Okay, so I admit I’m one of those avid fans of Twitter : @girlopinion. So let me dive in to one of the most talked about social media, micro-blogging site these days — Twitter!
First and just in case you don’t know, below’s how wiki defined Twitter:
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.
Well, I have been to Twitter for 6 months now (still young I believe) but I decided to give out some twitter tips to those of you who are planning to join the Twitter community. I may not even reach a single percent of followers compared to your Twitter idols like @guykawasaki which I actually admire too. Along with Twitterholic’s top 1 today: Ashton Kutcher, Tim O’Reilly (timoreilly) and all others who made it to the Top 100 Twitterholics but I just wanted to add (hopefully) more value by giving you some Twitter Tips!
Below are the Top 10 Twitter Tips
1. First, you must set a purpose.
As I have observed, twitter profiles belong to 3 categories namely: Personal Oriented, Business Oriented and Spam Oriented!
These 3 types of Tweeps(people who tweet) have obviously set different purpose why they signed up for Twitter. Your profile can either be a personal, business or spam account. You might be wondering why I included spam profiles as one of the categories. Well, simply because in Twitter, you will really see obvious (spell OBVIOUS) spam profiles: following you, flooding your timeline with senseless tweets and a lot more. Now, YOU choose where you want to belong!
2. When you signed up, be sure to fill up your BIO as accurate and as truthful as you can.
It’s only a matter of several characters that you will be able to introduce yourself to the whole world and that’s in your BIO. Spend a little time and effort to upload an avatar, fill up fields like name, location and short description of yourself, your website URL and that’s it!
3. Always share valuable information!
Since you already have set your purpose before you signed up for Twitter, then you should already know what are those valuable information you should tweet about to entice other Twitter users to follow and connect with you.
4. Build followers strategically!
Follow your friends and other Twitter users who you think have the same interests or niche as of yours. Then later on, you can ask them to follow you back too. Usually, after a day or two, most follow you back if you both have the same interests. If you’re into Entertainment, then follow those who tweet mostly about entertainment! If you’re into business, ebay, etsy, then follow those tweeps who talked about those things too!
Please note that there’s a limit on your ratio of following and followers. So you must also ensure that you keep the ratio close. You could no longer follow tweeps if you already have 2000 who did not follow you back. So, how to resolve that? IMHE, I usually give those tweeps I follow two weeks to follow me back. If they don’t after two weeks, then it’s about time to unfollow them. There are a lot of tools to help us do that. My favorite is Tweepular. It’s free so you don’t have to worry. There are actually a lot of tools out there. Just google it and you’ll have it at your finger tips!
But wait, why do you think you should build your follows and followers asap? Simply because that’s one of the purpose why Twitter exists. It’s for us to connect to people even as far as halfway around the world. Who will read your tweets if you don’t have followers? Right?
5. Be Responsible!
Always be responsible on what you tweet! Treat others with respect if you also want to be respected. After all, we both enjoy the freedom of speech but then don’t ever abuse that freedom.
6. Discipline, discipline and discipline!
Twitter can be addictive. Yes, true! I got to that point that what I did the whole day is just tweet and I forgot other tasks that are ought to be accomplished. So, please please be careful. It’s a matter of discipline and clearly defining to yourself your priorities!
7. Be Generous!
So, you might be wondering how can you be generous. Well, all you just have to do is to reply to your friends or tweep berks’ tweets and also once in a while, re-tweet their tweets! What’s re-tweet? Oh please, can you do me a favor? Can you just google it later?
Just kidding! As I said, be generous! So here’s what Re-Tweet means: “Re-tweet”, is when you resend a message that someone else sent. This is an echo-chamber effect and is a fast and effective way of disseminating information far beyond the initial list of followers.
8. Be Active!
Oh please, Twitter is not a place for you to just stare and see what will happen next. Communicate to other Twitter users. Give them a sense of your existence. You will never be heard unless you speak up. So, go and speak up! Tweet it! Reply! It’s just like chatting with a friend in a different platform — the Web!
9. Be Resourceful!
One thing I really like about Twitter is that it gaves me a chance to meet people who are really, impressively resourceful! Articles or any references that you might have not imagine it exist, well on Twitter, you’ve got to find one in a day or two. I even experience that everyday. That is why, I appreciated much those who introduced those topics to me which in turn, enticed me to follow them. So it would be a big help, if you’re also resourceful, right? Since we’re all building a community here!
10. Enjoy!
Lastly, Enjoy! Just enjoy the whole thing. When you enjoy, you will have high regards to the activity you are doing. Of course, you wouldn’t just want to waste your time and stressed out yourself twittering stuffs of these and that, right? So, just enjoy!
So, that made up my Top 10 Twitter Tips guys! Those are based from my experiences. As I grow old with Twitter then maybe I could give out some more tips. There’s always a lesson to learn in every journey and that’s what keeps me excited about!
Btw, you are very welcome to add up your Twitter tips. Just please drop by a comment. I would highly appreciated that! Thanks! 
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Great thought Grace….I promise to be active in twitter now…hehehe
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Wow, what you shared here is quite a read. Practical and insightful I must say.
I don’t have a twitter account but I think the learnings that you shared here can be applied to other microblogging platforms as well like plurk.
Nice post, got me interested in signing up for a twitter account. I’m fighting the urge though, Plurk keeps me distracted.. I can’t afford another online “addiction.”
Lyle’s last blog post..Terminator Salvation PLURK Design
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Hi Shirg,
Thanks a lot for dropping by a comment here. Yes, there are really a lot to learn in Twitter. That thirst is not yet quenched!
Be active na oi… but be careful! It can be addictive as plurk too…
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Hi Kuya Lyle!
First of all, Happy Birthday!
Thanks for spending time to drop by here and share your insights. I agree with you that the above tips I shared are also applicable to other social media, micro blogging sites like plurk.
But I suggest, if you’re into a little serious business which you really are, Twitter is really good. You have better reach on your audiences. But I love plurk too. I can feel that sense of belonging to the community and it is made more special because there are a lot of Filipinos really actively plurking.
Twitter and Plurk have one thing in common: they are both addictive! (LOL)
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Again, thanks Shirg and Lyle for dropping by here! Hope to see you here more often!
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I’m also a new to twitter.. Hmmm… not really into twitter and I just synchronize my plurk post there… I find plurk more user friendly than twitter hehehe… pero lately I’ve been trying to sell/promote products there from paydotcom, try lang if it works too just like what Marghil did… hehehe… nashock ako sa followers mo grace ha, 2.7k! whew!
Anyways, nice tips!
Miah’s last blog post..Earned $100 in Google Adsense in just Two Weeks!
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Hi Miah — some good tips for Tweeter neophytes. I have a slightly different philosophy when it comes to building followers, however (and perhaps that has to do with the strategy you talk about in #1). For us business Tweeps, there may be plenty of people who will get some value from following our Tweets, but little value vice versa (because their Tweets are largely personal. The “you follow me, I’ll follow you” equation just doesn’t work in all cases.
There was a good blog post on this a few weeks back. If I can locate the link, I’ll post a follow-up.
Jack Speranza’s last blog post..entrepreneurs & lawyers :: a strange but necessary marriage
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Hi Miah,
Thanks for dropping by here! Me too, I synchronize my Plurk updates to Twitter. I love the idea of paydotcom. How’s that? Would you mind sharing more about that? Hehe.
When comes to User Friendliness, they both are but of course, we have different preferences and that matters a lot. I find Twitter more suitable for business and I find plurk more interactive also. But I use the two micro blogging site differently so it was just fine. We really juts have to set that purpose.
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Hi Jack,
Thanks for dropping by your insights here. Yes, I agree with you, the “you follow me, I’ll follow you” equation just doesn’t work in all cases. I shared it because it worked for me but it doesn’t necessarily means that it should work for you or for anyone else too.
You mentioned about a good blog post about Twitter too? I would appreciate much if you can drop by again here and share the link to us.
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Found this over at http://bizsugar.com and I found this Twitter tips helpful. I love the touch of personal experiences where your tips where being drawn out. Good write up here! Keep it coming!
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Very good tips but I would add that maybe we should respond more to tweets posted via RT and DM’s. Otherwise, Twitter simply becomes a repositoty of posts with a low ratio of comments. Just like I am doing here, it’s good etiquette to comment on what people took the time to find and post.
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Hi Mario,
Thanks for taking time to post your comment and added more value to this Top 10 Twitter Tips of mine.
I agree with you. Respond, respond and respond! We should be active!
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Hi Maria,
I just recently joined on bizsugar community. I’m happy I got some visitors from there. Btw, is there by any chance you’re related to Mario? Just kidding! Seriously, thanks a lot for dropping a comment to this post!
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Well, just started promoting/selling products from paydotcom on my tweets but I still had no sales as of the moment.. lol… well, I guess I have to build more followers or make my tweets more attracting..
Miah’s last blog post..Tips for Newbies on How to Drive Traffic to their Sites
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@miah: I would love to learn more about that mi.. Thanks for sharing it…
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hehehe, actually tagal na ako ngsign up jan sa paydotcom pero di ko kamao unsaon xa tas nkalimot nko about it… then naremember ko lng nung naread ko post ni macuha sa blog nya na nkasell xa thru twitter, so I just tried lang din, but still have no luck.. hahaha… soon sana may kumagat..
miah’s last blog post..Tips for Newbies on How to Drive Traffic to their Sites
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girl opinion Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Wahehehe… Sige subukan natin yan….
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Sweetened you! Cool list of tips and practical ones! Thanks for passing along!
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girl opinion Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Thanks Andy for dropping by here in my blog. Also thanks for sprinkling some sugar to my submission there. I highly appreciate that. Hope to see you here more often.
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Andy, I agree. Practical and insightful indeed!
Keep these tips coming, GirlOpinion.
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girl opinion Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Surely, I will.
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Please help me with my twitter dilemma
curious_girl’s last blog post..Should I join TWITTER?
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Hi Curious Girl,
First of all, thanks for dropping by on my post.
Here’s my view:
As I shared on my first tip, set your purpose. Not all needs Twitter but in my humble experience, Twitter is my top referrals so that might also help your site gain popularity as well. Also, twitter is just very easy to maintain. Its micro-blogging technology made the exchange of ideas, very brief and fast. So it’s up to you if you’re into that brief and fast idea exchange. If you are, then don’t walk, run and sign up for Twitter.
If not, then no more use for any dilemma.
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[...] 3 types of tweeps: Personal Oriented, Business Oriented and Spam Oriented http://www.girlopinion.com/2009/06/06/top-10-twitter-tips/ [...]
[...] has come and was ultimately enjoying for me and for the rest of the havaianaticos! First and…Top 10 Twitter Tips Okay, so I admit I’m one of those avid fans of Twitter : @girlopinion. So let me dive in to one of [...]