I’ve been watching in disbelief at the way marketers have been acting like social media only existed with the arrival of Facebook and Twitter. I’ve been social networking online ever since I first accessed the Xena: Warrior Princess Village virtual world chatroom on the internet back in 1997 - get with the programme people!

Build relationships, not PR

Facebook and Twitter made online social networking easier and therefore mainstream, but it was hardly an ‘underground’ phenomenon in the first place. Marketers have traditionally been scared of using social media for fear of ‘damaging the brand’ and this is where the problem has always been: social media is about content, not marketing.

It is about building a two way relationship, and a long-term, trusted one at that. Marketing and PR is a great part of this two way interaction, not the basis of the relationship. Web editors and content providers have been the ones at the forefront of the social media bandwagon and it’s only now, when social media is wagging its Twittery feathers in their faces that marketers can no longer avoid it.

Internet has always been social

The internet has always been a social tool - dare I use the noun - webmasters have always known this. It is the social tools that built communities on websites and maintained a loyal following. Again, just because marketers have only just realised this doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. Allow me to highlight some key tools that the internet has always been used for by nearly everyone:

• Email
• Chatrooms
• Forums
• Instant messenger
• Dating websites
• Reviews
• Polls
• Surveys
• Guestbooks

These are all interactive and the first six are undeniably social - that’s their entire purpose. Dating sites are social networks and they’ve existed for at least a decade (Match.com and Gaydar certainly have - online daters are the pioneers of online social networking - FACT). It may not be much now, but Friends Reunited is a social network with similar, if much, much harder to use technology to Facebook. Even RSS, MySpace and Flickr have been around for a good five years. This is not new.

Make content producers responsible - not marketing

If I have one piece of advice for any company or organisation thinking of establishing a presence in social media: do not allow your marketing department to do it. I’m not saying all marketers are bad at it - I am a marketer too - just that it’s the content producers, the authors, editors, researchers etcetera that will know your company inside out.

They will understand what your audience wants and be able to respond immediately without asking someone else. By all means, get the marketing team involved to help set you up and make the presence the best it can be, but make sure the subject experts are at the reigns of interacting directly with your audience.

Social media for business

Marketers are right about one thing, they finally realise businesses have to engage with people in an online social environment otherwise it can be damaging.  Having come from a content production and editorial background I can’t tell you how long it’s taken for people like me to convince marketing teams that it is the right thing to do.

I won’t go into any tips in this article, but if you aren’t already, find out how your audience is using social media and how it would be best for your organisation to fit. Don’t plough in there and annoy people, do lots of research first. Just be quick about it, you’re already more then ten years too late…

Making images accessible is an easy task, yet it’s also a task that can often be overlooked. Images on websites are usually quite small and unlike text on pages, can’t be resized without losing quality. This can prove to be a problem when a person who is visually impaired wants to know what is included in an image. There are a few simple steps to make your images accessible that will help visually impaired people.

1. Use alt text (alternative text)
2. Offer a larger alternative where possible
3. Don’t use images with fine detail 
4. Don’t use text in images
    

Alt text

Alt text is the text that appears when you hold your cursor over a picture and is placed within the code of your image. It is also used by machines that read out a web page to tell visually impaired people what the image shows.

Example of an accessible image with working alt text.

The code for the above image’s alt text is:

<img src=”http://www.onlinecontentguide.co.uk/images/fiftypoundnotes.gif” alt=”Fifty pound notes” width=”200″ height=”150″>

Alt text should explain to people what the image shows. There is some flexibility, but imagine someone can’t see the image, how would you quickly and clearly explain what was in it? Don’t use words like “This is a picture of…” , simply state what is in the image.

Text in images 

As a rule you should never use text in images, even for graphics, unless you have no alternative. When you do have to use text - such as for logos or graphs - then always offer a written explanation of what can be seen. 

Example of a resized image. While the text is bigger, it's still blurry. If you factor in that images usually have more colour and objects you can begin to understand how hard it can be for someone with poor eye sight to read text in an image.

There are no programmes available that can enlarge images without loss of quality and pixellation, so it’s important that visually impaired people have a written alternative that can be read out to them.

Better for search engines

Alt text and written explanations of images are also great for search engines. They tell search engines what an image is about and offers you an opportunity to include more relevant keywords on your page. All of this helps to boost the position of your web page in search engines.

There are many reasons to make your website accessible and they can largely be lumped under three headings that show why web accessibility so important. This page explains these three points  to tell you why making websites accessible is good practice and how it helps your content to be accessed by the largest number of people possible.

1. People with disabilities

Making your website accessible will help people with permanent disabilities “that affect access to the web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.” (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative). A few examples of making content accessible to people with disabilities include:

• Screen readers: making your web pages compatible with technology that helps people with disabilities such as machines or software that read out the content of a page to visually impaired people.
• Text size: making your web pages so that the text size can be increased (done through the ‘view’ menu of most web browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox).
• Alternatives: offering written alternatives to video and audio content for hearing impaired people. Not necessarily a transcript, but an alternative that makes the same points.

These examples and others are discussed in more detail throughout this section. Making online content available to people with disabilities was the primary incentive for web accessibility initiatives and is of course still the primary reason for making your website accessible. Anyone should be able to access content, no matter who they are.

Web accessbility never asks you to do anything complicated or expensive, just follow simple steps to allow people with disabilities to get value out of your content. If someone with a disability tries to access your content they’re as interested as anyone else in what you’re producing. Why would you want to inhibit this interest?

2. Elderly and temporarily disabled

Web accessibility takes into account elderly people who may find it harder than others to see content or operate computers. It also takes into account people that have temporary disabilities such as a broken arm or other injuries that will heal.

Nearly 20% of the UK population is 65 or over and this number is going to increase (National Statistics 2005). As more elderly people learn to use the internet a higher percentage of your potential audience may require accessibility options. Making sure your website’s text can be resized through the browser is a simple example of catering to this audience.

Temporarily disabled people can be anyone - it could be you! What happens if you have to have an eye operation leaving you temporarily with poor vision? Or if you break your arm while skiing? Making your website accessible makes it easier for people with injuries or temporary disabilities to still access your website’s content.

3. Website promotion

An accessible website is also an easily promoted website. Most internet technology favours accessible websites and being able to say that your website is accessible is always seen in a positive light. Prevention is always the best way of stopping negative attention that could occur from having inaccessible content, so make sure your website sticks to as many accessiblity rules as possible. 

Internet technology that works best with accessible websites includes all of the most popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox) and search engines. Make your websites accessible to make them look better on the screen. Finally, accessible websites are accessible for search engines as well as people, making it easier for your website to be ranked highly in the likes of Google and Yahoo!

A plain page of written online content can look dull and sometimes intimidating. Adding images and video for added visual and audio content can enhance your written page and help keep people interested. This page offers tips and advice for sprucing up your pages using these.

Images

Images are incredibly useful to help you explain, demonstrate or simply improve the look of a written web page.  Carefully selected images will also make your pages more memorable by adding an extra visual dimension to your content. 

A number of best practice rules apply for using images in written content:

• Main image: use one main image per page to summarise the written content visually. A recent trend in the UK’s most popular websites is to include one large image at the top of the page that spans the entire width of the text. Like the cartoon at the top of this page.
• Secondary images: only use a further two images per 900 word page (making a total of 3 including the main image).
• File size: all images should be 30KB or less to make sure they load quickly (file size is different to the physical dimension of an image). The smaller the file size the better, but don’t sacrifice quality.
• GIF / JPEG: use a .gif file for any image with text in and a .jpg for an image without text. Text always looks better in .gif files, while .jpg keeps the high quality of colour. 
• Consistent dimensions: to make your pages look clean and tidy, make all images within written content the same width (you could use 2 or 3 different sizes throughout your website to allow for variation, but no more than this).
• Edit before uploading: to make your images the best quality and file size, always edit in a programme like PhotoShop or Fireworks before uploading. Never upload a large file and resize in the the code of the page - this will make the page slow to load and the image pixellated.
• Text must be readable: when editing your image make sure any text is still readable. If it isn’t, try to remove it and add larger text using your image editing programme.
• Trim the image: if you have a high quality image it can be tempting to try and include the whole image. An image on a web page is always going to be quite small, squashing detail. Rather than making a big image like a landscape smaller, cut around a particular area to show more detail. This will look far better and you can always add a link to the larger version.

Each image that you use in your written online content should be one of three different types:

1. Actual image: the best type of image to use is one that shows the object, person or activity being discussed. E.g. a racing car in an article about racing cars. This summarises a page instantly, showing people if the content is what they need.
2. Related image: if you want more freedom with your images you can use images that are related to the written content. E.g. a famous racing driver in an article about racing cars. This allows you to be creative and add extra information through your image.
3. Graphs and diagrams: always make graphs the full width of the content area of your webpage and make sure text is still readable. If it is particularly detailed consider showing a stripped down version on the page with a link to a larger version. Never stretch the content area to allow for a larger diagram.

Never use images that just look nice. This is part of design and should not become part of the content of the page. Tables aren’t included here because these should not be images. Where possible you need to use code for tables. 

Video

Video allows you to create demonstrations, show movement and liven up a written explanation. It won’t always be suitable, but where possible, try to include video content to offer something extra and to make your web page look slick and professional. All of the rules for images like placement and size also apply to video. 

Including videos on a page of written content is now easy and cheap thanks to improved technology and services like YouTube. Low cost video cameras and video built into normal digital cameras mean anyone can make video for the web. Making good videos isn’t quite so easy.

This section is for video alongside written content and doesn’t go into detail about video content in its own right - quite often video is the content. Online Content Guide will have more information around producing online video content in the future.

Most good, well researched pieces of written content will use or make reference to other articles. Always provide links to these articles for further background reading. It helps the reader find information they are looking for and by creating a helpful page it is more likely the reader will return. This page highlights a number of important tips to remember when you link to and reference other articles.

A select number of well chosen links

Importantly, if you are writing a webpage and want it to be authoritative, you have to offer readers the chance to check your information. By offering well chosen, quality links you are reinforcing the fact that your site is the destination site for information on your chosen topic. The number one rule with links is that the more you send people away, the more they will come back. 

Link text should, in the same way as titles, explain to people what is on the page they are clicking to. On good websites you could probably use the page title, but you may have to carefully word the link text for poorly created sites. 

Internal links

Internal links are the links between pages on your own website. As well as using effective menus on your site it’s important to use internal links to direct your readers to related content across your site and make their experience better. When you write a new page select other relevant pages elsewhere on your site to link to and make sure they link back. 

Where to place links

In general it is best not to place links in the actual content of a page. If you do it can look messy and encourage someone to click away before reading the full article. Don’t hide related links, instead highlight them in a box somewhere on the page or include a section at the foot of the page. 

There are some exceptions to the rule. For instance, if your page focuses on a particular article elsewhere on the web it can be beneficial to provide a link upfront so readers will know what you are referring to. Use your own judgement to decide when this is needed. 

Internal links have a slightly relaxed rule because they won’t take a person off of your website. They can, if you want, be placed sparingly throughout content. This helps you link off to another page for an explanation of a word or term, such as to a glossary. It can also help people cross reference your content. 

Anchor links

An anchor link is a piece of HTML code that allows you to link to a particular place on a page. This is very useful for long content and you can use as many anchor links on a page as you need. It works in three parts: 

1. You place the anchor code next to the text you want to link to (the code is: <a name=”anchortexttochange”>text</a> and can be placed in any ‘a’ tag)
2. You then place the name of the anchor into a normal link in place or at the end of the URL (for example:  <a href=”#anchortexttochange”>link text</a>)
3. You can link to the top of any page by using ‘#_top’ as the URL of a link.

Experiment with anchor links on your pages, you may find they over complicate it or aren’t needed. 

Linking rules

All internal links should open in the same browser window, while all external links should open in a new window. Make sure every link has title text to make your website accessible for machines that use these.

Always get feedback and input from your readers - two (or more) heads are better than one. Your readers can help you remain informed and highlight inaccurate or missing information. This page will explain the some of the best and simplest ways to do this.

Interact

It’s impossible for you to know everything, let the internet make it easier for you to research your chosen topic. By the internet’s nature you will be attracting people to your site with varying levels of expertise in the field you are writing about. 

If people are willing to share information and advice be sure to offer a good experience for them to do so. This will encourage visitors to your website to get involved and help shape a page’s content - afterall, it is a resource for them.

Interaction can be as simple as adding your email address to a page through to forums and comment fields. There are many possibilities made available with the internet so there really is no excuse.

Get analysing

For a single page you will need to look for relevant advice and then check its accuracy. User feedback should become an integral part of your own review of a page’s content.

On a wider level, when analysing feedback for your entire site read through comments and feedback carefully, trying to spot trends and common messages. You may find that the page you’re working on needs to be changed entirely or moved somewhere else.

Single source

Websites like Wikipedia allow anyone to edit the copy of a page. This is a great way of generating a lot of content quickly, but if you want to ensure complete control over the quality of your webpage the main content should be written by a single source - you or another person in charge of copy.

Understand user feedback then rewrite it to fit with the overall tone of the page. If you use visitor comments ensure they are clearly separate from the main content and can’t be confused with your own messaging or advice. Make it clear to the reader which content can definitely be trusted.

Don’t listen too much

While it is always good to listen to your audience, it’s easy to get carried away. This can result in you listening to only a small segment of your audience, or not thinking through what would genuinely be of benefit . A good rule to remember is that a website visitor is always wrong until proven right! As the expert, you must remain in control.

Finally, more often than not internet feedback will be incomplete or misinformed. As the owner of a quality website you are providing a content service, it is your duty to check and filter information to make informed decisions about what to present to your readers.

Your website can live or die depending on the tone and style of its written content. This short guide explains what is meant by tone and style in writing and offers some help to get it right. 

Tone

The tone of written content is extremely important, fairly easy to get right and very difficult to explain. It’s important for tone to be right in online written content to make sure your messages are delivered in the way you want and to make your website appeal to your audience.

Face-to-face conversations have a tone to them based on the topic, the way they are delivered by the person, and who they are talking to. For example, a teacher can be serious when talking to students, fun when talking to friends and respectful when talking to their grandparents. The same is true in written content.

A written article’s tone can be established by deciding:

• who you are talking to
• what you want to write about
• how you write it

If you write an article, read it back aloud and imagine you are talking to the person or people you are writing it for – does it work? Get a second opinion, you might be wrong.

Don’t let your own misconceptions get in the way, just because you are talking to people in a serious profession, like a lawyer, doesn’t mean they always want to read information in a serious manner. In fact, they will probably want an escape from serious legal documents. Likewise for clowns, reading a website that’s constantly trying to be witty could get pretty annoying.

Think about the tone you use, even ask your audience what they want. It may be different to what you expect.

Style

Writing style in online content is a number of themes or patterns in the way you write that gives your content character. It can be likened to the real life example of fashion. Whether you wear smart, casual or trendy clothes, after a few weeks of knowing someone you get a feel for their style. It is exactly the same in writing.

Do you use stories or analogies to describe things? Do you ask questions of your readers to get them to think (like this)? Do you try to relate to your readers to include them? Do you use short, punchy sentences or long elaborate ones? Whatever you do, review it carefully to see what works. If one style works over another, try to repeat it.

Remove emotion, not personality

Importantly, as you will no doubt be aware when using email or text messages, in writing, some tones can be misunderstood. Angry and witty are two tones that are easily misinterpreted and should be avoided unless you are an experienced writer. Interestingly, sarcasm works far better.

Therefore, it is recommended that on the internet you stick to matter-of-fact, easy to understand written content that cannot be misinterpreted. A simple style and tone is particularly good online because it fits with the need for people to find information and facts fast.

Don’t remove personality, however. Personality makes your content interesting and different. Your personality will no doubt find its way into your written content, often through your tone and style. Online Content Guide is written in an informal tone with an almost one-to-one, slightly chatty style because the writer (me) likes to explain things this way in person too.

Read and learn

Regularly study the tone and style of your favourite websites. If you enjoy them, you will probably be more likely to find it easier to write in a similar way. Experiment with different tones and styles, but be prepared to learn and adapt. You may find that for one of your online content projects you need to adopt a completely different tone and style to the ones you are used to.

Some tips

It’s tricky to advise too strictly on this subject because it really depends on your audience and your content. Some simple tips are below however. 

1. Formal (e.g. news, corporate, information): use one tone of voice throughout, be consistent in style, strip out all emotion, write in the third person and reduce personality.           

2. Informal (e.g. entertainment websites, personal blogs, opinion pieces): use one tone of voice, each person should be consistent in style but you can vary style by using different people, write in the third person unless a personal point-of-view and increase personality. 

Video changing page layout

If you look at the below diagram, you will probably be quite familiar with this page layout and the way a video is placed at the top of an article. 

What is interesting about this is that placing a video at the top of the page is encouraging major content publishers to put an image of the same size in its place if a video isn’t available. This may not seem like a huge revelation, but in some ways it is. It indicates how important visuals have become when illustrating a point on the internet. 

Major change to content

Below are examples from four of the UK’s most popular websites, The Sun, the BBC, the Telegraph and Sky. All of them include an image or a video that span the full width of the text content beneath it and all are custom to the news story.

You can say goodbye to small images stuck on the right handside of the article and you can certainly say goodbye to using the same image on more than one page. These days it’s all about original visuals as well as written content.

Visitor expectations are higher

This imagery makes the page look better and, in the case of video, adds an entirely new dimension when someone watches it instead of reading the written content. It is significant because it improves people’s experience and raises their expectations.

If articles are being accompanied by excellent photography or a video on major publishers, people in the UK will begin to accept this as the norm. Content producers that aren’t already investing in photography and filming content will start to be left behind in the coming years.

A change for the best

At the end of the day this change makes content and the user experience better, which is ace and something content producers should strive for. There will always be a place for written content on its own, but unoriginal content will continue to be pushed aside and you can’t afford to totally ignore video and photography. 

Actions

Advice for online content producers is to:

1. Begin using the above content layout on your website with an image spanning the entire width of the written content. It looks good and people will be familiar with the layout, giving you plus points for user experience.
2. Investigate websites that offer low-cost or free image and video content like iStockPhoto (low-cost, high quality photos), MorgueFile (free, low quality photos) and of course YouTube for video.
3. Start using your camera and video camera. If you don’t have them and you’re serious about online content, invest in cheap equipment to practice with. Photo and video content is going to become increasingly important in years to come. You don’t have to be the world’s best, you just need to be able to operate the things to generate original content.
    

Related articles

• For more best practice see our page layout and structure guide.
• For information on advertising around different content see this blog post on where best to advertise.

Content may be king, but the layout of a webpage is critical to user experience. This page explains how to display a standard page of content in the best possible way.

Layout

The layout of a webpage is the actual positioning of all of a page’s components including the menus, content, search box and pictures. Layout is not the same as design. Design is of course important but is the aesthetic look and feel of a page and should come after the layout is finalised.

If you have a career in web you are either familiar with wireframes or will come across them at some stage in the future. Wireframes are nothing more than a visual representation of a website’s layout using lines and blocks to show where everything goes, a bit like a colour the blocks painting.

Once created, wireframes are used by designers to fill in the spaces for graphics, web developers to place all of the technical parts of the page and content producers to place the content. You probably get the message - wireframes are simple and useful. Even if you are setting up a website for fun you should at least sketch out a quick wireframe to help you by acting as a guide and reference. There’s an example below in the next section.

Perfect page layout

There will always be debate over the best website layout and no doubt the perceived best will continue to change as more options become available and more research is carried out. However, by looking across the internet, at the moment there are clearly two variations of the same layout that currently fits all. It comes highly recommended that you use one of these as a basis for your site: 

Layout one

Layout two

Always have the main menu running horizontally across the top of a website linking to no more than 8 – 10 main sections. Content always needs to go in the middle of a page with images related to content sitting within this area. The breadcrumb trail - showing where a user is on the site - should go directly above the content and, if necessary, be replicated directly beneath the content too.

The top menu area should also include the search box. The secondary menu for the categories within a section should be on the left hand side, while extras like the login box, a shopping basket or related links should go on the right hand side. Pages for privacy, terms and conditions and contact will usually be found in the bottom menu at the foot of the page. 

You can experiment with the position of certain items to find the best for your site, of course. For instance, some websites place the login in the top menu and remove menu areas altogether when they aren’t needed to create more space for content (like this site). Even then, the vast majority of popular websites do adhere to most of this layout at their core.

Consistency with other websites

A big mistake people make with websites is to assume visitors want the site to be different from anything else on the internet to help it stand out. In fact, difference in layout can be infuriating for people surfing around the web, forcing them to waste time figuring out how to use a website rather than reading/watching the content.

It’s important that you instil a few core restraints onto your site in terms of the layout of a page. Using a similar layout to other websites may sound boring, but it will reap huge rewards in the long run. Don’t be afraid of finding a very popular website and then using the same layout.

As the owner of a website you want people to be able to use your website easily and reach content quickly - which is your ultimate goal. Being consistent with other websites in terms of the positioning of menus and content will help your visitors, give them a better overall experience and reduce the likelihood of closing the browser in annoyance. Once you have confirmed the layout, you can by all means go wild with the content and design.

Page consistency

The core layout of your website should be used on every page to ensure ease of use, tidiness and to make your website look professional. The core layout elements are:

• Main site menu
• Section menus
• Search box
• Content
• Breadcrumb trail
• Bottom menu
• Login / logout form if you have this function

The elements should be on every page of your website in exactly the same position. Content is a notable exception because there are certain pages such as the home page, section landing pages and forums that force content to have a different layout. These exceptions do need to attempt to reflect the layout of the other pages and the position of the other elements should still be the same.

Page size and scalability

Screen sizes and resolutions are now much greater than they used to be with only 14% of people still using a 800 x 600 pixel screen resolution in January 2007 (source: W3Schools). It is now over a year later so this number would have decreased and we estimate that over 90% of the UK population now has a screen resolution of 1,024 pixels in width or higher.

The most important factor is to make your website scalable so that no matter the screen size, your website will shrink or stretch to fit. This is easier said than done when you want to have a nice design but scalability is more important than design.

In reality you will likely choose a mix of fixed size and scalability and our recommendation is to create a website layout of 1,024 pixels wide but ensure it can be shrunk to at least 800 pixels wide without too much loss in usability. 

Core layout examples

Below is a selection of website examples that use one of the two layouts at the top of the page at their core for content pages. All have small differences, so see what you think does and doesn’t work and keep an eye out for the core layout behind the content and design:

• BBC Health
• Yahoo! Music
• Telegraph Travel
• Guardian Sport
• Amazon

Why is Twitter so popular?

Originally Twitter was designed for use on mobile phones and had a set number of free text messages per person each month. This was obviously extremely costly and in 2007 Twitter stopped offering the free text service (although you can still text in to update your account) and everyone thought the chirpy little blighter was doomed. Especially as it wasn’t that popular to begin with. Then, in 2008 something started to happen. The underground vibe, its silly name and the need for a new social network fix gradually made tweets cool. Finally, celebrities joined the band wagon with Barack Obama, Stephen Fry and Britney Spears heralding the era of high profile Twitter feeds. The rest is history. It may not last forever, but right now, if you’re not on Twitter, you’re not worth listening to. Luckily, it’s incredibly easy to get started. 

Top 10 tips for using Twitter effectively

Below are top strategies for using Twitter effectively that will work for everyone, whether you have a web presence like a website or a blog, a business or a brand, or even if you use Twitter and nothing else. These tips will apply to you all. 

1. Have personality - one of the most popular uses of Twitter is for posting links, making it much like a labour intensive RSS feed. It does work to post links to your own stories, people follow you for a reason, but the critical point of Twitter is personality. Whether you’re going solo or you have a small team of tweeters, make sure you inject personality with every post. You may not have much room for text, but you can add character in subtle ways. Some ideas include adding thought or opinion only tweets between links, offering links that are interesting to the tweeter and aren’t necessarily to your own content and add photos that you’ve taken. 
2. Have fun - let’s face it, reams of links and dry text is boring. This doesn’t mean you have to quote from the 1,000 Greatest Jokes Book every day, it means you need to enjoy using Twitter. If you don’t, how do you expect your followers to enjoy what you add? If you’re a business, this point and point 1. make it absolutely vital that you choose the right person in your company to tweet. You don’t want a sales person or a serious fuddy duddy.
3. Have a point - don’t just tweet, know why you’re tweeting. Have a Twitter plan. Don’t just set out to use Twitter as a source of traffic, it may be a good by-product of using it - indeed, sites are finding Twitter to be their top referrer - but a good Twitter feed must have value in its own right. It may well be that the point is to inform people that your site has an important new addition, but ‘informing’ is different to ‘promoting’. 
4. Be interactive - Twitter is a conversation and a conversation only happens when you have two or more people talking to each other. In Twitter land, there’s no room for being the shy person in the corner of the party. Shake your tail feather and dive into the middle of the rabble. Start chat, ask questions, start following other people who might follow you. Twitter can be a fantastic research and feedback tool. It can also generate great content for your blog, website, report or presentation - nothing works better than highlighting the best comments from ten or so Tweeters.
5. Be reactive - if you spot other Tweeters talking about you, your tweets or just about something relevant to your Twitter feed, join in the conversation. Show people you are an active participant by reacting to their tweets too. Your presence is two way in every respect. By doing so you’ll also draw more attention to yourself.
6. Be regular - this one may not mean what you would expect. Regular means use Twitter regularly: be a Twitter regular. Log in often, read other people’s tweets often and reply when contacted. Be a regular part of the Twitterverse. Unlike websites and email newsletters, people don’t expect you to tweet at regular intervals. They expect you to tweet when you have something to tweet about. 
7. Be current - this is an important one. Twitter won’t wait for you, the conversation keeps on going so only the latest tweets really count. After a day, or even hours, your tweet is worthless. It’s all about the here and now. Making it all the more important to be a regular user so that you don’t miss something (see, it’s all tying together). If something hits the news, people react immediately on Twitter like real life - a day later and you’ve missed it. For personal projects this isn’t the end of the world, for a business with bad press it could be.
8. Honesty’s the best policy - like all forms of social media, Twitter is about openness, honesty and sharing, whether you are an individual or a business. When you come up with your plan at the start, think about how you will handle this openess and be clear if something is out of bounds. You can hardly deal with a complaint on Twitter, but be ready to direct message someone with contact details if they do complain to you. It’s also about involvement. By maintaining an open relationship on projects through Twitter, you can help prevent people making assumptions or feeling left out of the process. Twitter is a simple way of building relationships with your audience.
9. Going live - people tweeting at a social event in real life is Twitter’s loudest cockadoodledo.  Whether at a business conference, a gig, a festival or a party, Twitter allows a mass of people socialising in reality to also share their thoughts and opinions in real time in the Twitterverse.  This is a totally new social experience made possible by mobile phone access to Twitter and it’s the shining light of the Twitter armoury. If you can get this one going it makes something more memorable, more entertaining and more advanced. You can’t force it to happen, but you can prepare accordingly by making people aware of relevant Twitter feeds prior to the event. More often than not, if a big event happens these days and it’s news worthy, it’s on Twitter first, websites second and everywhere else last. Driving live twittering is without a doubt the thing that will set you apart from everyone else because it becomes the pinnacle of excitement, the go-to place for latest info, the funniest comments, the hottest gossip. People at the event feel more engaged, people not at the event feel like they’re reading the news within seconds of it breaking. Because they are.
10. Don’t tweet blind - keep track of tweets that gain more attention, create more responses or that do direct more people to your website. Find out why. Tweet and learn. Keep tabs on some of your favourite Twitter feeds, why do you like them? What do they offer that makes them so interesting? This all comes back to being regular and being interactive, but take frequent pauses to think about what you’re doing once in a while. With Twitter it’s easy to change direction quickly. Too much fun and not enough fact? Two more tweets and you’re back on track.

Other advice that won’t help you run your Twitter feed, but makes it more worthwhile or a better experience include promoting your profile outside of Twitter, i.e. include links on your blog, your website, your business card, your emails or even in magazines. The more people following you, the more your messages are likely to be read. Also look into other methods of accessing Twitter such as Twinkle for iPhones and Tweetdeck for your computer.

Hopefully these tips will help you use your Twitter account meaningfully and effectively. As with everything, it’s going to take time and practice, not least because Twitter is such a new medium. 

Does this cover everything? Please help spread the Twitter love by leaving your own tips and advice below.