My Twitter Advice / Tips
Posted by terrepruitt on January 28, 2010
I am not a Twitter expert. I’ve said that before. I learn something everyday. I have learned a few things and I thought I would share them with you since some of the people that read this are actually new to Twitter.
Twitter allows 140 characters. My advice:
1—When you tweet a link to something, give a little explanation of what readers will find once they click that link. If not a description, some words that might give them a clue as to what kind of link it is. As an example, “I love animal videos.” or “Don’t you love dance videos?” or “Here’s an article on fitness.”
2—If you want to type something along with your link you might want to use something that shortens the link. I use TinyURL.com or bit.ly. The link can be copied into the site and the site shortens it for you, and you copy and past it into your tweet.
Some programs like HootSuite and TweetDeck have “shorten links” built into them. On HootSuite you have to copy the link into the field (highlighted in the picture in pink) and click “Shrink It’. With TweetDeck you can opt to have links shorten automatically (see the little box next to “Auto Shorten URLs?”).
HootSuite
TweetDeck
Which brings me to #3.
3—Sometimes you might not want to shorten a link. Sometimes I don’t like to shorten the link because the link itself helps explain what the user will see when they click on it. Or I want people to see the name of my blog (http://terrepruitt.com) or the name of my website (http://www.helpyouwell.com/). I think it is good to put the names out there so people can remember it.
I believe there are reasons to shorten and reason not to, but, if you never knew you could shorten you wouldn’t be making a decision for yourself, right? So I am sharing with you here.
4—Don’t send auto DMs* when someone follows you. Even when you try to make them look personal, they are not. Everyone knows it. Especially when you are following the person because they followed you first, then you get a DM that says, “I’ll follow you back.” Uh, yeah, right.
Anyway, these are just a couple of things that have come up recently with new Twitter users so I thought I would share it with you. What URL shortening program or site do you use? Are you an auto DMer? Thanks for stopping by.
*DM = Direct Message
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Let me hear it. What have you got to say about this post?