Twitterquette

Time to talk about Twitter

It's all the rage, we know; here's how to get into it

Ryan Ozawa, also known on Twitter as @hawaii, is the founding father of the Honolulu Twitterverse. He was Twittering before most of us even knew what Twitter was. He has more than 7,200 followers, and he’s the main Tweep (that’s Twitterese for “peep,” which is slang for person) in charge in these parts. Here’s his list of do’s and don’ts:

1. Customize and personalize: When you sign up for Twitter, include a brief bio, your hometown and add a photo or graphic as an avatar. It’s a good way to show you’re a real person, considering the prevalence of fake accounts.

2. Follow liberally: The best way to immerse yourself in Twitter is to follow, or subscribe to, a good mix of accounts. Personal friends and family?

Absolutely. Local and national news sources? Sure. Favorite bands, brands, and celebrities? Why not. You can always “unfollow” people who turn out to be uninteresting.

3. Think global, Twitter local: As an extension to No. 2, give extra consideration to following Twitter users who work and live near you. You’re more likely to come across items of interest to you, and feel more plugged in to your community. KC Waffle Dogs available where? H-1 shut down when? Twitter knows.

4. Follow back: You can be notified whenever someone else subscribes to your updates, and common courtesy suggests you reciprocate … provided they’re interesting, informative or otherwise promising. Unfortunately, spammers and scammers often follow anyone and everyone. If a new follower doesn’t amuse you or posts nothing but Viagra links, don’t feel bad about ignoring them.

5. Help keep the Twitt-o-sphere clean: You can help create a spam-free experience on Twitter by “blocking” spammers and scammers. Come across someone with the secrets to making money fast, or posting links to adult webcams? Don’t just ignore them, click “block” on their profile. Accounts that are “blocked” by many people are ultimately suspended by Twitter.

6. Join the conversation: You can use Twitter to track other people, and to simply answer the question “What are you doing?” But for many, the best part of Twitter is the community and its vibrant, real-time interaction. If someone posts a question, or prompts a thought or reaction, reply to them.

7. Retweet, in moderation: The “retweet,” (abbreviated “RT”) is a way of passing on a helpful update from someone else. But don’t “retweet” everything you see. Many consider “retweets” the mass e-mail forwards of the modern Web. Nobody wants an inbox full of jokes and hoaxes, so save “retweets” for the best of the best.

8. Get comfortable with hashtags: A hashtag is basically a keyword preceded by a “#” or pound sign. It’s a shorthand way of categorizing your updates so others might be able to follow a topic or conversation thread. For example, if you’re tweeting about music, include “#music” in your update. Then, you or anyone can search for the “#music” hashtag to see what everyone else has to say about the subject. Hashtags often arise out of news stories (say, “#earthquake”) or shared events (like “#comiccon”).

9. Go mobile: One of the best things about Twitter is you can connect it to your mobile phone to interact via text messages. You can post updates by SMS or can choose a subset of users whose updates are delivered by SMS.

10. Don’t sweat the numbers: Twitter users are often preoccupied with the number of people who are following them, versus the number of people following someone else. Twitter is not a popularity contest. Just because someone has 140,000 followers doesn’t mean their updates are more valuable than those of someone else. Some of the most interesting or entertaining people on Twitter are genuine gems of personality, despite having barely a dozen followers.

Follow Kawehi Haug at twitter.com/kawehi.