Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Twitter Etiquette


There are many things in Twitter that are tricky to learn. Etiquette is no different.
There is no official guide to read from. This is our take on a couple of key pieces to
having the proper etiquette on Twitter.


One thing to keep in mind before you continue in this post is good old-fashioned manners ring true in Twitter just like they do at home. Saying Please and Thank you are still the same.
If someone says something nice to you on Twitter, tweet them back a thank you. Pretty simple really.
  • If someone follows you, @mention or Direct Message them and thank them for the follow.
  •  If you retweet someone, you can edit their tweet, if you do make sure to put MT for a Modified Tweet. Perhaps in this case you take off a hashtag they used to make it fit or you wanted to put your hashtag like #tt4t on it to send it to your people.
  • Include professional information in your profile. Many people carefully read profiles before following you.  It’s important for you to list your subject, grade level, & content areas.
  • Text lingo can be used to shorten messages.
  • Twitter is not texting or Facebook.  Take personal conversations to a DM (Direct Message) or move it to Facebook or Skype.  
  • Use an @mention and tell the person that you like or have used their idea.  They will appreciate it.
  • Always give credit where credit is due. So if you find a great blog post or article from someone on Twitter @mention them in the tweet that you found it from them.
Chats come with their own set of unwritten rules that we have discovered as we have joined the professional Twitter community.  

Educational Chats
1.  Add a column with the hashtag you will follow.   Ed Chat has a CHAT every Tuesday at 6 PM CST.
2.  Watch and read the tweets before jumping into a conversation.
3.  Stick to the topic that is being discussed. This is not the place for personal updates.  If you need to leave, just walk away, no need to waste a tweet to tell people that.  They will notice you are gone.  People don’t want to waste time reading something that does not help them as an educator.
4.  If you make a connection with someone perhaps you don’t use the hashtag and continue to converse through DM (Direct Messages) or through your regular home feed of followers.

29 comments:

  1. So I guess what you are trying to say is if you are going to use Twitter, be nice, mind your manners, say what you need to say, keep it short and simple, and if you have something personal to say take it somewhere else.

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  2. Giving people credit when liking or using their ideas is always important. The information on educational chats is helpful. From what I have seen so far, most people follow the "unwritten rules", but unfortunately there will always be that select few who don't.

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  3. I loaded two additional columns for hashtags that pertained to issues two of my students next year will be dealing with. I was disappointed to see how much silliness there is on them. I am looking forward to seeing how our chat goes on Thursday. Since the Ed Chat has one, I am thinking the tweets will be much more focused and useful. In this regard, I think the etiquette suggestions for chats will be most useful to me. As others have noted, giving credit where credit is due is kind of assumed, or at least, it should be

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  4. I did update my Profile per ideas from this article. "Take personal conversations to a DM" is a great bit of info for new user.

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  5. I completely agree with this. I absolutely hate it when people reply to tweets with grammer corrections/rude comments. Those types of things are just not necessary! Also I could care less about reading tweets about what people are doing that very second. I have stopped using facebook for that very reason because I can't stand reading status updates that are a waste of time! Twitter can be extremely useful in a professional establishment if used correctly!

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  6. I feel like I am bad at having individual conversations with my Twitter followers. I feel like DMs are private and when you do it you have something to hide, but obviously all of my followers do not want to see my conversations, so I will work on that. I do try to use most of the other tools, but am horrible at chats. I mostly just follow them and keep my ideas to myself. I am going to try to add something to the conversation and use my Twitter etiquette.

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  7. I am a twitter newbie! In regard to twitter etiquette I feel like the kid at the dining table who is not sure which fork is the right one to use! I'm excited to read all the great ideas that are posted by school counselors and educators and am hoping I follow all the twitter rules!

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  8. I'll have to remember to put MT (modified tweet). I often like to alter what people write, but I don't want to be rude! :)

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  9. This article is good information for any new Twitter user. We have all become so used to texting that it is good to know that the two are considered to be a little different. I appreciate the heads up and the etiquette notes so I dont do the wrong thing and offend the wrong people. Great article!

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  10. It's just nice to have a list of Do's and Don'ts because some people need them. I have heard of many people complaining or blocking people on Facebook and Twitter for these very same reasons. Especially for Twitter rookies, it's nice to see things you should not be doing/things that annoy others. :)

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  11. This is the first time I've heard of MT (modified tweet)...a very good thing to remember! Since I am new to Twitter, all of this info will be very helpful in the future. I'm glad to have more of a "professional" place to share ideas...I can keep my personal things on Facebook and Tweet other things. I'm glad to see how you aren't "supposed to" type in every little thing you are doing at the moment. People who post 20 times a day to Facebook that they are "at the grocery store", "doing laundry", etc., make me crazy. From the tweets I've seen so far, it seems like most people follow this etiquette rule on Twitter, at least!!! :)

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  12. I thought it was a helpful reminder that Twitter is not for personal conversations. If you want to have one then you can direct message that person. I haven't had personal conversations on Twitter and didn't necessarily realize that you could direct message people. Try to stay focused on tweeting out educational ideas, thoughts, questions etc... AND make sure to use your manners!!!!

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  13. Seems like giving credit where credit is due is an important thing to remember on Twitter.

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  14. Mr. Crawford. I also think it is important to give credit when Tweeting. Similar to the discussion we had in our Pinterest CCU. I also like the idea of using text lingo in Twitter. As an English teacher that might be difficult for me, but it allows the person Tweeting to say more with less text!

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  15. I thought that Ann was just keeping track of us when she acknowledged the @mention, but now I find out that is courteous. My apologies for not thanking those of you who @ mentioned me.

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  16. Having the proper etiquette when using any social media is extremely important. Having two teenagers along with two pre-teens in our household, we continue to preach this to them hoping they will make the right choices when they are commenting or using their devices to respond to their peers who are using the social media sites. Although these can be a very positive and powerful tool, unfortunately they can and are used in a very negative way as well.

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  17. I think that it is important to remember to stay professional on twitter. It is good etiquette to not be brought into a negative conversation or "twitter battle". There have been numerous times where I have read articles where twitter users, usually famous twitter users, have gotten into arguments on twitter that make them look silly. Proper twitter etiquette should be followed at all times.

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  18. Twitter is not for personal conversations. Check.

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  19. When sending a personal message it's best to do in a direct message. Keep Tweets short and to the point!

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  20. I find myself using Direct Message even more then text messaging anymore. I need to do a better job of thanking people for the follow.

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  21. I've added about 5 new columns which I'd like to follow. I'm afraid that may be too much to try and keep up with, but we'll see. Remembering to thank people is something I'll need to work on also.

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  22. I will need to work using direct messages to answer or comment to a specific person. I think I'll like Direct Message better than texting.

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  23. I didn't even think of thanking people for following me. I will get better at that. I have added 6 columns to my tweet deck and I couldn't imagine following all of these hashtags without tweet deck.

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  24. I will do my best to follow Twitter Etiquette...Just remember, I'm a rookie!

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  25. Thanks for the guidelines! I too am very new to this. I will take all of the advice I get.

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  26. Just like things you learned in Kindergarten: play nice, be polite, help others when you can, keep rude comments to yourself, don't be a bully. These guidelines are very helpful! Thanks.

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  27. These rules would also apply to the people who can't "leave" a text message conversation! I like that if you don't respond, people will know :)

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  28. I'll have to remember the MT option. When I retweeted something a few days ago, I really wanted to drop some of the hashtags the person used, but I didn't think that was proper etiquette. Now I know!

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  29. Always nice to know the rules when engaging in a new activity.

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