Subscribe

 

How To: Not Suck At Writing Tweets

01/08/2010 - 1:00 am By Diana Adams

I never thought about this topic before this week when a friend of mine sent me an email asking me to teach her how to not suck at writing tweets. How can someone suck at writing a tweet? I looked at my fast moving stream of 23,000 people that I follow, and I studied the tweets as they passed by. I’ve since concluded that yes, some tweets definitely do suck.

How does a person learn how to write better tweets? After all, all we have on Twitter is text, so our reputation is built one tweet at a time. I’ve sent almost 20,000 tweets. That is enough text to write a book.

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I’ve come up with six tips that you can follow which will definitely improve the quality of your tweets. I’m sure I’ve left some things off this list, so please leave them in a comment below.

Grammar
According to this fantastic article I saw in a tweet from @SharonHayes, The Secret Social Media Skill, “Just because Twitter is only 140 characters doesn’t mean that spelling, grammar, and clarity don’t matter. In fact, I’d argue they matter more because you’re communicating in such a compact package, and you’ve only a moment to make an impression (or break it).” This is not to say that every person has to be a master at vocabulary and spelling, it just means to be aware of it and pay attention to it. I make mistakes like this in my tweets all the time. Nobody is perfect, just try not to be sloppy, that’s all.

Learn The Lingo
You don’t have to be on Twitter long to realize that there is a whole Twitter language that is spoken, or written, in tweets. They are really just twists on the old text, IRC (remember that?) and IM acronyms with a little bit of Twitter sprinkled in. You can read about the popular ones here: Twitter Dictionary | 35 Twitter Abbreviations

Keep It Below 120 Characters
There is nothing that validates you as a good tweet writer more than being retweeted by your followers; however, if you make your tweets too long, nobody can RT you. Forget 140 characters, 120 characters is the new black on Twitter.

Double Check Your Links
This is huge. So many people send out tweets with broken links, don’t be one of them. Double check your links to make sure you have a solid tweet. This is very important. Your followers will roll their eyes and quickly let you know if you’ve skipped this step.

Do Not Curse
If your whole Twitter persona is wrapped up in being shocking and your followers expect you to curse, than this rule doesn’t apply. However, for all the rest of us, if you care about the quality of your tweets, don’t curse. It’s not attractive at all. It definitely lowers the quality of your tweets.

Take Two Seconds To Re-read Your Tweet Before Sending It.
It only takes two seconds to re-read your tweet before sending it. You can catch any obvious mistakes your brain or your fingers missed the first time around.

These are the same tips I gave my friend a few days ago and according to her, they have helped her become a better tweet writer. If you have struggled with this too, I hope in some small way, these tips help you also. :) Happy tweeting!

Thank you for the great photos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whereiputstuff/3794382950/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9800389@N04/747251601/

No need to be worried about your PMI-001 test. Testking offers 100% sure success on 70-662 exam with help of EX0-101 online training.

More Articles By Diana Adams | Articles: 723

Author: Diana Adams

By day, Diana is the CEO/owner of Adams Consulting Group, Inc, a technology services and business solutions consultancy firm serving the specific needs of its clients in advertising and public relations. By night, she lives and breathes by writing. After publishing a small cookbook last year, she is now working on her new masterpiece, scheduled for publishing next year. “I could write all night long and not get tired of it. I think that is when you know you’ve tapped into a true passion. Whatever that thing may be, if you could do it all day or night long, lose track of time, ‘wake up’ ten hours later, and still thirst for more, that is a passion, and I feel like I’ve found that in my writing.” Diana also spends many hours each week assisting the homeless men and women in Atlanta. You can find her on Twitter at @adamsconsulting.


29 Comments

DIDJA

January 16th, 2010

Do Not Curse; I’ve seen a lot of WTF?
Is this be a no, no?

[Reply]

Diana Adams Reply:

I don’t consider WTF cursing, but that’s just me. It’s just an abbreviation. But, typing out the F word in a tweet is definitely cursing. Haha! :)

[Reply]

Ley

January 16th, 2010

Nice article, Diana. I’m so glad I’m following you… I have learned so much from you:) Thank you.

[Reply]

Diana Adams Reply:

Ley, wow, what a compliment. Thank you very much. I’m happy to be following you back! All of the writers here at Bit Rebels really appreciate your coming here and checking out our blog. We learn as much from you as you do from us. xxoo

[Reply]

KevinAJ

January 18th, 2010

Thanks for the great tips! It is always good to have a refresher to make sure everyone is on the same page.

I’ll take them under advisement, but brevity has never been a strong suit of mine. ; )

[Reply]

jase193

January 18th, 2010

lol maybe i wont suck now arter reading this.PMSL.

[Reply]

Elyse Worth Johnson

January 18th, 2010

Thanks Diana, I’m so glad to be following you, you give great advice.

thanks for sharing, I will retweet also..

[Reply]

anotherNeko

January 20th, 2010

“our reputation is built one tweet at a time.”

Just to mention o not forget that Twitters are real ppls living in a real personal timeline n_n.

[Reply]

Samhearts30stm

January 20th, 2010

I’m new to Twitter and found this enormously helpful. Thank you. I have now added you to my following list.

[Reply]

Diana Adams

January 20th, 2010

Thank you all for your comments and for visiting our blog. You mean the world to us! :)

[Reply]

Fogmonger

January 20th, 2010

It might be important to point out the difference between cursing and cussing.

[Reply]

What is YourNetBiz

January 20th, 2010

I am fairly new to Twitter; the Twitter vocabulary was priceless – now I won’t have to wonder any longer.

Thanks,
Ana

[Reply]

Ross Hamilton

January 21st, 2010

Great post! It is so easy to become lazy when using all these wonderful new pieces of technology.

[Reply]

[...] “How To: Not Suck At Writing Tweets“: Diana Adams @ Bit Rebels. [...]

Nancy E. Wigal

January 30th, 2010

never thought about the 120-character limit; makes sense – thanks!

[Reply]

Ct Kingston

February 14th, 2010

The hardest part is “take two seconds to re-read your tweet before sending.”

Who in the world has time for that?! ;-) )
This is funny and comes in handy as me and a few pals are currently dealing with a lunatic in our feed. I’ll pass this along and hope that looney tunes gets a gander and changes her errant ways.

Cheers Diana!

[Reply]

Diana Adams Reply:

Hey there! It’s great to see you! Your comment is so timely to me because I’m dealing with a looney tune of my own right now too. People are funny, aren’t they? ;) It’s a good thing we can laugh about it. ~hugs~

[Reply]

Ct Kingston Reply:

Diana hello! I sure hope we are not experiencing the same feed clogging knucklehead! But me and my pals, our new arch nemesis does get around… OY!

People are ‘funny’ peculiar and ‘funny’ haha… and sometimes the overly ‘peculiar winds up in our Twitter feeds. OH MY!

Thanks for hello. I really enjoy your posts.

[Reply]

Stu Williams

February 16th, 2010

Hi Diana, This is a great post with lots of tips. Of course I love the 35 twitter abbreviations. There was a tip that came through a while back. “Be personable but not personal.” That one should be number one. You always come up with fantastic posts!

[Reply]

Anne Dougherty

March 18th, 2010

Thought technically not a tip for writing tweets, one thing that bears mentioning for how not to suck at using twitter: Tweet flooding.

It does not matter of your 140 or 120 characters or intensely informative, 20 tweets in a row isn’t useful to anyone. And it’s a particularly nasty thing to do when you’re using a service that allows you to schedule your tweets.

I see your avatar more than five times in a row in my twitter feed more than likely I’m going to stop following you regardless of the quality of your tweets.

[Reply]

@bonniessquires

March 18th, 2010

Hi Diana

I’m laughing so much about # 6
Rereading what you type.

Well 1 day i had so many tweets and
couldn’t keep up with it and made the
mistake of not rereading and guess who
picked up on my mistake our friend Tim.
I wanted to crawl under a rock. Thank heavens
to Patti she came back quick with an answer.

So now i check what I type. lol

Thanks for these great tips.

Bonnie

http://twitter.com/bonniessquires

[Reply]

Matt B.

March 24th, 2010

I agree with this message! @RemyMaza

[Reply]

[...] How To: Not Suck At Writing Tweets teaches us that good etiquette is taking the time to spell check. Your tweets don’t have to be in accordance with AP Stylebook guidelines, but glaring typos can suggest you plum don’t care. Look over your message before you send it out to the masses. #Justsayin. [...]

[...] “How To: Not Suck At Writing Tweets” by Diana Adams (@adamsconsulting) [...]

I received 1 st loans when I was a teenager and it helped me very much. But, I require the student loan as well.

[Reply]

Mike Morucci

August 1st, 2010

Whew! Luckily, I follow most of these practices. Like you implied, there are no official rules, yet the rules seem to show themselves over time. I try not to do the things that can make my own eyes roll. I always love the advice, Diana! And isn’t it nice to know it’s still timely eight months later?

[Reply]

hypotheek

August 13th, 2010

Bereken zelf uw hypotheek. Hypotheek berekenen? Maak snel een indicatieve berekening van het maximale leenbedrag van uw hypotheek.

[Reply]

free tattoo designs

August 14th, 2010

Your site theme looks cool. What template did you use ?

[Reply]

lenen

August 14th, 2010

Lenen Zonder BKR Toetsing Lenen zonder BKR toetsing stijgt in populariteit op het Internet. Veel mensen met een zogeheten BKR notatie, die toch geld willen lenen zijn op zoek naar …

[Reply]

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Check out some more great tutorials and articles that you might like.