetDeck to keep track of my best twitter buddies - that helps a bit :)

Nas - no you're not!! Not at all actually - RTing for others is great. Those DMs drive me nuts too :)

Beth said...

I don't tweet nearly as much as I should. Thanks for the rules of etiquette!

Shelley Sly said...

You're the right person to make this post because you're an awesome tweeter, Jemi. :) You're always social and personable and never boring. Thanks for the good guidelines to consider.

DMS said...

I am still working on my tweeting and I know I have a long way to go. Thanks for the wonderful advice. :)
~Jess

Jemi Fraser said...

Beth - you're very welcome - glad to help :)

Shelley - what a sweet thing to say!! Thank you so much - you totally made my day! :)

Jess - that's okay - one of the main reason I like Twitter is because there's no pressure to keep up every day - you can pop in when you can!

Stephanie Thornton said...

Your tweets are always great Jemi. :)

My biggest pet peeve is the constant self-promoters. The only people I stop following are the ones who do nothing but promote themselves. I just can't handle the same ad links showing up in my feed nonstop.

Jemi Fraser said...

Stephanie - aww - thank you! Yup - I'm totally with you - those folks drive me nuts :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, Jemi! I'm sure I'm guilty of some Twittering no-no's. I'm not very good with the social media scene. I do try and re-tweet any links that I find interesting and I try to help promote other authors through a lot of my tweets.

Lisa Gail Green said...

I typically glance at the other person's twitter feed. If it's all self promotion I skip it. If it's genuine and offers anything of value, even humor/personality I follow back. Usually the others drop me anyway. But I'm interested in REAL connections not advertising.

Jemi Fraser said...

Susanne - I'm sure we're ALL guilty of these at times - it's the folks who only speak about themselves and their links who drive me bonkers!

Lisa - me too! I need to check the feeds out more before I follow back - I've been caught more than once that way!

Searching for the Story said...

The most irritating thing for me, a new Twitter user, has been that links posted on Twitter never seem to work.

Such an inconvenience!

Jemi Fraser said...

Searching - that does drive me nuts too. I like being able to click right through - not search!

Kelly Polark said...

Excellent tips, Jemi!
And you are a wonderful cheerleader in sharing others' tweets!

Jemi Fraser said...

Kelly - thank you! It's fun sharing links for my buddies :)

Kathi Oram Peterson said...

I enjoy your tweets. You have a talent for tweeting. Thanks for the tweeting tips. :)

Jemi Fraser said...

Kathi - what a sweet thing to say! Thanks so much :)

Charmaine Clancy said...

You're an awesome tweeter Jemi. I flip on and off twitter and never seem to catch the interesting posts. Most are the last three irritants. I am trying to get better at it though.

Rosalind Adam said...

It's definitely not just you. I unfollow people for doing all those last three things. It makes for a more pleasant Tweeting experience. I know this sounds sad but I wouldn't be without Twitter. I've made some really good friends there, present company included.

Jemi Fraser said...

Charmaine - thank you :) Yeah the last couple are annoying :)

Rosalind - you too! I've definitely gotten to know a lot of great people via twitter!

Michelle Wallace said...

I really need to up my tweeting skills.

You get authors who send out a never-ending stream of tweets about the awesomeness of their novels. For me, that's the height of tweeting irritation...

nutschell said...

Great guidelines! I'm not on twitter as much, but I do try to vary my tweets up a bit.

Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Martina Boone said...

I love this. It's a great example. Now if only I could find the time to live up to all the guidelines. THanks for inducing guilt ;)

(And the auto-tweet? SO not just you!)

Jemi Fraser said...

Michelle - agreed! In person, you'd never talk like that - so why tweet like that?

Nutschell - exactly! Variety is the way to do it!! :)

Martina - no problem :P You're a great twitter buddy - nothing to worry about! And those auto-tweets drive me nuts!!!

Anonymous said...

I really dislike people's feeds that are mostly links. It's like they have nothing to say.

Jemi Fraser said...

Medeia - me too! I like to interact with people - much more fun that way! :)

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

I agree with you on all of your suggestions. :) I enjoy checking out a variety of hash tags.

Jemi Fraser said...

Sharon - the hashtags are a lot of fun to check! I'm constantly adding columns to tweetdeck to have a peek :)