10 Twitter Tips

We asked readers to send their Twitter tips for a chance to win a copy of Twitter for Dummies. Here are the winning submissions:

#EIR: Engage — talk to people, comment on their tweets, join chats; Inform — post links to useful informative blogs or articles; Retweet — Retweeting helps promote others and spreads useful info. (Jenise Fryatt of La Quinta, CA)
Always leave room for other people to add comments when retweeting. (Jan Flesher of Seattle, WA)
Have a personal and business account. Retweet between them. It’s a good way to build followers on a newer account. (Joanne Overstreet of Sevierville, TN)
Instead of asking for a business card, get a Twitter handle. It’s good for the environment, plus it’s an easier way to track the people you meet and the content they produce. (Anthony Cain of San Francisco, CA)
Use a search modifier to narrow the search geographically. This is perfect for local and national businesses alike as it allows for highly targeted searches of prospective customers. (Kyle Brigham of Glenview, IL)
Use hashtags (#) in your post to trend your topic; Follow those you are connected to in business and mention them often; Engage in the conversation! (Karen Childers of New York, NY)
If you send a reply message (@), make sure you don’t add punctuation right after the name. “@cheptum” will reach me, but “@cheptum:” (note colon) will not. (Jamie Stewart of Aloha, OR)
Don’t feed into the dissing game on Twitter. Received an insulting tweet? Ignore it! Vulgar replies and retweets only turn off followers. (Susset Cabrera of Miami, FL)
Don’t tweet about the slow barista. He/she is just trying to get you your coffee. (Christine Parizo of West Springfield, MA)
Say “thank you” when someone retweets your article. I love it when journalists do that. I give them my utmost respect. (Annie Noll of Prairie Village, KS)