Happy Twitter anniversary to me. I joined Twitter exactly one year ago today. It took a little convincing, but once I figured out how to incorporate it into my freelance business I never looked back.
Earlier today, I tweeted the following lessons learned from my first year on the microblogging service, 17 in honor of joining on Dec. 17, 2008. Every one of them is 140 characters or less.
What I’ve learned:
1 – Be real. People can see through a fake, even online. Therefore, don’t use auto–DMs.
2 – One note may work for a samba, but not online. Don’t tweet on same topic 24/7, even if you’re here for work.
3 – Don’t drink and tweet. But if you do, the next day, delete the tweets. (I got that tip from a Twitterati.)
4 – You don’t have to DM every new follower, esp. once you hit 2,000+. But do DM those you want to know better.
5 – Lists are great organizational tools, but if you follow a lot of people, building them’s a bear.
6 – While good in theory, #FF is hard to keep up, especially if like me, all deadlines seem to fall on Fridays.
7 – Twitter is just a tool. It will not find you customers or make you rich. You do that. All it does is help.
8 – As a writer, Twitter forces me to be concise and use colorful words and phrases. It’s my robo-copydesk.
9 – Twitter is not texting. Some people may be OK with abbreviating everything; for me, that’s too hard to read.
10 – Hashtags and conferences go together. There’s no better way to promote one or report from one. However…
11 – …As recent events have shown, Twitter at meetings can lead to mean-spirited back-channel snark.
12 – Saved Search is handy for tracking subjects you’ll be writing about. I use it like Google News alerts.
13 – Trending Topics is worthless, unless you use it as an obituary tracker. Otherwise, it’s too easy to game.
14 – Spam, porn, phishing, malware, scams: as Twitter’s user base has grown, so has its smarmy underbelly.
15 – Twitter is a conversation, which means you can’t do all the talking. Stop, look, listen, and retweet.
16 – Twitter collapses the space between you and that famous publisher or CEO, but you still gotta make your case.
17 – Blogging and Twitter go together like cheese and crackers: you can have one without the other but it’s not as good.
That’s it. If you’ve used Twitter a year or longer, what wisdom can you share?
By the way, I wrote the first draft of this on Twitter in real time. It was easier than I thought.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by michellerafter, Kris Bordessa. Kris Bordessa said: RT @MichelleRafter: 17 lessons; one year on Twitter; one blog post http://bit.ly/7tEumI #Twitter #writing KB: #12 my fave! [...]
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by michellerafter: Here’s all 17 of my lessons learned from a year on Twitter rolled up into one blog post | WordCount: http://bit.ly/7tEumI #Twitter #writing…
Hi Michelle,
Great Twitter wisdom. You could become the Yoda of Twitter, only better looking. My favorite from the list are 1, 2, 15, and 16.
All the best,
Clay
The Yoda of Twitter – I like it!
MVR
All very good points! Congratulations on your first twitter year!
Great list of observations from a year on Twitter. I love the ‘cheese and crackers’ line, classic!
Happy Holidays!
Hey Steve, thanks!
Michelle
[...] Lessons learned from a year on Twitter [...]
Awesome list! What is your thoughts on using something like su.pr to schedule tweets throughout the day when you know you are going to be away from the computer?
I am currently using su.pr to schedule tweets at different times throughout the day letting people know when I put up a new posting.
Your thoughts?
J
Awesome list
I know what you mean about blogging and tweeting – I can’t imagine one without the other!!!
Great list of Twitter tips! Very helpful!
Michelle,
I only just started using Twitter a few months ago and I have learned so much, these tips you have are great! I’ve been trying to decide how many times to tweet one thing. Some say to tweet it a few times a day because you have different readers at different times of the day but that seems unprofessional to me, right now I only tweet my blog posts and articles one time and mix in other topics as well, what do you think?
I like #3, the only thing I drink while tweeting is my coffee
Excellent tips!!!
Emily: I think it’s OK to tweet about a new blog post more than once, just don’t tweet the very same 140-character sentence every time. Change it up a bit. The first time you might tweet the headline of the post with a link. The second time, try paraphrasing the topic or theme of the post, and adding a link. I normally don’t tweet about a new blog post three times, but if you do, did you get any interesting comments? That might be something to tweet about, i.e., “Getting some good comments on (fill in topic of blog post here), check it out: (link here).”
Michelle R.