Don’t use #SQLHelp to promote your blog. Congratulations on writing an informative post, and we’re sure it’s got some useful information in it, but the #SQLHelp hash tag is for people who are asking questions.  Unless your blog post was written to answer a question currently live on #SQLHelp, please refrain from tweeting about your blog.

Do answer a #SQLHelp question with a product if that’s the solution. Vendors build products to solve pain points, and sometimes those pain points surface as #SQLHelp questions.  If the answer is a product – whether it’s a free one or a paid one – then feel free to mention it and provide a link.  If you’ve got personal experience with the product, that’s even better.  If you’re a vendor, you might wanna disclose that in your tweet.

Don’t demo #SQLHelp at conferences by saying, “Say hello, #SQLHelp!” Immediately, dozens of users around the world will reply to you, and the #SQLHelp hash tag will become unusable for half an hour or more.  Rather than saying Hello World, ask the audience to give you a question, and then post that question on #SQLHelp.

Do suggest that long discussions move to a Q&A web site. Sometimes questions need a lot more detail than we can get in 140 characters.  If you notice a discussion turning into a long back-and-forth conversation, helpfully suggest that the questioner read my tips on writing a good question and then create a post on whatever site you prefer.

• StackOverflow.com for T-SQL programming questions
• ServerFault.com for systems administration questions
• DBA.StackExchange.com for DBA-specific questions that might need cross-platform expertise
• SQLServerCentral.com for general SQL Server stuff

Don’t post jobs to #SQLHelp. Use the #SQLJobs hash tag instead.

Do thank people who give you #SQLHelp. This is a group of volunteers who love to lend a helping hand.  It’s like getting consulting help for free around the clock.  High five ‘em if they helped you get through your day easier.

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Brent Ozar

Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.

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When you first visit Twifficiency.com, notice the warning at the bottom of the page:

Twifficiency Warning

The warning states, “Twifficiency will tweet your score on your behalf. Do not use this app if you do not consent to this.”

They’re not going to give you another warning – they are going to tweet for you.  This will piss off your followers because the rest of us truly don’t care about your Twifficiency score.  We may not even care that much about you, and posting vain metrics is a surefire way to get us to care less about you.

Next up, when you click that “Calculate my Twifficiency” button, read the warning Twitter gives you:

Twitter Warning

This gives Twifficiency.com the right to do things with your account, like post messages, follow people, change your profile, you name it.

Are you really comfortable letting a complete stranger do absolutely anything to your Twitter account just to get a meaningless metric?

Because if so, I’d like you to send me your Twitter login info, and I’ll be happy to give you a really cool random number.

When I see a Twifficiency tweet from someone, my first thought is, “They don’t take their own data seriously – there’s no way I’d hire them and let them touch my company’s data.”

...
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Brent Ozar

Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.

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Random Tweet

You think you’re promoting people, but here’s the reality:

• Random data is useless. I don’t know WHY you’re following this user.  It could be your wife, your doctor, your favorite TV personality, or one of your coworkers that guilted you into following them because they followed you first.
• Some people follow everybody. They just autofollow everybody back automatically, so they end up following Viagra dealers.  I don’t want to take the time to figure out if you’re one of those wackos.
• There’s too many people using it. I’m starting to get a dozen messages per morning that are essentially random noise.

Bottom line: if you didn’t write it yourself, I don’t want to read it.

So I’m unfollowing anybody who uses this tool, or a tool like it to automatically send out random data.  When you’re ready to write all your tweets yourself, let me know, and I’ll follow you again.

...
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Brent Ozar

Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.

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The Simple Twitter Book

But whaddya know….

This book is completely different, though, and v1 is more of a booklet than a book.  While I was on a week-long Caribbean cruise with my mom, I decided to bang out a short ebook covering as much as I could about Twitter. My Twitter articles get tens of thousands of hits per month, and I figured these kinds of people would love to read an ebook all about getting started with Twitter.  When I walked off the plane after the cruise, I would call the book Version 1.0 and be done with it.  I’d publish it online, give it away for free, and see how it goes.

The result is The Simple Twitter Book, a free 24-page PDF that covers:

• Why your location and description really matters
• Why you shouldn’t change your photo willy-nilly
• How to build a more-information page and a better background
• Where to find cool people to follow
• Why you shouldn’t follow everybody who follows you
• How to reply, retweet, and send direct messages
• The best tools to share links, photos, and music
• How companies can get started with Twitter
• How to get more followers

You, dear reader, already know everything in it, but if you agree with what’s in it, the best thing you can do for me is get the word out.  Send the link to your friends, tweet about it, or email a copy to somebody who’s trying to learn Twitter.  You can download it now.

...
You should sign up for our free upcoming webcasts now.

Brent Ozar

Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.

More Posts - Website

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