Becoming comfortable with a Twitter presence, especially for a business, can be confusing, especially if you’re just starting out and getting your feet wet. The goal is to build brand loyalty and establish yourself as a helpful and useful resource for your followers on Twitter. Here are ten tips regarding Twitter etiquette to maximize a positive experience for both you and your followers.

1. Maintain a complete and current bio: You have 160 characters to make your case on a Twitter bio. Make them count. Create an engaging, personal, and informative description of what you and your business are about and make it interesting to potential new followers. Hire this out if necessary.

2. Don’t shorten your URL or web address on your bio page – to Tweeters, it looks dodgy. Include the complete address so they know where they’re going when they click on the link.

3. Investigate all links you plan on re-tweeting – don’t re-tweet a link unless you’ve been there and know what information you’re passing along. There’s nothing worse than sending your followers to a dead link, unless it’s pointing them to a questionable website selling snake-oil. Ultimately, this will hurt your reputation and you will lose followers.

4. Don’t spam your people. Yes, you have a great product or service and you want to get the word out. However, tweeting exclusively about it will only annoy people and again, you’re trying to build brand loyalty and establish yourself as a useful resource. Be prudent when sending a message on Twitter about your own products by spacing them out between other valuable tweets.

5. Use good manners, just like in the offline world. If someone re-tweets your link or information, thank them. Remember, if a fellow Twitter buddy re-tweets your information or link, it’s going out to all of their followers. This is a valuable action, showing trust, and trust is a keystone in any business. Show your appreciation, and people will be more likely to re-tweet your offerings again and again.