Twitter – The Etiquette Guide

Tweeting the right way

Even though more and more companies are starting to realise the necessity of having a Twitter account, it’s not good enough just to have one. You need to use it well; otherwise it can do more damage than not having one at all.

Similarly to any kind of advertising, if you’re not very good at it, you’re going to get a bad reputation. If you make a terrible TV advert, create a totally useless press release or newspaper ad, you’re only likely to decrease the chances of people taking you seriously. With the ability to access so many people on Twitter, there’s even more incentive to do it right. There are good things to do, and bad things to do on Twitter. But a lot of it is common sense. With the ability to contact millions of people at a smidgen of the price that other advertising mediums can cost.

Firstly, when a Twitter account is ‘officially’ unveiled to the world, the instinct is to tweet to your heart’s content. A new account has to establish itself within the Twitter world, but that doesn’t have to be done by overloading someone’s timeline with your tweets. A twitter feed needs to be constant, but not overbearing. You can often lose sight of why you’re actually there if you’re permanently looking for something to tweet about.

It’s important to have a set strategy of what your followers will want to know from you. By maintaining brand values, you’ll earn the trust and respect from people and gain the type of followers that are beneficial to the company, not ones that will lead to a wrong perception of how successful you actually are as a business on social media.

Once you’ve gained a large of amount of followers (yay!) then it’s even more important to have a schedule that incorporates your plans and is integrated with company initiatives. If you haven’t tweeted for a while, but then suddenly surge into life, it can sometimes remind people that they follow you, and that’s actually not what they wanted to do.

Interacting with people is the nature of social media and Twitter is possibly the best platform to allow you to do that. By having dedicated staff to manage the social accounts, a company can trust that they’re not missing any tricks or valuable time where there is the opportunity to interact with customers and potential customers. This is where the common sense comes in. When talking to customers, it’s important to give a good, approachable impression. A rude and non-helpful comment can spread within an instant.

Social media has already become one of the main avenues of customer service and it’s crucial that a response is given as soon as possible. Customers will often use social to express their problems as they think that if other customers see the problem, you’ll have to respond quickly otherwise your reputation is going to quickly go down the drain. The first thought should be to take customers away from the public realm. Taking the conversation to a private form of messaging (either a Direct Message or possibly email account) it can prevent further anger being expressed in a public space.

This article shouldn’t put you off using Twitter as the benefits massively outweigh the negative aspects. The message that should be taken is the need for a professional attitude towards this form of media. Like anything else, don’t take it seriously and it can have consequences. Some common sense and a willing attitude to get involved are the main steps of being successful on Twitter.

Dan Barr

I'm a Social Media Executive (Global Community Manager). Previous work includes writing for Social Media Frontiers and working for a major DIY retail company as part of their social media strategy team I have an MA in Sports Journalism and especially love the combination of social media and sport.

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