What makes a great tweet?
A great tweeter is concise, funny, informative and human in just 140 characters – no wonder a tweet can be an intimidating prospect. Here’s some tips to get you tweeting like a pro

Six years on from its launch, the online social networking site Twitter is still growing at a phenomenal rate and is still an excellent way to make contact with people in the photography industry as well as keeping abreast of current events. But once you’ve got an account and a profile pic, what then? For newcomers the sheer scale of the service and the possibilities can be overwhelming, so I sat down to think about how fledglings should approach the site.

Lurk
The great thing about Twitter is that every unlocked user’s page is open to read, so you can see right there in your browser what your competitors/fellow photographers are up to. How are they using Twitter? What do they talk about? How do they position themselves? Pick a couple of photographers you admire (I’ve listed some of our contributors plus a few key Tweeters at the end of the piece) and look them up. Then make a cup of tea and go through their old Tweets to see the sort of tone they’re using.

Join in – or not…
Follow Friday is a tradition that dates right back to the time Twitter hit the mainstream. Every Friday, people list other Twitter users who they find funny, clever or informative (and sometimes all three) before adding the hashtag #ff to mark it out as a Follow Friday tweet. Though this is great when you’re starting out and can be a nice way of thanking people you’ve interacted with in the week, blindly following everyone suggested can leave you with a follower list a mile long with minimal beneficial content for you. As Amma Adjubi from the blog BeyondBeyond says, “these mahoosive lists are like a form of digital junk mail – the impact of Follow Friday has been lost...when I do follow people mentioned I tend to go for the ones that give me a decent reason to follow.” Thank people throughout the week and you’ll start to make friends.
Having said this, if you’re just starting out on the service, watching your favourite tweeters on a Friday can give you some similar contacts to check up on – or try searching their account history for previous #ff.

WWMCT?
Or, “What Would My Clients Think?” You don’t have to go the whole hog of putting this on a bracelet, but a post-it note next to your machine might prevent you from tweeting how much you hate the bride you just shot, or moaning about airbrushing your ugly portrait subject – or just that you’ve got no work on at the moment! Try to be positive in your communication, and remember that swearing, though probably fine in your workplace, can be very off-putting down in black and white. It’s great to receive support from the community if you’re having a shocker of a day, but hopefully you have real life contacts who you could privately email about the issue rather than broadcasting it to all and sundry. And remember, even if you delete a Tweet you regret, nothing’s ever really deleted from the Internet.

Now with added hashtags
Although useful at times, crikey, hashtags can get annoying. People can pepper their tweets with too many hashtags, which leaves their messages looking something like this:
“Looking for a #second #shooter this #weekend near #Birmingham, #Midlands #UK. #Canon #wedding #photography #tog www.link.com
It’s visually horrible and unlikely to encourage people to interact with you and your link. Or even worse, I have seen something as minimalistic as this going out:
“#photographer #Suffolk #portrait www.link.com” leaving the photographer in question looking more like an automated spammer than a genuine person with a business. At least make your sentence intelligible.

So what’s our advice for successful tweeting? In the spirit of twitter, we’ve kept it brief and down to just seven words: “stay on message but mix it up”.
Decide on your niche and keep your tweets related to this subject – your message – as often as you can, but sprinkle in some related topics to keep your tweets interesting to your followers. For example, you’re a car photographer, so your primary message is that you take pictures of cars. However you could also tweet about new cars being launched, speed tests, technical equipment, advice for professionals, stats, links to other car photographers you admire or who’ve done a great job. You don’t tweet about your breakfast, unless you’re getting up early to do a shoot, or are hungry because you’ve been at the track all day.
If you’re a portrait photographer, of course you’re based in your particular town and you take pictures of people ¬– but you also get inspired by blogs, have meetings with other local businesses, seen someone’s website that works, love a particular photographic technique.
Claudia Carter of @PhotoEventsUK has similar advice. “A good business tweeter goes the extra mile,” she says. “I would expect references to current inspirations, interesting blog posts that they had read and felt might be beneficial for others to see – some sly comments on positive things that are happening regarding their business ventures and development and a lot of corresponding with others.”
Most importantly of all, remember to be a human being. Don’t just broadcast your sales and brilliant new products directly at the ether and sit and wait for someone to get back to you. Imagine you’re at a business networking coffee meeting. Loiter at the edges, join in if what you have to say is relevant, and stay in touch with people who you get on with. Be helpful, polite, chatty and friendly, and you and Twitter should get along just famously.

People to watch:
www.twitter.com/RocknRollBride
www.twitter.com/DamienLovegrove
www.twitter.com/JuliaBoggio
www.twitter.com/Photolotte
www.twitter.com/PhotoEventsUK
www.twitter.com/NewPhotoDigest
www.twitter.com/scottbourne
www.twitter.com/photojojo
www.twitter.com/TreyRatcliff
www.twitter.com/jasminestar
www.twitter.com/strobist
www.twitter.com/zarias
www.twitter.com/photoshoptips
www.twitter.com/photojack