The plan was to write in depth about the finer points of twitter usage and etiquette. But then I remembered, life’s too short. So instead, here’s my personal Twitter do’s and don’t's, with lots of examples, but not too much explanatory fluff.

Now stand back. I’m going to prod the Tiger.

Do: Feel free to follow people so they follow you back.

One school of thought on twitter says you should only follow a few people you want to hear from, and if you work on creating a stream full of quality tweets then people will follow you of their own accord. It might be how the Twitter developers intended it to be used. But not everyone using twitter is there to represent themselves as an expert or a curator. Many twitter users want to promote a business or service (or blog) and connect with others. Just following someone doesn’t give the follower any benefit in their case.

The Anywhereists introduce me to @tomcopy after I found them searching for #digitalnomad

Following new accounts or being followed by them first is a great way to discover other users that have similar interests to you. I regularly find new websites to read, bloggers to connect with and other interesting links, by paying attention to who I follow and follow-back. If you recognise that millions of other users out there joined Twitter with the same goals as you, and don’t think you are special, why ignore them when they try to connect?

However…

Don’t: Automatically follow other users because they followed you.

Some twitter management apps (usually paid ones) automatically follow back anyone who follows your account. There’s a lot of spammers on twitter, and you don’t want them following you. They clog your tweet stream with dodgy links, there is nobody behind them paying attention to your tweet, and by following them back you make it possible for them to spam you with Direct Messages like these common beauties;

Telling someone they’re spamming. Not always bright enough to understand.

The best way to spot the spammers? Have a look at their tweets. Are they having real interactions with others? Does their account just retweet other users? Is it just an automated ‘inspirational quotes’ feed? Real people won’t have a an egg instead of a profile picture.

Do: Tell people they are spamming.

If you get a spam DM or tweet – let the user know! People often have no idea they are doing it, and mostly it’s because they authorised a dodgy application. All they have to do to rid themselves of Spamatitis B is unauthorise any apps it could have been, and change their password too just for best practice. It doesn’t always make a difference, like in the example pictured above (he’s lookin and he don’t see sh*t). If it is obviously a spam account and not an unwary user, then report it as spam.

Don’t: Use TrueTwit validation service.

A huge number of tweeters have signed up for the TrueTwat invalidation mis-service. What this means is that when someone follows them, it sends a message to that user linking to a validation page. Before the service auto-follows an account back, users have to either choose to validate every time they follow a TrueTwatter, or they can sign up themselves. This means you are auto-validated but also that everyone who then follows you will a) get an annoying DM, and b) has to either validate each new TrueTwit account they follow, or join the service too. It’s just a giant pyramid scheme with a massive flaw. If a spammer really wanted to, they can validate their accounts by hand with TrueTwerp too, and then guess what? You automatically follow them back. #Fail. It’s Twitter’s job to run their social network, and that includes limiting spam. They are working on it constantly and you really don’t need the help of TrueTwaddle. Especially when any user on twitter can DM you a link that looks like it’s from TrueTwit, but actually takes you to a harmful site. Duh.

Two different TrueTwit messages. Which one is fake? Both?

Do: Use targeted search to find accounts that are likely to be good quality.

There’s lots of ways to find quality tweeters. You can look at lists created by other users you trust, find people you know of by searching twitter, and you can use apps that search for you. My firm favourite is Pluggio. It has lots of twitter management functions like integrated RSS feeds, the ability to track brand campaigns, use of bit.ly for your personal link shortening, scheduling and drip-feeding tweets, and of course a customisable search function that finds users fitting your criteria. I can specify accounts with minimum and maximum followers, within a certain distance of a location, who have tweeted in the last x days, and who have used keywords of my choice. Best of all, it produces a list of the people who don’t follow you back after y days, so you can choose to unfollow or keep following them.

He loves culture, poetry, and taking ma…. Oh.

Founded and developed by Justin, himself a frustrated tweeter, it’s pretty damn useful and the site also guides you on ways to build a relevant and engaged twitter following. I’ve tried other apps like TweetAdder and SocialOomph in the past, but they don’t give you as much functionality for free, so they fell by the wayside even though they are similar. I use the free version of Pluggio, but there are super-powered paid options for multiple account management and whatnot. It’s not perfect in every respect, but it’s a lot better than most twitter management apps and gets updated regularly.

Don’t: Use hashtags like #teamfollowback, #500aday or worse

An extreme example maybe. This was trending on the twitter homepage a while back, before you start wondering!!!

Supposedly using these hashtags will get you a lot of followers, but it will almost entirely be spam accounts. 10,000 spam accounts following you might sound impressive, but you will get no return from them. Only real accounts will interact with you, retweet what they like and drive traffic in your direction. If I see an account with hashtags like #followme, #pharopromo and things like that in a tweet or in their bio, they get ignored and sometimes blocked. If you find you are getting a lot of spam accounts following you all at once, start blocking them and that will stem the flow. You probably ended up on some spammers automated list because you followed one of their many accounts. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Do: Use hashtags for your interest areas

Not a shining example but not too offensive is it?

The argument against using hashtags (since twitter made all tweeting searchable) is that they are redundant unless you are following a campaign or event. I have to disagree! There are millions of users who use hashtags to highlight the subject topic they are talking about. If you are a fan of design, and want to connect to like-minded accounts, try searching for #design. You’ll find users who are actively engaged in daily discussion about all elements of design. From knowledgeable individuals, design companies or a tweeter that found a portfolio with a difference, to accounts reporting the latest design news and tutorials. You can of course be more specific with what you search for if you like.

Results from searching ‘#design’ on twitter.com

If you just search the word ‘design’ then its a lot harder to find people tweeting with a purpose amongst all the chatter. You get results for anyone using the word design, any tweets at a person with ‘design’ in their twitter handle, and also more unrelated tweets from those same people with the word ‘design’ in their handle. Interestingly, when you do search twitter.com, the results it shows you first are the ‘Top’ tweets – and these are similar whether you use the hashtag or not. Viewing ‘All’ tweets shows more difference, but regardless, I still prefer to connect with people who use #hashtags to try and promote what they are talking about (and there’s plenty of them).

Results from searching just ‘design’ on twitter. #portugal.

Don’t: DM or tweet to say thanks for following

A pet peeve of many people is getting a ‘pointless’ Direct Message. “Hi, thanks for following, I’m on facebook!”. Great, an automated response. These messages get annoying and of the 500 odd I’ve received, I’d say only 2 led me to further action. It is definitely a downside to the follow/followback school of thought. Thank you tweets are also the same. Don’t bother with them. If you are hoping to get to 100,000 followers for instance, do you really want to say thank you 100,000 times? Stop wasting your time and mine. We’ve had our initial connection by looking at each others account, make the next connection a meaningful one please. Sending a DM and simultaneously apologising for it is even more annoying.

You will be sorry Virally App, one day. And ‘Assist Social Media’ lady? Yes I do hate auto-DM’s! How are you guaranteeing me no more DM’s when every other dork like you is sending them?

Do: Be careful with your password and the apps you use

There are so many twitter management apps out there, and they all need you to authorise them with your account so they can do things on your behalf. There are also spam applications out there that will abuse your account, using it to send dodgy links in tweets and DM’s. Before you authorise an application to use your twitter account, make sure it’s reputable. Search the net for reviews about it, and also look to see if the permissions it is asking for are over the top. Most apps shouldn’t need the ability to send messages for you, unless it is something you are going to manage your communications through, like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Pluggio etc.

Don’t: Claim you have been hacked because you gave your password away

It’s widely accepted now that if someone was duped into giving their password away, they got hacked.

Various definitions on the net for hacking are;

• to use one’s skill in computer programming to gain illegal or unauthorized access to a file or network (here)
• a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system (here)
• gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer (here)

Developer groups also regularly get together to ‘hack’ applications to see what new and useful functions they can give them, adding and removing code from programs. But when someone on twitter says ‘I got hacked’ – hmm. Disagree. How? By authorising a dodgy program or giving your password away? True hacking of anything takes skill, time and effort, none of which was used to ‘hack’ that twitter account. You just got fooled. How about this video from last year for an example of real hackers? Skillful, with purpose, and somewhat scary;

**Between starting this post and publishing it, my original no-longer-in-use twitter account was compromised and used to send a couple of spam tweets! It has a massive 4 followers because I was protecting my tweets and only connecting with friends from reality. I haven’t logged in for months, and the only authorised apps were: HootSuite, Pluggio, and Twitter for Android. So I think I got hacked! On a side note, well done Fate. Your timing never ceases to amaze me.

Do: Use Twitter lists.

You can create a list of users on twitter for your own purposes, and you can create as many lists as you like, which makes seeing tweets from the multitude of people you follow easier. You can also include people you don’t follow in lists, so it’s handy no matter how you use twitter. I’m guilty of not using this feature of twitter enough, but it’s on my To Do list. I didn’t find creating/managing them efficient in the past, so stopped. Here’s a couple of examples that need some attention, the first one even includes people I’ve met and am friends with;

• TeamNFB - ‘People I would follow if they followed back. But they don’t.’ 
• possiblementalproblems - ‘Tweets or bios that deserve medical investigation.’

Pluggio has an updated List management section which I’ll be checking out shortly. FormuLists had a good reputation for creating lists but have ceased providing the service! Helpfully, their homepage now links to several other twitter management apps that help with lists too.

Don’t: Have the worst Bio in the world, or follow automated feeds…

…or follow Redgage users or anyone who mentions the word Etsy or… et cetera. These twitter pariah’s are like a passive form of spam. They set their account up, plug it into some service that tweets regularly for them and don’t use twitter as a social network, just a promotion tool. As for the worst Bio in the world, that might include profiles consisting entirely of links, profiles with nothing written at all, or in the very worst cases – profiles that confess to over-enthusiastic worshipping. That could mean they love #GaGa, are a fully fledged god head, or the absolute most dire example available - they are a #Belieber. Oh dear. Save our souls…

“Surgeon General: Prolonged Twittering may lead to an increased risk for developing Internet Celebrity Disorder & compulsive viewing of Lolcats”

Do: Make up your own strategy.

You know why you have a twitter account and what you want to get out of it, so have a good read and make your own mind up about what is going to get you the best results. When I first started using Twitter it was just for fun. I followed 75 accounts, and basically used it as a source of news and entertainment if I was extremely out of things to do. My tweets were only for my amusement, and  after getting random spam followers (picture of girl, following 1000 people, no followers, no tweets, bio links to a porn site…) I found it easier to protect my account and ignore new followers unless I knew them personally. Now I use Twitter differently for a completely different purpose.

To conclude…

Made famous by Dirty Harry himself in The Dead Pool (1988)

There are lots of different opinions about how to use social media, and we all know what opinions are like. I reserve the right to change mine whenever I fancy, as should you, especially as the networks themselves change how they operate regularly. As long as your results from social media justify the means, then crack on. Best practices be damned, there are always exceptions. Why you are using Twitter will ultimately dictate how you use it.

But before you go, just one last opinion, this time on Instagram;

Don’t: Post ‘Selfies’

Unless your self-photo is artistic, scenic, or interesting on some other photographic level, it’s probably not for instagram. Instagram is more like Twitter than facebook, because you can easily follow complete strangers to see content you are interested in, and vice versa. And it’s supposed to be about (mobile) photography isn’t it? The same can’t be said about all photos. A crap picture of yourself is not about photography, just like a post-it note telling me there’s chicken in the fridge is not about writing. Please stop.

If you’d like to ‘join the conversation’ then why not send me a tweet? Or if you’re old school, you can still leave a comment below. Well done for getting this far!

Peter Parkorr