I appreciate the ‘thank you tweets’, I realy do, but sometimes it’s just annoying. The worst are the DM’s saying thank you, as if it has to be a secret.

Yes I spent time and made a conscious descion to retweet your post, link or photo but why not return the favour?

People notice when you RT their content. They are also more likely to retweet your content. It’s a compliment, people like compliments, you are giving them something back.

Think about it next time you are about to send another ‘thank you tweet’!

Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both.

Don’t know anyone who tweets, think again. Eric Fisher created a brilliant Twitter and Flickr map for Europe and most of the European capitals.  The Netherlands is a ‘hot spot’ again but also you can pick out Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Social media is going mainstream.

image credit: Eric Fisher

• 1. Share great content
  Don’t keep it to yourself, where is the fun in that? Others will follow you for your.
• 2. Reply to mentions
  So that people know you are listening and that you are a real person, it’s all about two way conversation.
• 3. Customize your background
  Make use of that space, profile yourself.
• 4. Retweet or give credit
  People notice when you don’t mention the source, don’t be nasty.
• 5. Be nice
  Don’t be nasty, people want to like you otherwise why would they follow you?

image credit: flickr.com/photos/matthamm

Tweetups are a chance to connect offline and converse in real life using more than 140 characters. Suzy Ogé and I organised our first tweetup at the WBII office in the summer of 2009 and it was a great afternoon!

Although we had already connected with some of the attendees online we had never met them in person. Some people thought we were crazy sending an open invitation to the world, but then again they also didn’t understand social networking in general.

A year later I can definitely say that I might never had met the people that turned up that day otherwise. An attendee became a client who was in need of realtime WordPress support. I went to WordCampNL with @happyhotelier and this year we organised a 2nd tweetup as a team, we have also started a community blog with more tweeps in The Hague.

Twitter makes it easier to meet like minded people than ever before, it is up to you what you do with it – online & offline.

image credit: flickr.com/happyhotelier

Chris Brogan’s 50 Power Twitter tips, read the blog post on his blog and of course it is a fantastic resource for more social media tips.