Bored in your lecture class, you whip out your cellphone to check what’s new in the world. In the world of social media that is. You press the Twitter app and 30 new tweets from your friends show up on the page. Then, you see that one tweet. In all caps. With 14 hashtags. And an emoticon. Too much? Apparently not to her, since she sent a follow up tweegram of the same message. This is not okay, and cross your fingers that she reads this article so she can learn the Do’s and Don’ts of Twitter.
1. BOYFRIEND TWEETS
#Taken #Iamhis #Ilovehim #ilovemybaby #11.9.2012. Couples are adorable. Pictures of couples, couples in real life, but this? Hashtag I love you? I think we can all agree that over affection on twitter is, quite frankly, way too much. Every other tweet about your boyfriend? Please. Stop. Now.
Do: If you two are in a steady relationship and you two are comfortable sharing your relationship to your friends, do it! There is no shame in loving someone, but make sure that your relationship is not just for show and is not every other tweet.
2. EMOTICONS
Smiley face, shining sun, cat, sunglasses smiley face, crying while laughing face, up arrow, down arrow, dancing twins, tomato. Do you know what all of these emoticons have in common? Let me guess, you have no idea either. Good, therefore, they should never be seen accompanying each other unless by chance your tweet has something to do with you smiling on a summer day, while wearing glasses when you saw your cat doing something funny so you began to laugh with your head in the up direction, and then in the down direction where you noticed 2 twins dancing with tomatoes. Since THIS would never happen, try to refrain from using every emoticon presented to us just because they are there. It’s irritating and it makes your followers want to unfollow you.
Do: Use appropriate emoji’s to express your emotions. If you are happy, put a smiley face. If you are eating tomatoes go crazy and throw in a fork with that tomato emoticon. The purpose of emoji’s is to express your emotions in pictures, while in moderation.
3. LYRICS
We get it, you enjoy music but let’s be honest, nothing takes up more time than trying to figure out which lyric of your favorite song to fit into 140 characters. So you end up writing the whole chorus. As artsy as that may seem, for the reader it is extremely bothering if you write lyrics for your status every.single.day. “Say ye, say ye, don’t we do this erry day-day #swerve” or “Oh oh oh oh oh, it’s always a good time#OwlCity” may sound like a great update as of now, but if you feel any differently within the next few minutes, maybe you shouldn’t write that set of lyrics.
Do: Write lyrics that may mean something to someone reading them. As much as I love Mercy or Good Time, reading them in a twitter status reminds me how many more productive things our generation could be doing with our time. It can be simply said that some songs are better left to be heard and not read.
4. POLITICAL TWEETS
#yayOBAMA #2TERMZ #IloveMittRomney #MovingtoCanada #RaisintheroofforMitt. Okay so I totally just made that last one up, but the point is why is it that for 1 night, Twitter became the site for idea-crushing, political bashing, and extremely ignorant tweets? To live in a democracy is to take a 50/50 chance of your candidate. We do it every 4 years and there is nothing new under the sun. If it is our job to vote and our job to research the candidates, then we shouldn’t expect a certain outcome. Therefore, political rage on Twitter is unacceptable and not classy in any light.
Do: Voice your opinion, respectfully. If you are not ashamed, you should feel free to express your political voice through social media, but with tact, please.
Obviously I did not address all of the possible don’ts on Twitter such as #hashtagoverload, RT every tweet on your home page, or following every face you remember seeing in the dining hall. However, I hope that this has left you feeling ready to tackle the world one tweet at a time! And if you see anyone you follow breaking these unofficial Twitter etiquette rules, retweet this article and help them out.
Emoticon Image
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT…
Twitter Logo