Twittetiquette

As Twitter becomes widely adopted -almost 5 million and counting-, it is maybe time to ask the following question: Is there such a thing as a Twittetiquette?

Interacting

If you are a user of Twitter, there are chances you’ve sometimes asked yourself the question on how to use the tool, how to exactly interact with other users.

There’s certainly not one answer to this question. However, as the number of adopters grows every day, you should be starting to ask yourself the basic question: why am I on Twitter?

As an individual, you might just want to follow chatter about subject you love or intereact with a larger circle of people you either know or share interests with.

As a brand, you’re certainly willing to expand your customer base, deliver messages and market your product and services.

Once you’ve decided on your own goal, remember that you’re interacting with other individuals.

In addition and as with every emerging tool, there are some unsaid set of rules that are in the process of being defined as to what people accept or not in their Twitter world. Beyond the basic terms of service, you should hence pay attention to your own behavior.

Behaving

Twitter adopts the FOAF (“friend of a friend”) method and is not behind a wall. It means that you can discover followers of anyone and start following anyone. There is not, like in Facebook, the need to request the friendship and there’s even no need to be signed in to actually follow chatter of a user.

With Twitter having not yet set groups -apart from Japan where it’s experimenting with Twicco- finding users beyond those in your address book is sometimes difficult.

Is the rule of thumb of ony experimenting the only way to go, though ?

Not exactly. Every user has the possibilty to add a website to its profile. Check it out, learn about the individual or brand behind the username. Reading is mini-bio is also considered positive –it’s not there for nothing.

@ reply or direct message?

The way Twitter is implemented means that you can actually ask this question only when there’s a two-way follow. In that case, flooding the chatter with pointless @ replies is not considered well. Use the @ reply for messages that might interest others or when you’ve got no other choice.

Echoing ideas?

One of the most powerful use of Twitter is the retweet. While not being a direct Twitter implementation, the RT, retweeting another’s user’s message, is now quite common. A message can be amplified easily. Then again, use it only for messages that bear some interest to your followers. Plus, only repeating what others have to say might be annoying to some. Use the RT wisely.

Should you follow everyone that follows you?

There’s not a definite answer to this. It is certain that some people you encounter on Twitter seem only to get after the maximum number of followers to add to their statistics, disregarding the actual common interests that could be shared.

With tools like SocialToo, the process of reciprocating the courtesy of being followed can now be automated. The automation can, of course, help one quickly pile new users up. It shouldn’t be seen as such. With tools like TweetDeck or PeopleBrowsr emerging, the chatter can be parsed and become more useful.

Sending a direct message to the other user when auto-follow is possible through SocialToo. A thank you should be the least you could write, 140 characters is more than enough for that.

Should you unfollow anyone that unfollows you?

SocialToo also allows for automatic unfollow. In an ideal world where people would only follow people of real interest to them, such a tool could be considered as the following message: “sorry, we’ve actually got nothing real in common, was nice to meet you”. You cannot be friends with everyone, so be it.

I consider that people that decide to unfollow could at least send a direct message before actually doing it. True, the Twitter tool doesn’t allow for direct message amongst people that do not follow each other, which means the unfollowed wouldn’t get a chance to reply. He could however well send a normal @ reply. That’s simple courtesy.

Then again, Twitter is not always that ideal world. I’ve encountered many users following me back, quickly sending me a message advertising their blog, service and product and unfollowing me immediatly.

This is, in my opinion, the rudest manner I’ve experienced. If there’s a real Twittetiquette to emerge, this should be the rule #1: no direct message followed by an unfollow.

Common understanding?

The best idea? Jeremiah has cleverly added a link to his own set of rules on how he has decided to use Twitter. This is an idea that most should follow, so that common understanding is in place.

I like this user set of rules versus top-down rules that could one day arrive

Towards a Twittetiquette

As an individual or as a brand, remember that a social network should be like any other conversation you have with a human being: you say “hi!” when you mett, you look them in the eyes when they talk, you care about what they say to you, you answer when they ask a question and you leave by saying goodbye.

If people were simply applying these basic principles, the Twittetiquette would simply be a synonym of politness.