Twitter is a community of people seeking knowledge. Like any other community, there are guidelines on how to communicate and treat others. Below are some basics related to appreciation, grammar, and information sharing to remember if you choose to recognize others or communicate with followers on Twitter.

express gratitude

  • If others retweet (RT) something you’ve tweeted, you should send thank you messages. Regardless of whether they write it as a new RT with a mention (@) of the account name or whether Twitter’s built-in retweet option was used. The thank you message can be sent as a direct message (DM) to your account only. Or the thank you can be done as a mention using @ or the mention option in a new tweet that can be seen by all following.
  • If a general question is being sent to followers, be sure to send a thank you via DM, mention, or reply option for any helpful responses.

do not be rude

  • If others mention your account, a thank you with the appropriate response and a reference to what was in the original tweet can be sent via a mention of your account. If the answer is not going to be positive, it is better to do it as a direct message so that the rudeness does not spread through the tweetsphere. Acknowledging a mention is nice, but most Twitter users don’t consider it mandatory.
  • Also, don’t be rude. Although it occurs in most communities, profanity or the symbols that indicate profanity and other obscenities are not liked or appreciated by most readers, and may even be confusing to some. So unless the desire is to be blocked or unfollowed, avoid doing this.

Gramatical rules

  • You only get 140 characters to share your message in a tweet. Therefore, most readers believe that it is okay to abbreviate words and use numbers or letters to replace whole words when necessary (Example 2=too, 4=for, w=with, not +=and). However, most prefer to be able to quickly understand what they’re reading, so avoid doing this when the message fits in less than Twitter’s maximum character range.
  • Although some tweeters occasionally use text message formats, which is acceptable if the majority of their followers do the same and these people are the only target audience. Complete sentences that follow standard grammar rules are preferable for clear communication to a large audience. Full text sentences are easy to read and understand. Not using proper grammar can give the impression that the sender is not literate.

share good things

  • When you receive a great quote, a good link to an article, or other interesting information from a follower or other resources, feel free to share it with your followers via a retweet or custom tweet. Many online article sites and blogs have a button set up where you can instantly share a link to the article as a tweet if you sign into a Twitter account.
  • If during a Twitter search for a particular topic the hashtag (#) turns up a good tip, feel free to retweet that as well. Also, check out the original Tweeter by clicking on his account name to see if he features a lot of relevant information in case you want to follow him too.

not spam

  • Sharing is good, however, sending too many tweets can get you tagged as a spammer. There are some people who send a tweet every 1-2 minutes after a while, others stop reading those tweets or choose to unfollow, block or mark these multiple tweeters as spam. So think before you set up one of those autosenders to create tweets, hire someone to tweet on her behalf, or spend all your time on your phone or computer developing tweet material.
  • This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share products, services, or gifts via Twitter. It just means don’t overdo it. After all, most people like to hear about free offers and be the first to hear about a new product or business. Many on Twitter will even be willing to try these things out and communicate their findings to followers through retweets or retweets of the original text.

process direct messages

  • If someone sends a question via DM, it’s polite to reply via DM, especially if you have something relevant to share. However, not all DMs require a response, as many are strictly “For Your Information” (FYI) to tell you more about the person who is following you recently.
  • If it is going to be a private conversation, use the TO option in the direct message window and not @ so that the information stays between two users and is not available to the tweetsphere.

These basics of showing gratitude, sharing information, responding, and using grammar should help make Twitter a better communication tool for letting followers know what they might find interesting. Remember that Twitter is a community of people who are looking for knowledge, but don’t expect information overload, as can happen when you don’t use the proper etiquette.