We live in a technologically advanced society where social media plays a vital role in the delivering of messages.
Twitter became popular in July 2006 and has taken social media by storm. With 500 million active users, over 340 million tweets per day are sent.
But similar to making sure you place the fork over the knife to tell a waiter you’ve finished your meal, Twitter has etiquette rules users should follow.
Twitter is a very public and personal site, so be personable when interacting with others. If you ask someone to follow you, #NF (now following) is not personable. As k them to follow you, but don’t harass them.
“Don’t ask for a follow back,” said Demesha Wilkerson, a second-year English student from Tampa. “Just because you follow someone on Twitter, they aren’t any laws saying that they are required to follow you. If the person has any intention on following you, they will. And if they don’t, forget it and keep it moving.”
In a study by Reppler, a social media monitoring service, of 300 hiring professionals, 91percent said they use social media sites to screen prospective employees. Fifty-three percent said they used Twitter to screen candidates, 76 percent used Facebook and 48 percent use LinkedIn. Sixty-nine percent of the professionals said they rejected a candidate because of their social media sites, which included inappropriate pictures and comments and poor communication skills.
“Don’t post inappropriate pictures of yourself,” said Delilah Humphries, a third-year health care management student from Naples, Fla. “When tweeting, please be mindful of your audience. Twitter is your personal site, but you should also take into consideration what you put on your timeline. Try not to use curse words or have inappropriate pictures. You never know what future employers may find your page, especially if you’re a senior.”
Upon hiring, companies are now asking for potential candidates’ social media usernames and Twitter handles to see if you’ll be a good fit for the company.
Students also have followers who add hashtags to everything, including their profiles. #single, #young, #Famu and #teamfollowback are just a few. Hashtags are not the new comma. Everything doesn’t need a hashtag, so use them sparingly.
Students should also note that Twitter is used as a reference tool for debates.
“Don’t try to be inspirational, using recycled quotes with grammatical errors,” said Stacey Miller, a third-year biology student from St. Louis. “When tweeting, please check your tweets to make sure things are spelled correctly and you are using the proper “their,” “they’re” and “their.”
Twitter doesn’t have rules set for tweeting, but as users, students should acknowledge proper etiquette when using the site. Be careful of what you tweet. You never know who’s watching.