Marketing success with Twitter’s “Tweet Etiquette”

Etiquette has transcended from the real world to the online world effectively. We already know what we should and should not to do in e-mails, virtual worlds, IM’s, etc. Now the latest entrant to the etiquette world is Twitter.
Joel Comm, author of Twitter Power has some great tips with which you can use to make sure you are not offending anyone accidentally with your tweeting habits.

1. Do not Spam – This should be obvious to most of us but surprisingly people do not realize it. Do not just follow people; make sure your tweets are interesting enough so people will follow you.

2. Follow style rules – Always keep your tweets in letterform. Spell everything out and avoid abbreviations. With an increase in Twitter access on mobile phones, there is an alarming move towards condensing almost every word.

3. Give credit for retweets – Do not steal other people’s ideas and post it as your own. Give credit where credit is due and your follower base will grow. An example of a retweet would be RT @Username of person: original tweet

4. Stick to 140 characters – You will annoy people if your message spans two tweets. Write out your thoughts including a TinyUrl within the 140 characters and your followers will not cut you out.

5. Follow people who follow you – Unless you have many followers, try to stick to this rule. It is a common courtesy but not considered a cardinal sin if you do not do it. This one is up to you.