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Unfortunately, there is no official Twitter manual with definitive ways to tweet. You have to do what feels right and take your cues from your fellow tweeps. These tips are not set in stone in any Twitter Bible, they are simply my opinion of how to tweet more effectively. Below I’ll serve up a few “rules” I feel are important, break down a “retweet,” and give some real life examples of how I would construct a tweet.

A Few Common Rules and Definitions:

• @: “@” is what you’ll see before someone’s username. My username on Twitter is @SteveBarnesUSA. When you address or comment about someone, it’s best practice to list them with the “@” sign in front of their username.
• #: “#” is called a Hashtag. Be sure and understand the difference regarding using a “@” or a “#” in your tweets.
• 140: The maximum characters you can include in a tweet is 140. I feel it’s best practice to only use 124 which will leave 16 characters for anyone that wants to retweet your content with a short comment of their own.
• Username: Try and make your username as short as you can to leave more room in all your tweets for content. If you have a super long name, try and simply using your initials. The shorter the better.
• Comment: If you can add a succinct comment to a retweet, that’s always a better practice. Sometimes it’s not needed and there may not be enough room (unless you edit the original tweet without losing its meaning). If you tweet a URL to a story you think your followers may enjoy, try adding a comment of some sort to show your personality.
• Credit: Always give credit to the authors of tweets or content. Never remove the @username attached to original content. Always try and add the @username to a URL you tweet if it’s accessible. If the author hasn’t made their article “Twitter friendly” I wouldn’t waste much time chasing it down. But you can still credit the website.
• Edit: I can’t stress this enough. Brevity is key on Twitter (and mandatory). Below are some examples of how I’d construct a tweet based on some actual tweets I pulled from my timeline.

Breaking Down a Retweet:

Tweet Construction:

Here are 5 actual tweets from our timeline with an edit showing how I would edit that tweet to make it more compact in line with the discussion above. You can’t have a tweet that’s too short, in my opinion. Leave room to keep your tweet alive with engagement.

1. ORIGINAL: Three Ways to Better Focus Your Social Media Marketing for success http://ow.ly/5UV9j #social #socialmedia (106 characters)

EDIT-> 3 Ways to Better Focus Your #SocialMedia #Marketing for success http://ow.ly/5UV9j (82 characters)

2. ORIGINAL: #socialmedia Ten Social Media Mistakes Small Businesses Can Avoid http://dlvr.it/dmt4B (86 characters)

EDIT-> 10 #SocialMedia Mistakes Small Biz’s Can Avoid http://dlvr.it/dmt4B (67 characters)

3. ORIGINAL: Average Reach for Twitter may be higher than you think – http://gag.gl/h7ES #Twitter #SocialMedia #Marketing (108 characters)

EDIT-> Avg Reach for @Twitter may be higher than U think – http://gag.gl/h7ES #SM #Marketing (85 characters)

4. ORIGINAL: 5 Steps to Getting Started With Mobile Marketing socialmediaexaminer.com/5-simple-steps… via @smexaminer #mobilemarketing #socialmedia (134 characters)

EDIT-> 5 Steps to starting w/ #Mobile #Marketing http://pub.vitrue.com/kKb via @smexaminer #sm (87 characters)

5. ORIGINAL: RT @socialmfortunes: Strategies vs. Tactics: Strategies vs. Tactics (Social Media Marketing) bit.ly/p24zeD #SocialMedia #Marketing (130 characters)

EDIT-> RT @socialmfortunes: Strategies vs. Tactics: Strategies vs. Tactics bit.ly/p24zeD #SM #Marketing (96 characters)