Enter TwittaLand: Rules and Survival Tips

Picture yourself in a nice nightclub. All the industry’s elite is in the building, having a good time catching up. You’re an up-and-coming hustler from your perspective but a nobody to them. How do you even begin to network? There’s no one right answer for this question. Make it short and sweet though. You only got 140 characters to say what you have to say. And chances are, they won’t even respond.

Picturing this scenario may help you to conceptualize Twitter as an easy-to-use networking tool. The new site that’s taking the worldwide web by storm is only two years old. It’s the lethal uppercut to MySpace. It’s slowly making Facebook the second site you pull up. Here are a few tips, strategies, and updates to have you twittin’ correctly. Welcome to TwittaLand…

Following Vs. Followers

Unless someone’s profile is private, you can add people as you please. This means that you can be updated with all the haps on the people you follow. A&R assistants, producers, artists, managers, musicians, groupies, and regular down-to-earth supporters are networking daily. Business folks are there to maintain and make even more money! Major producers are trading twits with major artists on the regular. Watch your following vs. follower count though. You don’t want to have 500 following and 4 followers. Not a good look.

What to Twitter?

* Encouraging quotes, thoughts of the day, or spiritual upliftment. It’s like singing “We Fall Down” on amateur night at the Apollo. No matter how whack your twit is, you’re still going to get love because of it’s positive impact.

* Interesting new stories that the common person wouldn’t know about. People usually don’t have enough time but they are interested and concerned about the world around them. Include a link of the news story.

* Interesting video clips. Seeing believes with people. There are great video clips all over the net of old artists’ videos, water balloons getting popped in super 80x slow motion, or the one of the lion charging and drop kicking a hunter. Hilarious!

* Updates about all the moves you are making across your hood, city, and/or the world out there. Dj Jelly was just in Germany. Quest Love of the Roots just got back from Japan. Erykah Badu and Jay Electronica just got a beautiful baby live on Twitter! People are genuinely interested in what their contemporaries are doing in their personal/business lives.

What Not to Twitter?

The website’s first question, “What are you doing?” is definitely rhetorical! The majority of people aren’t concerned if you’re “…on the toilet”, “smoking dat good”, or “recording a hot hit that you can check out later tonight at _____________ (insert MySpace page). Here are some major don’ts that will get you “unfollowed’ in quick click of a mouse.

* Rappers! Don’t promote your newest mix tape single every time you leave a twit. That’s the very reason people are ditching MySpace! That’s one of the quickest ways to get dropped by even one of your most loyal followers. People are on Twitter to get away from annoyances.

* Don’t get upset if someone doesn’t respond to your @! Just like walking up on someone in the club, a person will judge your approach. If you are over-eager, cocky, or down-right desperate you will rarely get a response.

* Have your facts together when you speak of someone or to someone. Your not about to score points with Shaq if you tell him, “congrats on the Magic win last night.” Fool, that was 15 yrs. ago! Did you just get out the pen?!

* Don’t crowd a person. You might be cool but networking takes time.

AllHipHop’s Twitter-ers (I need to copyright that.)

AllHipHop.com – http://twitter.com/allhiphopcom

Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur – http://twitter.com/chuckcreekmur

Grouchy Greg Watkins – http://twitter.com/grouchygreg

Illseed – http://twitter.com/illseed

Kathy Iandoli – http://twitter.com/kAHHthy

Alvin Blanco – http://twitter.com/AquaAHH

Notable Twitter-ers to Follow

Ludacris- ludajuice

Shaquille O’Neal- THE_REAL_SHAQ

Quest Love of the Roots- qoolquest