Twitter Principles: Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun

Published
by
Matt
on Nov 21, 2008
in basics and twitter
. Tags: , , , .

Note: This is a continuation of my “Twitter Principles” series.

So, last week we talked about the importance of being patient when building a Twitter profile. This week we’re going to work on letting people know who you are.

This week’s Twitter Principle is: Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun.

Besides the follower/following numbers, the first thing that I look for when going through profiles is the “information” section. That little section in the upper right hand corner that gives you a snapshot of the person that owns the profile.

Here’s what mine looks like.

So first off, you must must must have a picture. It doesn’t have to be you. It could be your car, your dog, your lamp, I don’t care. Just anything but that default weird little picture.

The next two bits of information, Location and Web, are not as essential. Sure it’s cool to know that there are other Twitter users in your area, and it’s great for tweetups, but I wouldn’t consider this mandatory. As for the “Web” part, if you’ve got a blog or other website, by all means fill it in, but funny as it may seem, not everyone on twitter has another website. If you don’t, it’s no big deal (but check out Blogger and Wordpress).

Lastly, is the “Bio” section. This is crucial. You have to write something in here, because if you don’t, I have absolutely no idea who you are. Also, if you can’t think enough to say who you are in 140 characters or less, what does that say about your ability to put together good tweets?

So to recap:
1)ADD A PICTURE!
2)Tell me a little about yourself

And you can always follow me on Twitter here: @MattJMcD

  • I totally thought this article was going to be about people on twitter who mention "secret" stuff and purposefully tweet over and over about the secret thing, w/o revealing what it is. I have a lot of overly pompous people on my follow list that regularly do this and it's so irritating. Inevitably, their "secret mission" is some kind of privileged invite-only thing, but it isn't THAT interesting, or that big of a deal. IRather than making people interested in their project, I think most people interpret it the way I do - that the user is showing off and self-absorbed. Maybe the problem is that I have a lot of creative types on my list who take themselves way too seriously. :)

    Also, for what it's worth, after seeing a similar topic on your blog, I was inspired to completely redo my twitter page to add more info using a custom background.
  • Personnally, I also like to see where people are located: being in Switzerland/Europe I like to hear voices from elsewhere. The way they "speak", some specific subjects twittered, things like Momsblogging (and their power!) that don't exist over here, etc.. Maybe for those being in the US, who seem to be a large majority of Twitterers, is it less important? But Im' not sure. It might be interesting for you too to have voices from other countries on similar centers of interest.
    Thank you for the piece of advice!
  • This is so simple yet so important! I'm astonished by how many new followers I get with absolutely NOTHING in their profile- no picture, no website, no information, no location...bizarre. And yet usually they have a bunch of tweets saying, "Tell your friends to follow me!" Yea.
  • I have a lot of the same experiences with people. I don't understand the "I barely have a presence here, but I'm going to pimp it anyway" mentality. Hopefully, as Twitter grows in popularity, some of the more positive habits will start to rub off on people. I don't know if there's a "right" way to use Twitter, but there's certainly a way to get more out of it than you otherwise would.
  • Lyn,

    I know the type of people you're talking about. I usually tend to unfollow or tune them out if they're on a particular bender.

    Claudia,
    I agree that location is a good thing. Just having moved to Charleston, it's cool to see who else is in the area, and it gives me another way to connect. Glad you liked the post.
  • Going in willy nilly into Twitter will only set you up for failure. Do you need to let people know who you are? Yes, of course, but it's the manner you do it that will separate yourself. Here are the strategies I applied:

    http://www.jesseliebman.com/2008/12/15/captain-...
  • HI!
    I have no use for secrets yet. I haven’t found a compelling reason to be hidden . If you want to follow thousands of people and I am one of them, that’s OK with me. And on that, my position hasn’t really changed: I don’t see that secrets provide enough benefit for me.

    Louis
  • HI!
    I have no use for secrets yet. I haven’t found a compelling reason to be hidden . If you want to follow thousands of people and I am one of them, that’s OK with me. And on that, my position hasn’t really changed: I don’t see that secrets provide enough benefit for me.

    Louis
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