Twitter Like A Pro, Not A Celebrity

This post comes from Zoey at Good Goog.

I love twitter. I’m a twitter addict. I believe nearly 20,000 tweets attest to this fact. I read somewhere someone saying that trying to explain blogging to non-bloggers is like explaining smoking to non-smokers. The same is true of twitter. The uninitiated will say things like ‘it’s just like facebook except there’s only status updates’. To which the twitter faithful choke and splutter and generally convulse in response.

Twitter Isn’t Status Updates

It looks like it is, but it’s not. It is far more nuanced, organic and creative than that. And it’s not the fact that you can share everything from blog posts to images to videos to pinterest posts. It’s immediate. It’s a conversation. And it’s a conversation that often goes places that the original participants hadn’t expected.

Don’t Tell Me What You’re Doing

No one actually wants to know what you are doing. ‘I am waiting for a train’ is not really tweet-worthy. No one is actually interested. Twitter is about being entertaining and witty. No pressure. Because guess what? Unless you are an actual celebrity, twitter isn’t about you, it’s about being social.

Engage, Interact and Like It

You don’t have to spend all day on twitter and follow every tweet of every person you do follow, but you do need quality time. Time spent not just tweeting, but interacting with everyone. Twitter is not an announcement service. And the people who do it best are the people who really enjoy it.

Twitter Conversations Are Not Private

While a certain celebrity couple may find it appealing to tweet private messages of their soul twin-ness to one another, for the rest of us twitter conversations are not private. So join in. And if there is something private that you want to talk to that friend of yours about, don’t do it on twitter. All it does is make the rest of us feel excluded.

Welcome to Micro-Blogging

Think of twitter like micro-blogging so instead of just retweeting things that you find interesting, tell me why they are interesting and add your stamp to it.

Break the Rules

Twitter is about being yourself, being social and having fun. Which often means you need to break the rules. And if anyone asks as to why I’ve don all the things I’ve warned against when they go back and check my twitter stream, that’s the excuse I’m sticking to. Like freaking glue.

Zoey can be found blogging at Good Goog, about her life with two small (gorgeous) daughters. You can find her on the all important Twitter here and on Facebook here.