Twitter Is Not EMail

Most who know me also know I’m a huge Twitter fan.  It’s not only a social media, it’s a genuinely useful and flexible tool that can be adapted to almost any purpose.  As Twitter is everywhere in the media these days I notice new users (and some not-so-new users) venting about suffering another’s apparently bad twitterquette… typically the unanswered tweet, the unrequited follow…. or the un-follow.

I think a few reminders are in order…

1. Twitter is not email. Yes, you can DM and @ other users.  However – one should consider that if the recipient has a lot of people that they follow – messages can easily be lost in the flow or overlooked, or sometimes not delivered in a timely way (although message delivery is way better then it used to be).  If you really want someone’s attention- and need a response – email them instead.

2.  Don’t feel offended about being unfollowed. It’s possible someone just feels overwhelmed with their tweetstream and needs to cut back (it happens) – or maybe you did actually annoy them (tweeting 100 times a day will get you unfollowed by many).  There’s just no point in worrying about it. If large numbers are unfollowing – maybe you should rethink your Twitter habits.

3.  Not everyone wants to auto-follow. Not everyone wants to follow a gazillion people. Just because you follow someone (who you may not know personally or have no connection with) decides not to reciprocate the follow, doesn’t mean you should take offense. Which brings me to #4….

4.  Only follow people you are genuinely interested in. There’s a lot of random “follower building” – all on the assumption that people will auto-follow. You may build your follower count to some level with this tactic, but will they really care?

Twitter works best when users keep in mind that there is no one way to use it and everyone’s got their own preferences and style. When it comes to Twitter, just lighten up!