Understanding how to use Twitter is important. It’s a 24/7 press conference, and if you’re not using it you need to know how. Well, let us give you the basics:.

First, understand that there is importance to “correctness” on Twitter. But look at it from a contextual point of view, rather than that of the content. To clarify this point: misspellings are frequent. They are part of the game. But don’t waste your time apologizing about your “cant”. There are folks who sit on Twitter and can’t wait to go “@______ It’s ‘You’re’, not ‘your’.” It happens. Don’t feed their feeding frenzy.

But, make sure the context of your material is spot on. If you’re linking something, make sure the links are correct and navigable. Make sure they are from a legitimate source. If you’re making a claim via Twitter, people will question it. If you take the wrong context from what you’re saying, you’ll look like a fool. It’s more important to know what you’re talking about, than making sure every detail is grammatically and phonetically sound. Thus, when tweeting, saying “The Prinse and Kate Middleton got marred” looks better than “Kate Middleton married Prince? I thought he was a singer.” Knowing which error should be a higher priority to avoid will save you heartbreak and frustration in the future. You can play down a missed keystroke, but not a missed decade of pop-culture.

Another consideration is to show who you are. If you’re funny, show that sense of humor. People want to see Tweets as a story, and as a reflection of your daily travels. If you’re a weird person, bring your audience into the weirdness of your travels. If you’re a go getter, they wanna see you on the move. If you’re a boring, average Joe….they wanna see the boring average Joe. Except in that case, no one will follow you.

Especially for political figures, don’t send out tweets like “Join my in my fight against….”, because frankly, people aren’t interested in that stuff 24/7. They know that these conversations aren’t part of every second of your life, and they want to see what it’s like to be you. Twitter is a great way to get those sorts of things out there, but mix it up with some informal insight. They want to be behind the scenes. Let them be.

They want to be engaged into a process other than the mundane political ramblings from time to time.

Another good tip is to watch who you follow. It used to be common practice to auto-follow those who followed you- however, with Twitter bots, some critics have raised issues saying that officials are promoting “Adult_Site-Bot” and “Marijuana_Bot” for example. This is inevitable, and frankly from our end the jury’s still out on how big on an issue this is. We try to make sure that our clients don’t follow questionable people, but it’s inevitable that you will. However, the news frenzy surrounding these types of stories about who politicians follow generally didn’t culminate to any huge effect, so the horse may have already been beaten and dead. Elected officials having a few inappropriate follows that obviously weren’t intentional hasn’t gotten anyone removed from office yet, so it’s not a huge priority- but being aware could save headache.

Finally, market your hashtag. If you want to rally against an issue, or brand yourself as a champion of a cause, make your own hashtag for it. It will improve your brand, and give you some name recognition in your fight. Inject it into your issue based discussion. Don’t overuse it, but once or twice a day is keen use. Make it who you are. It will attract a following.

Overall, Twitter is a tool for crafting your image. It’s important to stay ahead of the curve, and if you don’t you’ll certainly be left in the dust. Twitter is free publicity, use it.