I got me the awesomest new job evar which in most ways I am totally competent to rock, but one thing I know nothing about – as part of managing the company’s social media presence, I’m supposed to handle the Twittering. I don’t know a damn thing about Twitter. I only recently found out you could even read Tweets online, actually; I thought it was all something you did with smartphones.
What should I know? 140 characters, right, got that – what else? What should I subscribe to as examples of Twitterment done right? What makes you cringe on Twitter? Besides “refudiating” and such, I mean.
Don’t overuse hashtags or capital letters - I know you probably wouldn’t anyway if you’re managing a company account, but I think it’s nice advice for general Twittering.
I agree that the concept of retweeting is important but not so much that anyone who follows you is suddenly going to have their feed flooded with tweets you’re retweeting from other people - they’ve followed you because they want to know what YOU have to say.
Tweet news stories that relate to your industry that your followers will find interesting.
I recommend the Tweetdeck application, which allows you to see your feed, your @ mentions, and direct messages all in the same screen.
YMMV, but I also like little updates that make it clear that the person tweeting is a real person, like when whoever it is that does the amazonmp3 twitter gets into conversations with followers and bands about music, or apologizes for typos.