Twitter Manifesto: Rules created by me for me

May
29

I did a search for “twitter manifesto” and I am sad to say that I was not the first to coin this phrase. Darn, there goes my legacy.

For the last couple of months, my participation on Twitter has grown significantly and yes, I have become somewhat addicted. I tend to follow certain peeps who I think I can learn from as well as personal friends and colleagues. Recently I had an ego “reality check” when I realized that a few of those peeps don’t follow me back, even though I attempted to interact with them on several occasions. I then asked myself, “do I provide value to those who follow me?, can people learn from me?, am I not liked?” I always thought I was a pretty likable guy.

I realize that I was taking this way too personal and that the world does not revolve around me; a sad truth of course (jk). David Berkowitz actually sums this situation up quite eloquently. He gives some examples of why one might not reciprocate by following their followers:

They post too often
They post too infrequently
They only post about themselves
They only post links with no commentary
They’re boring
You’re overwhelmed by your current volume from who you’re following and you’re cutting back
You only follow people you really know
I would hope that the last two bullet points exemplify my personal experience.

Nonetheless, I decided to craft my own “Twitter Manifesto” just for Michael Brito. So, here goes.

Don’t expect the people you are following to follow you. It would be virtually impossible for someone like Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) to follow all of his 8,000 followers. He is already following over 5,000 and I give him tons of credit for that. If and when someone wants to follow you, it’ll happen organically. If they don’t, DON’T TAKE IT PERSONAL (I am talking to myself right now). If you don’t want to wait, you can always respond to and/or blog about one of their tweets.

Participate. Ask questions that require responses. Try to start conversations; and reward people who actually respond (i.e. @britopian said that companies don’t listen enough, I agree).

Thank new followers, when possible. I try and thank each one when time permits. Of course, when your followers are in the thousands, it’s not really scalable or realistic to do so. If someone doesn’t thank you, don’t worry about it.

Reply. Always, always reply. I always try my best to return any @’s sent to me, even if I am several hours late doing so. Replying to @’s are the building blocks to creating long term relationships.

Minimize self promotion. I try and follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of my tweets are conversational about anything including responses and personal updates. 20% will be links to my posts here on this blog or on Conversations Matter.

Maintain a 1:1 ratio of followers and those you follow. Don’t “mass follow” just to build your network. Chances are you wouldn’t be able to read everyone’s updates anyway.

Unfollow when necessary. For the reasons listed above, it’s okay to unfollow certain people.

Thanks to Steve Spalding and a few others who helped me by sending me their Twitter rules of engagement. Do you have any rules that you live by? Please share.

Twitter manifesto.

Author: Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Vice President of Social Media at Edelman Digital. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.

Alma Gray

I like the 80/20 rule.
Seems to me if you think of others b4 tweeting, then you're on the right track.
Cynthia Clinton

Hi Micheal,

We follow each other on Twitter. I really liked this article. I've been using Twitter less than a month and I'm still reading all I can find in regard to it so I can learn what might be called Twitterquette (twitter etiquette).

I just started using TweetLater which allows me to automatically follow those who follow me and automatically send them a thank you note (which I didn't know I should do in the beginning). So anyway, TweetLater made my life easier already!

Thanks again for the read. It's helping me kind of define my own manifesto for Twitter use. Oh, and read your about page... your girls are absolutely beautiful.
Linda Bustos

One of the reasons I haven't followed about 200 of my most recent Twitter followers is simply because Twitter hasn't provided me with a nice usable way to log in and follow just my un-reciprocated followers without clicking through pages and pages of my existing Twitterfriends. I like how MyBlogLog and StumbleUpon separate fans from friends. It's much more "usable."
Michael Brito

@ Steve Spalding

You are quite welcome. Thanks for your help.

@ Ken Kaplan

Bella da Gatzi .... Subito. From your friend Robert D.

@ Kim Haynes

Great comment. Yeah, I unfollowed a few peeps when all they were talking about was politics; at least the politics that I don't agree with. : )

@ Veronica

Thank you for coming by. I'd love to follow you once you get on Twitter, if you aren't already.
veronicaromm

I really enjoyed this post. i am still trying to get Twitter. I am ambivalent about Twitter but this helped me understand the rules. Thanks
Kim Haynes

Great comments on using Twitter and how we connect with others on the platform. It's an odd balancing act this thing called followers and even stranger is the following. I love the fact that people follow me and hope like you that I'm adding value to their lives somehow. I want to make a difference. I've also started "unfollowing" when I feel that someone's comments are offensive. That's been a tough reaction, but I realize on Twitter I have to stay just as focues on the same values I place on myself in my every day life.
kenekaplan

Bravo, regazzo. You said it, and laid it down. I especially like the last one: Unfollow when necessary.

And then there's the one I shared with you at the Cluetrain @ 10 event: never follow anyone that might make your spouse suspicious.
Steve Spalding

Thanks for the nod mate, great post!
Kris

Hey thanks for this post! I will definitely have to start up a twitter account to get this rolling.

Thanks again!
Kris
Kandace Hudseth

Great post Michael, as a new Twitterer I find it helpful. I agree, don’t take the lack of follow back personally. You are likable!
mcwflint

Don't forget that sometimes Twitter "forgets" to tell you about new followers
so don't take "it personally." I try to remember to run Twitter Karma
Michael Brito

@Jeff

Yeah, I hear you. When I think of manifesto, i think of it almost as being cultic in nature like wearing a Che Guevara shirt. ; )

@Dave and Melanie

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate it.
Jeff Morairty

I often cringe when I see a "manifesto", but those are good, solid rules and I agree with all of them.

Interestingly, I think they apply to almost all communication mediums in some form or another. I don't want to talk with someone who just self promotes the whole time, or never engages in discussion.
Melanie Phung

Those are great rules of thumb. A few of my own also include:
- Retweet good stuff and give credit where due.
- One thought/one tweet. Don't stretch one message out over multiple posts because you can't fit it into 140 characters. As much as possible, each tweet should make sense on its own.
- At least occasionally, make sure you show some personality.
David Berkowitz

These are great posts. I know you mean as much, but I think the 1:1's a good ballpark, though hardly something to worry too much about. You may just find a ton of value reading more than participating so you'll wind up following more, or you may choose to only follow a handful of the people you must read every day so you wind up with far more followers.

I'll tweet this post to get a little more exposure for it. Well done on the manifesto, coined or not.