It’s Twitter Tip Tuesday — every Tuesday we’ll focus on one Twitter Tip and show you how to integrate it into your social media strategy. This week we remind you that you should never retweet a link without reading it first!

Last week, we talked about the value of retweeting other people’s content. Among other things, retweeting is a great way to leverage other people’s efforts to bring valuable information to your Twitter followers. After all, your followers will likely assume that if you’ve found content worthy enough to retweet, then it must be good, right?

To help ensure the answer to that question is in the affirmative, always curate the information you pass along to your followers. In short, make sure you read, review, and vet all the content you’re sending out before you hit the retweet button!

You Are What You Tweet

To paraphrase the well-known expression, when it comes to Twitter, you are what you tweet. Your Twitter persona is constantly being judged and evaluated — by new and existing followers alike — to determine whether or not you’re worth the follow. Nothing solidifies your position better as a valuable and trustworthy tweeter than consistently tweeting interesting, valuable, and pertinent information to your followers.

Of course, we’re all time-strapped and many of us are always looking for ways to make our Twitter activities more efficient. There are great social media management tools available to help you schedule tweets, monitor brand mentions, and so on. But whatever tools or tactics you use on Twitter, make sure that you never sacrifice quality for convenience.

It’s extremely important to be transparent in your dealings on social media. Even if you receive a link from a trusted source, don’t just automatically pass it along to your followers. Take the time to open the link, and familiarize yourself with the content. You might be surprised that sometimes the information from a link is not what you expected at all! Save yourself the potential embarrassment (and follower backlash) and make sure you’re confident that the information you’re passing along has value for your community.

We’ve seen what gaffes can result from trying to be the first to break a story on social media. The Twitter community can be very unforgiving — even if you inadvertently pass along information of a spurious or spammy nature. So, establish yourself as a trustworthy curator of content. Be diligent and discerning in the content you share. And above all, read the content you link to before you retweet it!

Have any great Twitter Tips you’d like to see in Twitter Tip Tuesday? Let us know in the comments, along with how we can reach you if we use your tip!

[Image credit: Mike Cogh]