Maeve Greyson

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]While chatting with some Goodreads friends about Twitter, it quickly became apparent that many of us had similar opinions about the do’s and don’ts of that mesmerizing social network. I thought I’d compile our findings here to see if any of you agree.[/SIZE][/FONT][LIST=1][*][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Upon following someone new, the “thanks-for-the-follow” direct message is a real turn-off when it ends with: follow this link to BUY my book, software, hand-woven jammies, or whatever. You get the idea. Twitter is a SOCIAL network. Be social. Don’t be a hard sell spammer.[/SIZE][/FONT][*][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The egg profile picture kinda gives folks the heebie-jeebies. Is this a real person, a dreaded bot, or a bird/lizard waiting to hatch? Anything is better than the default Twitter egg. Well. Almost anything. Pornography isn’t very high on most people’s profile picture preferences. At least not the people I polled.[/SIZE][/FONT][*][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Leaving your profile description blank doesn’t make you seem mysterious. It tends to make people think you’re a spammer, a hacker or someone looking to spread a virus or some other unwanted mischief. Your description doesn’t have to be fancy. Tell people what you like and you’ll be surprised how many will follow you just because they have similar interests.[/SIZE][/FONT][*][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Retweeting (RT) is a polite way of acknowledging someone else’s entertaining or memorable tweets and also a good way to help friends spread the word about anything they want to spread. Retweeting your own tweets a bazillion times is a good way to lose followers and risk being branded a spammer.[/SIZE][/FONT][*][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Are you familiar with the term, “You can’t un-ring a bell” ? Think before you tweet. If you’re angry or upset about any situation, it’s best to STEP AWAY FROM TWITTER until you’ve cooled down. Do you really want to “go viral” with a possible career-busting rant?[/SIZE][/FONT][/LIST][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I’m sure there’s lots of other great advice about good tweetiquette. Do you have anything to add?[/SIZE][/FONT]