If you've embraced Web 2.0, you're probably using Twitter, a networking service that broadcasts messages of up to 140 characters through a variety of channels. As with any new form of communication, the rules of etiquette and usage are still evolving. And blogger Tangerine Toad has clearly had enough of certain behaviors. In a post at his blog, he provides some guidelines for keeping everyone happy:
Skip the mundane minutiae of your day. No one needs to know you just woke up. Or if you're watching television. "If you think it's boring," says Toad, "chances are I will too."
Keep it real. "[W]hite people should studiously avoid tweeting words like 'Peeps!' 'Yo!' 'Da Boyz!' and other misguided attempts at urban Black slang," he writes. Remember, your words go to anyone following you, not only your friends who know you're using an ironic tone.
We're not the grammar police. People don't really care about typos—it's Twitter, after all. No need to make corrections in a follow-up tweet.
Keep a lid on it. If you tweet more than twice each day about new content at your blog, Toad says it's too much. Also, while posting from an event like SXSW isn't a bad idea, no one wants the play-by-play of your dinner with college buddies.
While many of these suggestions are nothing more than common sense, legions of over-eager Twitter users mean they're necessary. And the reminder that there's nothing wrong with tweeting selectively is a great example of Marketing Inspiration.
More Inspiration:
Cam Beck: Fear: It's Not Sociable
Leigh Duncan-Durst: Cottonelle On Crack (Literally!)
Stephen Denny: Brands and Movements
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