Guest Post written by Ilan Peer

For the past two years I have been active on twitter and only recently (as of June 2008) my close friends and colleagues began to show up on twitter and therefore increased the amount of related and relevant content for me. twitter has become a daily tool of communication which I use via Web browser, additional applications and on my mobile device.
Unlike other social networks, twitter is about connecting people in a way that appeals to me the most. The lack of
approval needed to follow others enables mass networking. The many-to-many interaction is fascinating and the academic world is starting to study the social behavior on twitter and other mass networking platforms.

I think eventually twitter (and other communication services) will change the way we think, act, make friends, shop and of course consume media.

Here are my personal twitter ethics and morals I live by:

Be nice, be polite – leave your rants to your blog or anonymous comments. Due to the vast search capability, it is likely you will show up on someone’s radar even if it wasn’t your intention.

Watch your language – if you tweet in other languages rather than English, make sure not to swamp your English
readers feed with a language they cannot understand. If you want to target one specific audience who are non-English
speakers, think about creating a separate account.

Think of your copy writing – try and conserve characters (even though you have up to 140 characters to begin with) If you hope to get retweeted , do not use up all of the 140 characters. Leave room so that when a person retweets the message, there is enough space for their user-name and the complete original tweet. This is a thoughtful way to make sure the entirety of the message is redistributed to the retweeter’s stream.

It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality – For a personal account you don’t actually need 30 thousand followers, and if you do – chances are you will lose the human touch (hey, that’s why we’re here in the first place). Try to find followers and be followed in a natural and organic manner. Don’t feel like you are in a race for increasing numbers. Get to know your community and let them get to know you.

Choose whatever twitter application is right for you – in my opinion there is no top application or service that beats them all. I’ve been using the same ol’ twitterfox for months now. I did try other tools but I didn’t stick with them.  twitterfox is  the most convenient way for me to tweet, and that is why I still use it.  As far as mobile goes, I can’t let go of my symbian application called Gravity. I’m so happy with that it made me a paying costumer even though there are other free mobile clients and apps.

Use all different kinds of media – take pictures with your mobile and upload them to twitpic or other twitter photo services, shoot videos and use twitter to spread them. Technology is so handy and these extra and rich tools add a lot of personal touch.

Be coherent and relevant – if you reply a tweet use the little reply arrow, this way the back and forth conversation between two users allows bystanders to follow the conversation.

Find your own way – there is no right or wrong, good or bad (you can even dismiss this whole post) on twitter. twitter is a personal communication tool where people  decide for themselves what is the best way to use the service. Try and get the most out of it and if you don’t see the need (nor understand the hype) give it a rest.  Somewhere down the line another service will come along and fill the  need for a mass communication tool.

if you want to connect with me on twitter, i am @ilan_peer.
Good luck!

photo credit to: gesamtbild

Tags: ethics, online identity, profiles, Social Networks, twitter, twitter apps

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 6:41 am and is filed under Social Tools, twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.