The 5 Types of Tweets

Twitter has been the new in-thing for some time now. I'm sure we've all heard the horror stories (gossip girls use it to gossip about shoes 24/7 and irritating people with spray-tans just talk about themselves constantly!), but I've seriously found Twitter to be a useful tool for connecting to other writers, publishing industry professionals, book bloggers and avid readers.

But, when I try to explain Twitter to some of my non-writerly friends, I find myself having a hard time. I thought about why it was so hard to describe using Twitter, and I think I figured out why -- There isn't just one way to use the platform.

I made a list of the "types" of Tweets I post, and I narrowed the list down to 5 categories that cover them. Working from that, I also thought about the goals that each of those categories aim for, and Tweeting tips for each of those 5 categories. So here goes:

1) Quotable Tweets.
These are things you post that you're hoping other people will re-Tweet (RT in shortened Twitter-speak) to their friends. For example, if you were e.e. cummings, and you got all inspired one day and you were like "omg! The most wasted of all days is one without laughter!" you could Tweet that.
Goal(s) - to get your name on other people's Twitter pages, to entice more followers, or to start up new conversations with the followers you have, based on a topic that interests you (since you're the one initiating the conversation, I'm just going to assume that your quotable Tweet regards something you care about).
Tips - Twitter is already an abbreviated platform, with only 140 characters per Tweet. But if you're trying to entice others to quote your Tweets, make them shorter than that 140 characters. Leave your readers enough space to add a "RT @yourusername" to the front of the post, so that they can easily copy and paste your pithy message to their own followers.

2) Chatting Tweets.
Say you're inspired by another person's quotable Tweet, and you want to engage them in conversation. An @theirname reply will catch their attention. Hopefully they'll be interested, @yourname reply to you in turn, and you begin a conversation.
The other time chatting-Tweets are useful is if you're following a #hashtag conversation. For example, if you search #askYAed during a pre-scheduled "Ask the YA Editor" meeting, you'll see a list of various people's Tweets all responding to the conversational topic. Chats like these are a great way to get to know other Twitter users (... I tried to type Tweople here. I did. But it just made me cringe so much. Urgh!). Plus in the process, you can learn useful info about your industry!
Goal(s) - to engage with other people, to respond to conversations already taking place, and hopefully to learn some new things about your areas of interest. And maybe make a new friend in the process!
Tips - if you know you're going to be involved in a busy chat (the #kidlit nights can get pretty hectic!), you might want to sign up for an application like TweetChat ahead of time. TweetChat lets you pull up #hashtags into what looks like a chat window. It updates via live-feed, so you don't need to keep refreshing to stay on top of the conversation. This makes it easier to participate, without missing the good bits! Plus, it automatically adds the #hashtag of the night to whatever you're Tweeting (I cannot tell you how many times I've come up with replies to other people in live chats on Twitter, but forgotten to add the hashtag, so they don't see it until way later when they click out of the chat and check their @theirname page. Sigh).

3) Follower-sharing Tweets.
By this, I mean things like #FollowFriday (#FF) or #WriterWednesday (#WW). You list a bunch of @peoplesnames who you think are cool, and your friends might be interested in following. Hopefully, if they're nice, the people you recommend with suggest you to their friends as well!
Goal(s) - to gain new followers and find new people to follow
Tips - don't be afraid to follow back. Get a little, give a little! You don't have to auto-follow everyone (then you'd be following a lot of spam-Tweeters, and nobody wants that), but if someone else interested in, say, writing YA novels follows you via a #FollowFriday recommendation, follow them back! Who knows? You might learn something really helpful from them. And it doesn't hurt to follow a lot of people. Unless you're following 809 people and have no followers of your own. Then you might get reported as spam.

4) Re-Tweets.
The famous RT. I tend to RT anything that either makes me a) laugh, b) say "OMG THAT'S SO TRUE," or c) say "Wow, I never knew that!" There are two ways to RT -- you can either hit the "Retweet" button next to the Tweet you want to quote (it looks like a little square recycling sign), or you can copy and paste the person's quote (their screen name included) into your post box, add a RT @ to the front, and resend.
Goal(s) - to spread cool links/quotables around the web, because everyone needs interesting factoids and giggles. Also, you probably want other people to RT your posts. You want other people to RT your posts. You're hip, you're funny, you know where it's at! But other people want you to RT theirs as well. Give a little, get a little.
Tips - Personally, I find the "RT @theirusername Cool funny thing this person said! http://withalink.com!" to be the most effective. People notice it more often, remember that you were kind enough to RT their interesting post, and generally shoot you a quick thanks.
However, if I'm short on time, or if I see a long Tweet from someone that I can't be bothered shortening, but that has an interesting link in it I want to check out later? That's when I use the recycle-y looking Retweet button, because it will save that Tweet in my "Retweets by you" section so I can look at it later.

5) Linkable Tweets.
This is the big one. Since Twitter involves such a short amount of space, outside links are the most common way to get your message across. For example, you might want to link to the hilarious video of your cat doing flips on the carpet. Or to a cool article on feminism you found. Or to your own blog.
Goal(s) - to show your followers all the cool/crazy/intriguing stuff on the internet that you know how to find. Yeah! They should pay attention to your Tweets, because you know where the party's at! Also, another main goal of linking, especially for writers like me, is to drive traffic to your blog.
Tips - If you do want to drive traffic to your blog, I would suggest the use of something like HootSuite. You can set the system up to automatically post a Tweet, including a pre-set number of characters, that posts to your Twitter page whenever you write a new blog post. You can also set how many times you want the system to post that Tweet.
Most people only check their Twitter page a few times a day (unless you occasionally become addicted, like I do. Then you must drag yourself away. Then you avoid it for days at a time, until, like a junkie, you crawl back and... ahem. anyway). If you want them to see your updated blog post, but you only Tweet about that blog post at noon, and your friends log on around 4 p.m., chances are they'll never notice your Tweet. That's why it's good to set HootSuite to re-post about your newest blog post every couple hours for a day or so (not every 10 minutes though. You don't want to be irritating. Just want to get your message to as many people as possible).

Okay! So that's it for my brain today. Weeee. Anyone else have tips they want to share, or other types of Tweets you think I missed?