I have a lot of rules I’ve imposed on myself, in everything I do. I won’t use a postage meter, for example, because I think an envelope with a stamp is less likely to be thrown out.

I also have a lot of rules for how I use Twitter, so I thought I would share them. I was very deliberate when I wrote “rules for how I use Twitter.” These are the rules I’ve established for myself. I wouldn’t presume to tell you how to use Twitter.

1. Be relevant 90% of the time.
2. Be original 90% of the time.
3. Don’t rely too heavily on retweeting other people’s content.
4. Don’t tweet about pets.
5. Unfollow anyone who tweets about teeth whitening products.
6. Make the world a better place. Report spammers.
7. Unfollow anyone who tweets about schemes to get more followers.
8. Don’t use abbreviations like “LOL.”
9. Never use “I can haz” in a tweet. Or anywhere else.
10. Put enough info in a tweet so that it can stand on its own. No one can see your ongoing “conversation,” so a tweet that simply says “I hear ya” is of no value.
11. Don’t use emoticons.
12. Keep tweets short enough to retweet without edits.
13. Triple RTs are pedantic and unnecessary.
14. A formal RT is not required for widely published mainstream items that everyone has probably already seen.
15. Don’t send auto-DMs.
16. Don’t auto-follow.
17. Don’t participate in schemes to add followers.
18. Get the sender’s permission before publishing DM content on the public timeline.
19. Don’t participate in “Follow Friday.” It’s a pyramid scheme.
20. Follow back any follower who is a legitimate user.
21. Switch from tweets to DM for discussions that are personal, sensitive, or might be boring to most people.
22. Don’t make material changes or additions to someone else’s tweet when retweeting.
23. Don’t tweet anything more than four times.
24. Wait at least 8 hours before republishing a link you have already tweeted.
25. Manually shorten links with is.gd or 3.ly.
26. Delete lame tweets. Clean up your timeline.
27. Unfollow, block and report racists and pornographers.
28. Don’t over-Blip.
29. If driven to express appreciation for an RT, do so via DM. To do so publicly is shameless, self-serving and obvious.
30. Don’t break updates across multiple tweets. Use the blog or the Tumble log and link.
31. Engage. Respond often to people who tweet to you.
32. Don’t protect your updates.
33. Don’t make your background too cluttered.
34. Don’t put complex or multiple links on your background. They’re not clickable.
35. Don’t be pretentious.
36. Be nice.
37. Be helpful.
38. Don’t beg for RTs except when promoting a legitimate humanitarian cause.
39. Don’t RT anything for which the sender begs for RTs.(Exception: see above.)
40. Don’t publicly thank people for Follow Friday recommendations.
41. Don’t thank new followers on the public timeline.
42. Don’t publish tweets like “Must. Have. Coffee.” that are so generic they could apply to several million other people.
43. Don’t ask for Diggs.
44. Don’t ask for Stumbles.
45. Block people who tweet your Twitter name in connection with marketing and follower scams.
46. Don’t follow inauthentic or disingenuous celebrities.
47. Make sure Facebook and FriendFeed are configured correctly so you don’t double-post.
48. Use Twitter on various days at various times to catch followers around the globe.
49. Put at least your first name, geographic region and a link to something in your profile
50. Don’t use Twitter like it’s IM. It’s not a chat room.
51. Don’t overdo the inspirational quotes.
52. Don’t use invented words that start with “Tw” like Tweeps.
53. Don’t let anyone tell you they know all the Twitter rules. Do what’s right for you, not what’s right for someone else.
54. Be professional.
55. Don’t tweet too frequently.
56. Don’t hard-sell.
57. Don’t tweet information about your children, such as their names or location of their school.
58. Don’t laugh at your own jokes.
59. Don’t tweet information that is confidential to you or anyone else.
60. Don’t respond to auto DMs.
61. Shut down the computer from time to time and go see the world.

I’m sure there are more, but that’s all I could think of at the moment. These are predominantly negative. Many could be rewritten to simulate a positive spin, like “Be unpretentious” instead of “Don’t be pretentious,” but they seem more instructive the way they are.

Did I miss any? Any you strongly disagree with? Add your top Twitter rules in a comment before Nov. 16, 2009. I will add the best of them to this list, and one person will win a free copy of my book, SocialCorp.

*This was originally published as My Brief List of 53 Twitter Rules. The number will keep changing as I add rules. I love rules! The deadline for entries was originally Nov. 1, but has been extended to Nov. 16.

Tags: Twitter, rules, DM, RT, direct message, retweet, follow, unfollow, autofollow