I’ve been a big fan of twitter for quite a while now and I’ve always found it quite “intuitive” to use, however some things keep annoying me when others do them. So I’ve decided to compile a short primer of what to do and what not to do if you don’t want to start losing followers.

Here we go:

1. DO provide your name, avatar and a short bio
Give me a name! I wanna know who I’m “talking” to; it makes interaction so much more interesting. Also the Bio you can put up on twitter makes all the difference in many cases if I’m going to follow you or not. Make it clear in the Bio who you are or what you twitter about, that’s actually all I want to know. The Bio is very short; including a link to your webpage can be helpful (and deliver extra traffic). Providing a picture makes you seem much more real. Pictures of inanimate objects (’cause you love your coffee machine) or Brad Pitt (’cause you’re a fan) are not going to make me follow you.

2. DON’T auto respond!
There is nothing more irritating than an auto response when you start to follow someone. If you want to welcome new followers great, but do it on an individual basis. You can’t fake sincerity!

3. DO interact
Twitter is all about sharing! Sharing information, fun, trends, news, events… The main reason I twitter is because I can harvest a lot of useful information without having to go out and actively look for it. Also you’re not going to miss another piece of important news (or Hollywood gossip) if you follow the right people… ;) This information has to come from somewhere, so if you have something “interesting” than share it. Judging by the feedback of your followers you will soon figure out what is “interesting” or not. Share things you care/know about, not because you feel you have to… The important thing is share, partake, be part of it!

4. DON’T spam
Everybody hates spam in their e-mail inbox, it’s just the same on twitter. Don’t spam! ’nuff said.

5. DO give credit
“Re-Tweeting” is a big part of sharing things with your followers. If you do re-tweet something, give credit and don’t sell it off as your own. If the tweet is too long when you re-tweet it (also known as RT), shorten the content by paraphrasing, not by removing the original @user. It is however legitimate to remove multiple RTs. The acceptable solution is to either leave the user in from whom you heard it or the original user who started the tweet.

6. DON’T flood
Occasionally seeing what you post on tumblr or what you listen to on blip.fm is great. If you’re gonna flood me with 200 songs per day and 100 funny pics I’m going to stop following you pretty fast. It is also not necessary to share every little thing you do. Please only tweet relevant stuff and no, what you eat and when you go to the toilet is not relevant (unless you have very strange followers)

7. DO follow who you want
Twitter is an open medium. Follow who you want, if they don’t want you to see their updates, they can block you. If someone blocks you don’t be offended, just move on. Not everyone wants you preying on their lives, so to speak. If you don’t want everyone and their dog to follow you, set your profile to private, then you can authorize people on an individual basis. IMHO however private profiles kind of beat the point of twitter, if you only want to communicate with your private friends there are other channels…

8. DON’T chat
I really don’t want to see 50 tweets between you and a friend setting up a lunch date on my timeline, because frankly I don’t care. There is nothing wrong with replying to tweets, just don’t start a conversation. When that happens, move it to e-mail or some chat client. Also creating long messages that span multiple tweets is frowned upon. If you follow enough people the tweets will be far apart and incomprehensible. As always KISS = Keep it short & sweet.

9. DO learn the tools
Twitter can be fun and easy if you have the right tools. Downloading a desktop client, such as Thwirl, will make every day twittering a lot more fun. Get a mobile client for your Smartphone, such as Twitteriffic or TwitterBerry. It’ll make tweeting on the run more fun. Learn about #hashtags. Use URL shortners such as bit.ly or snurl for your long links. Figure out how to post pictures with twitpic or flickr. And if you’re going to go pro look at tweetlater and cotweet

10 DON’T be boring!
Whatever you do, don’t be boring. Be fun, entertaining and informative. Be anything! Be YOURSELF!

Happy tweeting!

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