Twitter for Dummies - Laura Fitton [77]
You feed the trolls by acknowledging their existence and allowing them to take control of the dialog. Just ignore them, and they eventually get bored and go away. (If you block them, you may reduce your chances of having to hear from them again, but that’s a pretty aggressive move if they’re simply annoying. They can still view your public profile — assuming you haven’t protected your tweets — and they can even still reply to you if they want, which will show up on your Mentions tab in the sidebar, but they have to make a real effort to do that, because your tweets won’t show up in their timeline if you block them.)
On the other side of the coin, some people get a little intimidated by the thought of tweeting about something serious. Some people actually decide to not even try Twitter because they worry that they don’t have anything interesting to say! We promise, whatever you feel like twittering about, someone, somewhere on Twitter, is into that subject, too. You might have to tweet for a few days or weeks before you connect with them, but after you find one person who “gets” you, the floodgates open — hundreds more twitterers start to hear what you have to say and want to share with you.
Don’t be afraid to voice your support for social causes and charities. By tweeting about your cause, you both spread awareness about what’s important to you (which may lead to more contributions for that cause or charity) and give your audience a better idea of who you are as a person.
So, if you’re passionate about cancer research, domestic violence, or another cause and want to have a fundraiser for it, a Twitter update that you send about the fundraiser might get repeated and reach 50, 500, 5,000 or 50,000 people (or more) who are directly and indirectly connected to you. Spread the love!
Many have raised money for worthy causes right on Twitter. One of the first was Beth Kanter (@kanter) whose network sent a Cambodian woman to college in a matter of a few hours of Twitter conversation about it and links to a donation site. For more about Twitter and charity, see Chapter 15.
Keeping Twitter Personal . . . but Not Too Personal
Above all else, remember that Twitter is a public forum. Even when you’re talking to your trusted Twitter network, your tweets are very much public, Google and other search engines still index them, and anyone on the Web can link to them.
You can adjust your settings to prevent search engines and the occasional passerby from viewing your updates by protecting your account. See Chapter 2 for details.
All the public exposure that Twitter offers can really help promote you and your business, but that exposure also comes with some responsibilities:
Use common sense! Don’t publicly tweet or @reply someone your address, phone number, or other personal details that you should keep private. Send that kind of information via DM (direct message) — or, even better, via e-mail, instant message, or phone. Keeping your personal details private protects both you and anyone in your care, such as your kids.
Use DMs cautiously. Typing d username and then your message does send a private direct message from any Twitter interface. But trust us, if you made a typo or wrote dm username, you would not be the first person to accidentally post a private DM publicly.
To avoid accidental updates, make it a habit to use the Message button on a user’s page, double-check your d username tweets before posting or use http://twitter.com/direct_messages to send DMs. You want to be extremely careful if you decide to send sensitive information by DM. Better yet, use an even more secure medium like e-mail or even encryption. Never send passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, or other valuable private