@Michael – great way to think about Twitter and adding value to your followers.

@Dave – I agree with Mike McAllen that the RT is an important part of networking. Many Twitter grading systems rank Tweeps based on their responses to people using their name, RTs and engagement. Just because someone RTs me does not mean they follow me so I can’t always DM someone.

As for Thank Yous in Twitter, I give people a lot more grace in this area. If someone is being grateful to others and thanking them in public, I respect it. I think we could all use a little more appreciation and thanks.

@Mike McAllen
Very well put that there are no rules in Twitter and people can do what they want. We need to have a talk with Dave about being the social media police! grin

@Greg
I see RT’g differently than Dave does. Not everyone wants to be a thought leader and not everyone has the same followers. I think it’s fine to show respect, appreciation and gratitude by tweeting friends posts. We could all use some helping getting a hand up from time to time.

As for DMs, many people will not respond to DMs and they see it as spam. I personally believe that thanks should be public. If Dave sees gratitude as junk in his stream, we should hang him out to dry for a while. Just kidding….well sort of.

Michael McCurry nails it with his comments about wanting to assist his followers and wanting to connect with other peers.

Likewise, Dave Lutz hits a home run with his comments. Dave is spot on regarding cross posting from Twitter to LinkedIn. I also consider myself to be a LI power user and it does come across as spam in my opinion.

I have been guilty of not using DMs as frequently as I should and have resolved to do better in 2010.

Dave is also correct that too often items are retweeted because we are friends of the original poster. Of course, this does not apply to MY posts.

mike

1. Some people cross post their tweets to Facebook or LinkedIn. I’m not a fan of this at all. I think you should approach communities on each of these platforms in a unique and personal way. I’m a LinkedIn power user. It comes across “spammy” and also is a waste of a high quality status update. Trust me on this one. On the flips side, tweeting a good status update is a good move of a thought leader.

2. There are too many RT’s that are done because we like the person that did the original tweet vs. knowing that it will be helpful to one’s followers.

3. We all need to err more on DM’ing over replying to all. I prefer to thank people for RT’s privately vs. not providing quality info to folks that are following me. Too much junk in the stream.

4. You don’t come across as a thought leader if all you do is RT. Add useful info and your opinion, reply on the posts that you link to and always give credit where credit is due. I’ve seen a few people here and there that send what appears to be original posts, but are nothing more than RT’s of the smartest people they follow. Bad form.

Am I off my rocker on any of these? Hopefully, I’ll do more tweeting in Dallas today, but will never keep up with @jeffhurt (My motto – if you can’t beat ‘em, hire ‘em). Lots of great in person networking yesterday, so kind of hard for me to multi-task. I prefer to press the flesh and focus on live conversations to optimize my conference experience.

Dave Lutz – @velchain

Great post and timely, given that #pcma10 is occurring right now.

Two questions I frequently ask myself when thinking about what to tweet are:

1. “How can I help my followers today?”

2. “How can I connect with my twitter peers?”

Approaching Twitter with that spirit alone will improve the quality of a Twitter user’s posts.

thanks for posting this article … I am certain many new PCMA Twitter users will benefit from it.

@michaelmccurry