Being a Twit

With all this emphasis about being accessible online, creating community, and sharing meaningful content, it’s easy to get the wrong idea and start tweeting or posting updates excessively.

Although it’s true that reading a Twitter feed can be like trying to drink from a fire hose, it’s important to let up for air and give people a little bit of space to miss you. Surely you’d prefer your audience to be glad to hear from you instead of weary from constant updates. It’s also true that some updates are more attractive than others. Be careful what you post and be especially careful to note whether you’re being

Confrontational: It’s easy to faceplant by being confrontational about silly things that very few people care about. Go one step further by dickering over something that really doesn’t matter. If you aren’t into faceplanting your online reputation, I suggest you hold off on being confrontational unless you have a clear, cool-minded focus and genuinely feel that justice is being served.

Unkind: Ignoring people always helps faceplant your brand, but being unkind ratchets that several notches higher on the faceplant scale. Seriously, it takes only a moment to be kind and it’s often appreciated. Take the higher ground.

Selfish: Share great content by and for other people. It’s a great way to contribute to the community. For faceplanting purposes, only tweet your own stuff. Don’t act like conversations are taking place and respond to people, either.

Also, I want to take a moment to point out these important details:

• Don’t be afraid to follow people back. You won’t look less cool. You’ll look like a community member. If you want to pay closer attention to certain feeds, create lists. That’s how I manage different groups of people. For example, I have foodie, creative, and “short list” lists where I follow some of my favorite people on Twitter.

• Don’t share insignificant updates like “Just finished breakfast. Oatmeal’s good.” Unless you’re a best-selling author who writes about different grades of oatmeal, it’s something to avoid.

A copycat: Retweets alone get boring, as does copying somebody else’s tweets. Be an original.