As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on a book about how to build an online writing business. I was making some notes about Twitter and how to use Twitter as a freelance writer, and when building your own online writing brand and websites. I was trying to quantify some rules of thumb that might be useful to a new Twitter user when I realized that there were an absurd number of exceptions to nearly any advice I could come up with. I realized that is, in part, because there are actually many different ways to use Twitter. And, of course, each of these worlds within Twitter has their own rules and etiquette.
Four Types of Twitter Worlds
In my experience, there are four main worlds, or divisions, within Twitter. Each one has its own set of rules. Of course, there are many Twitter users who crossover between worlds, however, to the users within each world, the rules and expectations for “good” behaviour on Twitter are different.
Business Twitter or Knowledge Twitter
The world of Twitter that a freelance writer or online entrepreneur will most often encounter first is the world of business Twitter, or knowledge Twitter. In this world, Twitter is for sharing information. Useful news articles are tweeted and retweeted. Links to clever, interesting, or notable websites and personalities are welcome. Users themselves hope to gain both knowledge, and if they are writers or publishers, exposure as well.
Not all tweets in this world have to be all business. In fact, connecting with other users on a personal level is encouraged and welcome. In many ways, this world of Twitter is similar to offline business networking. There are plenty of people who show up to any event and drop business cards (links) everywhere they go, but the people who really get something out of it are those who both give and get useful information. Responding to tweets is definitely encouraged, as is commenting on them, even if it’s just to say, “Interesting,” or “I agree.” This is often referred to as engagement and if you listen to “experts,” this is how you get the most out of Twitter.
Personality Twitter or Joke Twitter
Also known as Seinfeld Twitter, the world of personality Twitter or Joke Twitter, revolves around being funny, outrageous, clever, sarcastic or snarky. There are numerous subsets of this world depending upon how you like your humor and snark. Whether it’s a biting comment about a cashier, making fun of people who like Pumpkin Spice Lattes, bashing your spouse, or just bragging about how much you drink and have sex (or how you never do), life on personality twitter revolves around YOU, not information.
Over here, links to news stories or articles aren’t really welcome (unless it’s weird news), links to your own stuff is self-promotion at best, and spam at worst. Nobody wants to hear about your kids, your work, your life, unless it’s funny or has a bite to it. This twitter is for entertainment, not networking or knowledge sharing.
On Personality Twitter, HOW you interact with people is very important. Replying with a comment or your take on a tweet is typically frowned upon. It’s not considered interaction, it’s considering stealing the original tweeter’s thunder by taking part of the attention away from their original tweet.
For the same reason, people in this world of Twitter hate manual retweets. A “regular” retweet is when you just hit the retweet button on Twitter, or some Twitter clients. Using this method, your followers will see the name and avatar who made the tweet with your name underneath as “Retweeted by.”
With a manual retweet, the original poster’s name is still displayed, and credit is still given, however, the retweeter’s name and avatar show up in the timeline instead. The same thing happens when you reply to a tweet. The people from this Twitter world deride these types of replies as “@ replies” and generally do not approve, thinking that the replier typically adds little or nothing to the original tweet.
Twitter for Credit
More importantly, for people who use Twitter in this world is that any retweets of a manual retweet will “count” as your retweets. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then this probably isn’t how you use Twitter.
There are several services that seek to rank people in Twitter by one measure or another. Almost universally, getting a retweet improves that ranking. Getting a lot of retweets is better. Furthermore, if one of your tweets gets a lot of retweets, then that is proof that, that specific tweet was a really good one.
I call this Twitter for credit, where retweets are your “grades.” But, if you manually retweet someone and then your followers retweet YOUR retweet 50 times, then you have “stolen” 50 retweets from the original poster. Essentially what will happen is that the various counters will give the first tweet credit for one retweet (your original one) but you get credit for the next 50 retweets (assuming that no one manually retweets you). If you are nodding your head and thinking, “Yeah, those manual retweeting scumbags are the worst,” then you probably belong to this world. If you are thinking, “What are you talking about? Who cares, as long as people see and share your stuff,” then you probably belong to one of the other worlds.
Celebrity Twitter
Celebrity Twitter is where someone who is kind of a big deal sends out tweets. In this world, the term followers is the most accurate. In general, the celebrity is talking too his fans or followers. There may be some interaction, but it will be limited, if for no other reason there are likely too many followers, and replies to answer them all. In other words, this is typically a one-way interaction. Celebrities don’t have to be just actors and musicians. Sports figures, big-name executives, politicians and anyone with a significant “real-world” following would fall into this category. These are people who have lots of followers whether there is a Twitter, or not.
Unlike in Personality Twitter, celebrities don’t really care what you do or do not do, retweet-wise, with their tweets. After all, their follower counts are already very high. Just the act of sending the tweet in the first place means that more people see it than even the most retweeted tweets from non-celebrities.
Club Twitter or Social Circle Twitter
Unless you already do this type of Twitter, you probably won’t. In this form of Twitter, people follow people they know in real life. Tweets made by these users are essentially mini-broadcasts to their friends and/or families. They aren’t secret per se, but they aren’t designed for any sort of mass consumption.
Retweets in this world of Twitter may not be welcome as it spreads a message further than it was meant to go. However, if something is generic enough (a funny joke perhaps?) then a retweet probably would be too frowned upon.
Rules of Twitter
The truth is that there are no real rules for Twitter. You can do whatever you like. Just no that occasionally when you cross realms, you might draw some scorn from those who inhabit a different Twitter world than you.
I, for example, enjoy following some funny people on Twitter as well as those who provide useful information and friends. I use HootSuite to schedule tweets and avoid loading up too many at once. When you do that, the retweets come out as manaul retweets. I’ve had a dozen or so people send me messages or replies admonishing me for manual retweets. Since I don’t do Twitter all day long, the only other options is to send out 20 tweets and retweets all at once two or three times a day. I think MY followers would find that less appealing, so I politely reply that while I mean no harm, that isn’t how I do Twitter. Ironically, a few people have blocked me meaning that they can never get another retweet again from me manually or otherwise.
In the end, what matters is both how you use and enjoy Twitter, and how your followers do. Stay true to that, and you’ll fit in to whichever world it is that you want to inhabit.
I’m ArcticLlam on Twitter. Please do follow me.
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