Twitter tips from @jangles

Neville Hobson posted a long comment on my Twitter for Academics post, and it's too useful to be buried away.... 

Here is what he said:

1. Make a Compelling Profile

Together with a photo or other relevant image, the concise information in your Twitter Profile is an essential element of a Twitter account as it lets others know a little about you, your interests and your community - an important aspect in decision-making when deciding whether to follow someone or not.

Here are three tips to help you when you're setting up your Twitter account and Profile:

• Write your brief bio informally and naturally. Look at Philip's or mine for an idea. It's a one-line bio, not a brochure intro or a press release headline.
• Choose an image that reflects how you'd like others to see you. If it's a photo of you, a smile is good.
• Add a link to more about you, your blog, something where a potential follower can go to find out more detail about you. In other words, somwehere that that potential follower can verify you to their own satisfaction.

Want some ideas of what other people do? Take a look at this Twitter list of communicators that I put together: https://twitter.com/jangles/communicators

2. Are You Public or Private?

There are two types of Twitter account: public, open to the online world; and closed or private accounts where your content - known as 'protected tweets' - can be seen only by those you have granted access to.

If you intend to use Twitter as a means of openly engaging with others online, sharing comments, opinion and links, then a public account is your obvious choice. If you wish to engage only with a small group of people, for instance, where you manually approve each request to follow you, and where your tweets don't appear in Twitter Search results, then private would be your choice.

The point is, you do have a choice. See the Twitter help page "About Public and Protected Tweets" for more information.

PS. Neville was the person who first introduced me to Twitter, soon after he joined in December 2006. I thought he was mad. Since then he has collected 11,000 followers and I have read a significant number of his 57,000 tweets.