Learning Conversations

It took me a while to understand Twitter. I spent a long time taking the view that it was an addictive waste of time and pretty useless for in-depth conversations.

I realise now that I hadn't grasped when Twitter should and shouldn't be used, and how to get the best out of it.

The following two lists are based on my experiences. I'd love to hear from others too.

Do

• Do treat Twitter like your work kitchen, water cooler or staff room. You wouldn't spend all day there, and you wouldn't expect to be aware of every conversation taking place while you weren't there.
• Do dip in every now and again. Have a quick look at what people are talking about.
• Do consider replying to someone if they have said something useful, interesting or stimulating. If there's nothing there of interest to you, then post about something that you've discovered, thought about or found infuriating. It might start a conversation.
• Do make sure your Twitter profile says something about who you are and what you might tweet about, so people know why they might follow you.
• Do follow people you find interesting. It's the equivalent of having people at work that you enjoy hanging out with in the staff room.
• Do add a picture of yourself to your profile. It gives your Tweets a human face. This is true even if you're Tweeting as part of work.
• Do take a break completely from Twitter for a few days. It'll do you good. Real conversations and thinking need more than 140 characters.

Don't

• Don't be afraid to dip out of a conversation. If someone wants to talk to you directly, they'll mention you in a post and you'll be able to reply later.
• Don't tell us everything that's happening in your life. It gets a little boring.
• Don't be afraid to unfollow people if what they are saying gets boring or irrelevant to you at the moment. It's not personal...
• Don't just post links to your company website. I'm sure you're more interesting than that.
• Don't try to read over every conversation that's happened in the past 24 hours. Just focus on the stuff happening now.
• Don't use Twitter to replace reading blogs, journals and newspapers regularly. It's where the deep thinking is taking place. You do have an RSS reader don't you?