It is not a secret that I am a Twitter-addict (follow me at @ladyironchef). Twitter is a great way for me to know what my friends are doing, and to interact with my readers. My life will not be the same without Twitter.

But sometimes I get annoyed by things that people do on Twitter. So I want to take this chance to share some tips on using Twitter.

Before we start, I would like to say thank you to my 10,300 followers on Twitter for joining me on this amazing journey! Okay, here are some Twitter tips and tricks. Here we go!

Others cannot see your tweets if you have a private account.

I always find it amusing when I see people with private accounts tweeting to celebrities. It’s like talking to themselves since the person they are tweeting cannot see the tweets.

There are a lot of people who are unaware of this. If your account is locked, others won’t be able to see your tweets unless they are following you. So if you want to tweet me to ask for restaurant recommendations, remember to unlock your Twitter account first.

Insert something in front of the Twitter handler, unless you are replying to that person.

Say for instance you want to tell your friends: “@ladyironchef just recommended me to try this new restaurant for brunch.” Only people who are following both of us will be able to see the tweet as it is a direct reply to me.

If you want all your followers to see this tweet, you must include something in front of the Twitter handler. An example is: “Hey guys, @ladyironchef just recommended me to try this new restaurant for brunch.”

Don’t Retweet (RT) everyone.

I find it very annoying when someone floods my timeline with reweets. It is not cool to RT everyone and flood the timeline just because you hope that others will also RT your tweets. For me, I only retweet things that I find interesting, and I usually help to promote blog post updates from my good friends Beatrice, QiuQiu, Valerie and Velda.

Don’t copy/steal tweets without crediting.

If you see a nice tweet, RT it and credit the original owner. You can do this in a few ways: a) RT @user Eat every meal like it’s your last or b) Eat every meal like it’s your last (via @user), or c) click the new RT button.

Make your tweets interesting, and don’t spam-tweet.

Okay, I am guilty of tweeting too much, but hey, I tweet interesting stuff (at least that’s what I think.) There are some people who tweet about everything that they are doing. Tweets like “I am in the toilet now” or “I am so bored, what should I do?” are boring and nobody wants to read them. (Unless you are a celebrity with millions of followers.) So if you have nothing to say, don’t tweet for the sake of tweeting.

If you haven’t followed me on Twitter, you should do so by clicking here.