Twitter. Chances are you either love it, hate it or don’t understand it.  Am I right? I happen to love it. Really love it. Which is kind of a problem, especially if you find yourself stopping in the middle of the street to Twitter out your latest brilliant thought. Not that I’ve ever done that, of course. I mean, had a brilliant thought.

If you are a Twitter newbie than you’ll want to get a quick handle on what NOT to do when engaging in Twitter.  Here is a (brief) run down:

DON’T tweet out anything that could get you fired or hurt your professional reputation. Remember – tweets are public. People are watching. Please act accordingly.

DON’T take an unfollow personally.  Twitter is no place to be obsessive.  You’ll gain other followers. It is not the end of the world if someone decides to stop following you.

DON’T use Twitter solely as an advertising vehicle. Sending out constant tweets that read like a marketing piece will gain you no followers.  Twitter is a CONVERSATION.  Okay? Con-ver-sa-tion. Talk with people. Engage. Be human!

DON’T use Twitter only for your blog updates.

DON’T hook up your Facebook updates to feed into your Twitter stream. People hate this.  Alot. And conversely, if you tweet often, don’t hook up your tweets to feed into your Facebook stream.  Yes, it is annoying.  Your friends will most likely block your updates.

DON’T brag about how many people follow you… especially if you don’t follow them back.
DON’T ask people to Digg, Stumble Upon or re-tweet every post.  If you have no idea what I am talking about then no worries!

DON’T be frightened.  Jump on in there!  Twitter is really fun and effective marketing tool for yourself and for your business.  Whether you use if personally or professionally, you will quickly fit right in.
If you are still having Twitter-fear, email me and I will physically come to your office and hold your hand through the beginning processes.  Yeah, I believe in it THAT much.  See ya in the Twitterverse!

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Jennifer has more than 15 years of experience in public relations, marketing, writing, event planning and social media.  She’s represented clients ranging from small mission based non-profits to national record labels, local retail shops to multi-platinum recording artists and their respective worldwide tours.  When not working with clients, she can be found blogging at Hip As I Wanna Be (hipasiwannabe.com) or running her kids to (of course) soccer practice.