U.S. Navy Twitter Best Practices March 2015 Twitter Do’s

ü   Present information in a timely, intriguing way. ü   Use tweets to communicate during a crisis or breaking news situation. ü   Engage with key-stakeholders by tagging their handle in your tweets to build

relationships and gain followers. ü   Respond to questions when you can. Treat each tweet the same way you would a

media query. Questions over Twitter are public; we want to respond publicly, and in a timely manner.

ü   Follow those who follow you to spread your influence, but beware of spammers. ü   Incorporate global trends and topics into your tweets by using popular hashtags

when appropriate. ü   Create your own hashtags to communicate key words, themes, and messages that

relate to your mission. ü   Have a plan. ü   Integrate your Twitter efforts with your other communication initiatives. ü   Engage and interact with your followers daily. ü   Use the platform as a listening and monitoring tool for news and topics related to

your accounts and interests. ü   Use Twitter to identify and connect contacts in a specific region or geographic

location. ü   Build lists of Twitter users that could help promote a particular event or

milestone. ü   Use a URL shortener to maximize characters. ü   Have an informative profile by using your command logo (or a favorite photo)

and key messages in your biography. ü   Monitor keywords and trends. ü   Recognize users who mention you. ü   Ask your fan base questions and retweet your favorite responses. ü   Initiate conversation. ü   Correct a mistake or error in spelling or fact if you made on in a previous tweet

(even if your fans don’t catch it and especially if they do.). ü   Use Twitter to generate awareness leading-up to and during an event. ü   Use traditional media products (posters, press release, etc.) to promote your

Twitter handle or hashtag for a particular event.

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Twitter Don’ts

⊗   Over-promote your content. ⊗   Get too personal or negative. ⊗   Use military rhetoric and jargon (including acronyms) that aren’t intuitive to the

general public. This includes handles and hashtags. ⊗   Retweet a link without reviewing it first to make sure it’s not broken or

misleading. ⊗   Retweet too frequently. This creates noise and you might lose followers. ⊗   Ignore people who sent you a legitimate DM or @reply. Part of the Twitter

experience involves engaging with your followers when possible. Overuse of a hashtag or topic, after awhile, becomes noise.

⊗   Use poor grammar or spelling. ⊗   Use text jargon. ⊗   Use emoticons. ⊗   Delete tweets even if you make a mistake or tweet something inaccurate. Use this

opportunity to correct the record. Deleting a tweet is deceptive and leads to distrust.

⊗   Retweet without attribution. Always give credit to those who tweeted first. ⊗   Write your tweet in capital letters unless it’s urgent or breaking news. ⊗   Send “welcome” or generic DM’s or @replies. ⊗   Leave your bio and picture blank. ⊗   Make your tweets private. ⊗   Auto follow-back anyone who follows you. You may not want to publicly follow

every account that follows you. Be deliberate. ⊗   Tweet more than five times in one hour unless you’re live tweeting from an event. ⊗   Reply to every single tweet that mentions you. ⊗   Tell your audience about breaking news or something interesting without linking

to content or providing a concrete fact.