I see people attempting to come up with “rules” for how people should use Twitter all the time. As an experiment, I googled “Twitter ettiquette” = 426k+ results. A fellow PRSSA member, Paul Matson, recently wrote this post about the topic, citing the 70-20-10 rule that seems to be accepted by many for using Twitter. The rule is that 70% of tweets should be sharing links, tools and info, 20% should be sharing your personal insight, and 10% should be @’s and personal convos.
I respectfully have to say… bullshit?
But it’s not because I think Paul is wrong. It’s because I think NO ONE is right!
You know my Twitter etiquette philosophy? It’s kind of like Fight Club. The First Rule About Twitter is that there ARE no Rules About Twitter. (Hey, I said “kind of like…”)
IMHO, the 70-20-10 rule: a) It’s a SOCIAL networking tool, so minimizing the social aspect of it to 10% doesn’t make sense to me. II) Your personal insight is everything you say, relevant or not, so… 20%? More like 100%. 3) 70% link share? Spammish?
Now I definitely think there are some good general guidelines for Tweeting. For example, posting naked pictures of underage girls makes you either a spambot or @mlydy (see www.mattlydy.com) JUST KIDDING MATT! (He takes “edgy” senior pics, FYI, but they’re great)
And some of you will probably unfollow me (I use Qwitter, I’ll know!) when I have an epic back and forth insult battle with @mlydy or @tennilleking inevitably every morning (and afternoon… and night…) And some of you will unfollow me if I talk about politics and say that Sarah Palin is a huge joke (she is, and I’ve tweeted it, and I’ve lost followers for it.) But you know what, that’s ok! I’ve made a very personal experience out of meeting people and sharing ideas through Twitter, and that might not match up with your Twitter experience. I’m not offended, but I’m not going to change the way I use Twitter, so let’s go our separate ways!
So all that being said about not having Twitter rules… I, uh, wrote some Twitter rules. These are just MY PERSONAL rules, but personally, I think they’re pretty damn good.
1) Don’t just start following 5,000 people so that 5,000 people will follow you back. Following people you have a professional, personal or geographic connection with is a good start. Personally, I will not follow you if you are following roughly 400 more people than are following you back. There’s no science to this number, and it’s solely a personal preference, but to me that huge gap says to me that you are just following everyone you can to try to up your own follower count.
2) Participate in the conversation. Don’t JUST use your Twitter account to post links to your website, your company, etc. I will not follow you if I don’t see some @’s on the main page indicating you are interacting with people. Once again, it’s SOCIAL media. Also, if someone posts a “Twitterpoll” or asks a question, take 30 seconds to answer it. Without that interaction, the medium isn’t valuable.
EDIT: Rule 2.5, added after reading comment from @shpef: Don’t DM me as soon as I start following you to tell me about your product/website/company. That’s not participating, that’s spamming. You know I’m following you, so you’ve clearly sparked my interest in some regard: Make your tweets about your product/website/company engaging and interesting, and I’ll check you out if I’m interested.
3) Don’t take yourself too seriously. People seem to be worried about making jokes on Twitter because potential employers might see them. Other people seem to think that they need to spend hours a day finding crap to share to look knowledgable and well-read. Meh. Honestly, if you would reconsider hiring me because I said “shit” @ someone or because I didn’t post any deep blog links in a particular day… we wouldn’t have a good work dynamic anyway. This is who I am; I refuse to act any differently online than I would with my friends and, to a pretty great extent, at work. A lot of people would disagree with that idea, and that’s fine too. I’m putting who I am 100% out there through social media; none of my content is private (despite frequent discouragement about the way I am online from others). If you have a problem with who I am, I’ve got a simple solution: click the “unfollow” button @CherylHarrison 
Ike says:
Actually, shouldn’t the first rule of twitter be “Don’t talk about Twitter!” ???
http://twitter.com/ikepigott/statuses/977698933
Oct 30, 2008, 5:29 pmDanny Brown says:
Interesting theories, and some I agree with.
Yet don’t you contradict yourself by saying there are no rules, and then opining on what could be classed as rules? As you say, some of your own Twitter use is taken up with lengthy personal exchanges with other users - isn’t this taking away from the “social aspect” of Twitter by making your other followers have this banter in their message stream?
Perhaps separate Twitter accounts for personal and business may be an idea? Or, simply use email for personal back and forth exchanges/discussions?
Just a thought
Oct 30, 2008, 6:07 pmShpef says:
I’m of a similar opinion. When a follower has ZERO @replies to anyone, they RARELY get a follow back. Then there’s the ones that DM you immediately when you DO follow them back, and encourage you to buy/browse their products/sites. BOO. Most of those types are getting easier to spot.
Yes I follow a bunch that I do not expect to get back a follow - like @dooce or @sockington, but those are for ‘fun’ and my own enjoyment.
Those I follow tend to be local, or friends of someone local or in my industry. Shoot, I think I might have found you through @mlydy!
I don’t bother (too much) with tracking who follows me back… not high of my list of priorities. Twitter is not a venue to make $$$, at least to me.
Oct 30, 2008, 6:10 pmCheryl says:
@DannyBrown Oh it’s an extreme contradiction; being hypocritical is one of my more charming quirks. But the “rules” I posted are just how I personally view Twitter, not really guidelines for anyone else. And lengthy personal exchanges might annoy some people, but most of the ones I have comprise 3-10 different people jumping in on the same conversation, so taking it to DMs would take away from engaging THEM. But like I said, if people think I tweet too much or tweet @ people too much, they’re more than welcome to un-follow me!
@shpef I amended my rules after reading your comment - the DM spamming is extremely annoying.
Oct 30, 2008, 7:05 pmBrittany says:
Hey! I’m a student of Dr. Vorvoreanu (@prprof_mv) and it seems like practically everything you just mentioned in this post goes hand in hand with what she is teaching us about social media and twitter in particular. I’m new to social media (gosh I hardly even knew this world of blogging and tweeting even existed before I took her PR class this semester) but I have found out the same things for myself as well.
It’s easy to say now that these “guidelines” should just be obvious. But a few months ago I would have thought the best way to get promotion for my website/company/organization would be just to cut to the chase and DM someone about what you want them to know immediately-which is SO not the right way. I think it’s pretty humorous how social media IS practically a whole different world with “unspoken” rules…and I think you summed them up perfectly!
It’s all about engaging and contributing to the social media atmosphere by putting a little piece of you and the knowledge you have come across on blogs/tweets with a personal touch. Like the “queen of twitter” (Laura Fitton or best known as @pistachio) advised our class via skype, you must be conversational…instead of just tweeting a link you should ask people about their experiences or sell in a way that is really useful/interesting to the people you are trying to reach.
Oct 30, 2008, 4:46 pmComment, November 8, 2008 « Brittany’s Blog! says:
[...] 8, 2008 November 8, 2008 Filed under: Comment — bcarsonclemson @ 4:48 pm Tags: twitter Comment on Cheryl Harrison’s blog on “The first rule of Twitter.” [...]
Oct 30, 2008, 4:48 pmBeing Cheryl « Jasper’s Jargon says:
[...] to see anywhere else. While messing around on her blog, I came across a post I love entitled “The first rule of Twitter” (which fellow student Brittany beat me to). In this post Cheryl acknowledges that while many [...]
Oct 30, 2008, 1:13 amJasper says:
Hey there! I am a fellow student of Dr. Vorvoreanu (@prprof_mv) and a classmate of Brittany’s and I just loved this post on the rules of Twittering. I could not agree more with your analogy of Twittering and Fight Club. I am fairly new to Twitter but I still feel that users should be able to post up whatever they want, when they want. After all, is it not the user’s fault if they Tweet something that is bound to stir up some controversy? We live in a day in age where social media is exploding and it is almost impossible to escape its grasps, and having said that, I think enough people use social media to know that once something is posted, the World can see it. If you aren’t sharp enough to figure that out, then you shouldn’t be posting anything….. On a side note, I think Rule 3. is the best rule on your list and the best rule in general, applied to not only Twitter, but life itself. As I mentioned on my blog, it is a belief I have always lived by because life is too short and sweet to get caught up on all the complicated stuff!! Take care….
Oct 30, 2008, 1:21 amPimp your blog « Alyssa Maute says:
[...] the blog posts I read, I highly recommend The BS Nature of Interviews and The first rule of Twitter. I really liked these posts because they talked about topics that have been discussd in Dr. [...]
Oct 30, 2008, 4:22 pmArmchair Theorist says:
My Twitter Rules of Engagement…
If you follow me on Twitter, I will without exception follow you back if:
I have met you before in real life.
I will also without exception follow you back if all of the below are true:
You are representing an actual live individual person instead …
Oct 30, 2008, 7:22 pm