Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

Twitter rules of engagement may sound way too formal to those people who are active participants in the microblogging platform of Twitter.

First, Twitter is much easier to join than, for example, Facebook or LinkedIn because you can have a fully realized Twitter profile in moments as compared to the much more extensive information needed for a Facebook or LinkedIn profile to be fully realized.

Second, Twitter has perhaps less formal rules than many other social networking sites because you can follow anyone without asking permission as, for example, you must do on Facebook to friend someone or on LinkedIn to connect with someone.

Unwritten Best Rules of Engagement on Twitter

Yet the true Twitter rules of engagement – the ones that make using Twitter so effective for promoting your business – are often the unwritten ones that you either glean from observing what others do or from reading blog posts and articles about effective Twitter use.

Here are my own recommendations for the 7 best rules of engagement on Twitter:

Rule # 1

Your mindset should be on sharing valuable information first and promoting your own business second.  This is how people get to know, like and trust you – and then possibly do business with you.

Rule #2

You should commit to being an active Twitter participant – posting one tweet every week or every other week does not indicate an active participant.  While many active Twitter users take the weekends off, you can tell an active participant by whether he/she has several tweets in the current week.

Rule #3

You should try to answer questions to which you know the answers and can provide helpful information.  For example, if you live in Chicago and someone tweets asking for a good Italian restaurant in the city, then provide a recommendation if you can.

Rule #4

If someone replies to you, it’s a good idea to respond if appropriate.  If someone replies “thank you”, it’s not necessary to tweet “you’re welcome”. But if someone replies “Could you give me the link to the article to which you referred?” – do reply with the link to that article.

Rule #5

Switch a public conversation to exchanging DMs (direct messages) when it is clear that other people aren’t interested in what you and one other person are exchanging tweets about.  FYI – Sometimes a legitimate public conversation turns into one that should be private.  Sometimes a particular conversation should start off private from the beginning.

Rule #6

When you tweet with a recommendation for an article or blog post, include the link to that article or blog post.  FYI – It is very annoying to read a tweet about an interesting-sounding article or blog post and have no link to what is being talked about.

Rule #7

Tweet thanks to people for tweeting or retweeting links to your projects – this is simply good manners.  And when you do so, include the link that was in the person’s tweet or retweet so that other people reading your thanks can click on the referred-to link.

To sum up the overall Twitter rules of engagement, with your mindset of sharing information – be polite, helpful and engaged in the community.

© 2009 Miller Mosaic, LLC