5 Tips to Make You a Better Twitter User

I’m going to share with you my top 5 Twitter tips, to make the system more productive and comfortable to use. I hope you find them useful.

1. Use the @ Symbol to Reply to Other Users

Simple one but it’s worth keeping in mind that you can even do this to users who are not following you.

2. Keep on Top of Replies

You can check your replies page to see who has sent a message directly to you, i.e. to @yourusername. This is more useful than scanning through the lists but you can still miss time sensitive messages, so take a couple of minutes to set up an alert on these. Try one or more of the following methods.

Set up free email alerts on replies at Twittermail
Go to Terraminds and do a search on @yourusername in ‘search in updates’. You can then click the custom RSS link on the results page and put this into your RSS reader.
Add @yourusername to your GoogleAlert subscription

3. Get a Reader for Twitter Updates.

Twitter can be overwhelming, especially when you have a lot of contacts. You soon realise refreshing the page isn’t an option. Luckily a huge number of third party applications and solutions have come onto the scene to take advantage of the Twitter API.

I’ve tried quite a few of these now. My first attempt was to filter Twitter through my Skype account, resulting in a flashing orange alert every minute. I then tried OutTwit, a plugin for Outlook which flooded my inbox. I then realised the mistake with these methods, they assumed I wanted to read every message.

Twitter isn’t email or instant messaging, it’s Microjournalism. Not every message needs your attention or is even aimed at you. It’s unproductive and distracting to feel you need to read every update to your Twitter feed. Picture it as a news ticker running in the background of your screen.

With that new insight, I went looking for an application that would simply show updates without disturbing my work. MadTwitter did the job but Twhirl won out in the end, as it also highlighted replies to my username. Make sure you turn off the sound and pop-up alerts though.

4. Promote Your Material Responsibly

It’s not normal Twitter etiquette to promote your own blog postings. As Adam Lasnik wailed, “For the love of RSS, if I wanted to be notified of your *every* post, I’d subscribe to your feed.” However the marketing niche seems more receptive to requests for Sphinn or Digg links than Adam. The key here though is bringing value to the community, not just vote begging.

As Tamar twittered, “So far a lot of my new twitter followers are only self-promoting their blogs. That’s nice and all, but twitter is a conversation too. Use it“

5. Keep it Interesting For Your Followers

I don’t agree with Adam regarding blog posts but his other points are sound. Activity updates, such as “Going to bed” or “Reading my email” have zero interest for me. It’s also important to avoid getting too personal on your updates. If every reply is directed at (@) someone it can be rather boring for those outside the conversation. Try to send out general updates or links to give people a reason to follow you.