The Grammar Girl posted a style guide for writing for Twitter. Since you only have 140 characters to work with, you may need some guidance on how to get the most out of this limited writing real estate.
I especially liked this tip:
Don’t use abbreviations such as 4U and L8. They make you sound like a 12-year-old (which is bad, unless you actually are a 12-year-old)
Yeah, not cool. I remember seeing someone do that in a response to me and I had to do a Google search on some of the abbreviations he used. Totally wasted my time which is NOT the point of Twitter.
Every week, I seem to discover a new tool, plugin or widget that can be used along with Twitter. Most of these are web applications, but take a look to see if there’s one that can help you use Twitter more effectively.
- Twitter Snooze - Puts your Twitter account on vacation for up to 30 days.
- TwitterFox - Adds Twitter to your Firefox browser.
- Twitbin - Another plugin that adds Twitter to your Firefox browser.
- Twubble - Helps you find more people to follow based on who your friends are already following.
- Twhirl - Gives you the ability to follow your friends and update your Twitter status without logging into the web version of Twitter.
- Twitter Tools - A plugin that allows you to add your Twitter updates to your Wordpress. You can even update your Twitter status from your Wordpress admin panel.
- Facebook Twitter Plugin - Your Facebook status is automatically updated with the status from your Twitter page.
Are there any others I should add to this list?
Update: Thanks to Kim Beasley, The Blog Queen, here’s a wiki with a slew of Twitter plugins, widgets, apps and tools. Go crazy.
I love how my friend Nancy Marmolejo is using Twitter to fill her ezine list. She posted the following tweet earlier today:
Waiting for my VA to send me a proof to this week’s ezine. Great article on Twitter Tips - u can get on my list here http://snurl.com/26c7q
Awesome idea. I know that I often get the question about ways to use Twitter for business. Well, here’s a superb way to do it.
I have completely fallen in love with Twitter. I used it religiously while in Las Vegas to update people on my adventures at NAB. Now, I’m hooked.
So, in my quest to find new and interesting people, I’d like to follow you. Currently, I’m following 49 people, but I’d like more. I have 4 times the number of people following me, so I want to start following the same amount in return.
So:
- If you’re using Twitter, please share your username in the comments section below so I can follow you.
- If you’re not using Twitter, sign up for a free account, then come back and share your username in the comments section below.
- If you know of someone I should be following because you find him or her interesting, and you think I’d be interested, please leave that person’s username in the comments section below.
Permission based stalking at its best.
I started using Twitter about a year ago while writing my book. At first, I didn’t like it. But now, I can’t get enough of this little tool.
Twitter became my outlet for bellyaching about the book writing process. Unbeknownst to me, my complaints on Twitter were being followed by others to the point that people started to ask me when the book would be released.
My twittering created anticipation and I credit Twitter for being one of the tools that helped me sell 900 copies of my book in the first 30 days without leaving the comforts of home.
What did I do with Twitter? Here’s a snapshot:
I also used Facebook to update my status (that’s before I used the plugin to connect the 2 together) and I used my podcast to explain concepts and get feedback.
My advice? Complain about the process in your tweets. You will create a following quickly and subsequently, sell many books.
