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 agree with Alan that just because we’re doing something a certain way now doesn’t mean it’s the “right way”, but I do think there are a few principles of using Twitter that can be passed on to maximize your early experiences.

So, I’m going to be running a weekly series on Twitter Principles.

This week’s Twitter Principle is: Patience Grasshopper

It happens all the time that people get on Twitter and “OMG look at all the awesome people on here! I need to follow all 1,374 people I might be interested in immediately!”. First off, I love the enthusiasm, you’ve clearly got heart. But jumping in and following a massive amount of people right away isn’t a great plan.

The thing is, when people get the “Captain Followsalot is now following you on Twitter” they go and check out your profile. And then they see numbers that look like this “Following: 1,374 – Followers: 119″. I don’t know about you, but the first thing that jumps into my head is SPAM.

You have to take it slow with a new account. How about starting by following the 100 most interesting people you find/have heard of? That way you build your account and following slowly, instead of not at all.

Also, and I can’t stress this enough, you have to tweet stuff. You can’t follow even 100 people and expect for them to follow you back when you only have 2 tweets.

So to recap:
1)Add followers slowly
2)Actually use Twitter

And if you’d like me to be part of your well-paced expansion, you can follow me on Twitter.