The Bloggin’ BUZZ

2 Tip Tuesday

Today, I read the article, 5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded. After reflecting on this article, the following thoughts popped into my head about Twitter (these are the 2 tips, thank goodness it doesn’t end there):

1.  There are no rules in Twitter.
2. I can make my own rules for Twitter.

Now, let me explain.

Of course there are guidelines for Twitter! In fact, there are some things that you can do that will make Twitter shut down your account, but that’s not what I’m referring to. I’m talking about the 5 basic concepts of Twitter:

1. What to tweet about
2. What to retweet
3. Who to follow
4. Who to unfollow
5. What to put in my Twitter background

There are all kinds of entries that you can find telling you what Twitter etiquette you need to follow in regards to the above 5 concepts. But the reality is:

1. There are no rules in Twitter.
2. I can make my own rules for Twitter.

This is so obvious, we overlook it. Actually, it’s probably what makes Twitter so confusing and overwhelming for a vast majority of people. We’re a society that has grown up with rules and we want to know what our boundaries are everywhere we go (what’s the speed limit, how many items in the check-out, what’s my job description, etc…). Without those boundaries, we feel out of sorts and look to others for an understanding. We gravitate to someone that seems to “get it” and we listen to what they say and do what they do.

The fact is:

1. There are no rules in Twitter.
2. I can make my own rules for Twitter.

So, I’ve made a decision! I’m going to come to a very focused and clear decision about the 5 basic concepts of Twitter for myself. I’m going to post it here and on Twitter.

Be very clear! I’m not going to post them so you can follow my example…I’m going to post them in order to be transparent in my intentions and make it easy for people to understand whether I would be someone that they would like to connect with on Twitter. I think it will alleviate misunderstandings.

I would suggest that you make your own Twitter rules. It’s okay. Remember, social media is about who YOU are…not what everyone else thinks you should be.

I’ll have my Twitter rules posted before the week ends…

now, THIS is going to be interesting.

Deidre Hughey

More Twitter Posts:
Twitter for Beginners…Part 1
Twitter for Beginners…Part 2
5 Steps to Twitter Retweets

This entry was posted on Friday, March 13th, 2009 at 6:42 am and is filed under Deidre's Social Media Soapbox, Tweet This!. 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.