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Yesterday I posted a few thoughts on using Facebook for networking with fitness professionals or other enthusiasts.  Today I just want to touch the other most popular social media tool; Twitter.  While I’m not as much a fan of Twitter as I am of Facebook, I still find it great for connecting with other people you may never had met through more conventional networking.  In fact, I credit Twitter for helping me find a lot of great blogs I would otherwise never have seen.

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Here are a few thoughts regarding how to handle yourself on Twitter.

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1.  Make contact.

Along the same lines as yesterday’s post about Facebook, if you add someone, let them know who you are, where you’re from, or why you’re following them.  If someone is trying to decide whether to follow you back they might want to know if you’re just trying to jack up your number of followers by following random people.  By showing them you know who they are they are more apt to follow you back.

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2.  Don’t flood the feed.

Once someone has decided to follow you the last thing they want is to see 50 posts from you in a row.  I know a lot of people only log on once per day, but try not to drop all of your tweets at once.  If you flood someone’s screen with your posts you’re on the fast track to getting deleted.

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3.  Easy on the self promotion.

While Twitter is most certainly more of a business tool than Facebook, people don’t want to see steady links about you selling yourself, your bootcamp, and your products.  Talk about yourself and share information so people can feel connected to your personality as well.  I feel that guys like Brad Pilon and Martin Berkhan do this really well.  Maybe it is an intermittent fasting thing?

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4.  Don’t spam my message folder.

When you add some people they send you a scripted private message offering you their services or telling you to keep watching for great stuff on their feed.  Don’t be that person.  It may work for some, but I’ll delete you faster than you can blink.

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5.  Be selective on your recommendations.

If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it is customary for many people on Fridays to use the tag #FF to suggest to their followers the people on their list that are most worth checking out.  Unfortunately, some people don’t know how to the be least bit selective and tell you to follow everyone under the sun.  Not only does it flood the feed (which is a pain in the ass) it doesn’t help your followers to determine who is worth following and who isn’t.

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If you only have a few people to recommend, list those.  If you have a lot of people I’ve found it sometimes helps to only recommend those who have put out the best content in the past week.  The same goes for “lists”.  Make sure to discriminate.  Of course, your recommendations should always include me because I am awesome.  Just kidding.  Not really though. 

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6.  Limit your follows.

If you follow me and I notice you are following thousands of people I am not going to follow you back.  I’ll assume you’re just using Twitter for self promotion and I won’t bother with you.  This is where the point above about introductions is relevant.  If you happen to follow a lot of people, but introduce yourself personally you’re more likely to get followed back.

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7.  Use real words.

I know that Twitter has a 140 character limit, but try to limit sentences like “Ur so gr8.  I luv ur blog”.  I hate them!  It makes you sound like a 6th grade moron. 

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8.  Include a picture.

As with Facebook, if you want people to connect with you, make sure you have a picture so people can put a name to your face.  Set your profile up so that your face shows up with your tweets.

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9.  Share my stuff.

Yes, this is a rule too.  Please share and retweet my posts and articles.  Okay…it isn’t a rule.  But I’ll cry if you don’t.  Seriously.

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Those are my rules.  Yes, I stopped at nine.  So here’s what to do.  Follow me on Twitter.  Add me on Facebook (if you already haven’t).  Then let me know if I’ve forgotten any rules in the comments section below.

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PS: There is a “list” area on Twitter where you can add those you think others should follow.  If you add me I’ll send you a million dollars.  Okay…not a million…not even one really…but I will like it.  A lot.

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