Wow...I can't believe it. January 2013 marks FIVE years of tweeting for me. I've seen the good, the amazing...AND the horrific when it comes to Twitter.
A large number of people I know, respect and admire, I have met through Twitter. People that have greatly shortening my learning curve over the years in the world of search marketing. I have continued to hone my social networking skills in real time and opened up the chance to have helped a lot of people learn how to navigate and master the world of Twitter.
Despite all the goodness of Twitter, there is always a cross-section of people who make some big mistakes...either from ignorance or out of arrogance. I think everyone has made a gaffe or two when tweeting. Some people just don't know (there should be a "before you tweet requirement" of Twitter 101) and some people just don't give a *tweet* and should be deleted if they can't get the Twitter best practices down.
There's a lot of things that can make you look dumb on Twitter, but there are some "tweet-peeves" of mine that I wanted to share and hopefully have shared to people who need to see it...and that they learn from these mistakes.
1. Anti-social media behavior on Twitter - Using programs like TrueTwit or SocialOomph for the auto DM feature is a HUGE fail in my book and I personally consider that Twitter Spam. Automated tweets like TrueTwit are the epitome of Twitter Spam. Compound that auto-DM with some kind of sales pitch and you're likely going to be deleted and/or blocked from ever tweeting people again.
2. Over Re-tweet vs. Original Content - there is a group of people who LOVE Twitter, but haven't quite found their voice yet either on Twitter or their own blog (if they have one). Their tweetstream is filled with a majority of retweets (RT's) from everyone else. Sharing is good, but oversharing (retweeting) is bad. This is a great piece on the importance of posting your own content over just retweeting someone else's content by my buddy Robert Caruso aka @fondalo This is a great primer on reversing your suck factor on Twitter, by being valuable to your community.
3. Promotional Puking Tweets - If your Twitter stream is nothing but promotional tweets about your MLM opportunity or latest affiliate product you're associated with and there are no @ replies or conversation starters, then you're just puking out tweets in hopes of someone buying something. That will never make you money. It'll only piss people off and they'll unfollow you or never follow you back at all.
4. Your Twitter Feed Updates In Bulk Tweets - Using a site like Triberr or Twitterfeed and not configuring it correctly is setting yourself up for failure. All of a sudden whoever follows you sees in their tweet stream a dozen or so tweets in one lump series of tweets from "you" that are automated, people like me immediately unfollow you. It's INCREDIBLY annoying and not conducive to being "social".
5. You STILL have the Default Egg Avatar! SERIOUSLY? It's 2013! Is there more that needs to be said about this? Anyone and everyone has to have at least one picture of themselves or their business logo if the account is tweeting for their company and/or product. I don't know about anyone else, but I won't follow someone who still has the default egg.
6. #TeamFollowBack - You tweet this hashtag, have this hashtag in your bio. This makes you suck at Twitter. You're not going to get the type of followers that will help your business. The type of person who is a "teamfollowback" devotee is likely not going to be the kind of person you want to see tweets coming from either. Have you noticed the quality of tweets from these people? Hmmm...please if you are that person right now, stop.
7. #FollowFriday - Using this hashtag was all the rage a COUPLE OF YEARS AGO! Yet, people STILL love to give their #FF love. If you just put a list of people together with #FF or #FollowFriday and then have a plethora of tweets that just the names change for the next tweet and the tweet after that again and again...then you suck on Twitter. Stop doing that!
Instead, if you explain why you think someone should be followed THAT gives value to your followers. Then you ROCK! You're providing value to your followers.
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Okay, okay, I know I wrote 10 ways you suck on Twitter, but I want some feedback from the community and have a feeling that a few of you reading this can add to the list in the comments. What are you experiencing on Twitter that annoys you and is one of your pet peeves when it comes to people on Twitter? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Did you notice any of these behaviors in your own tweet activity? I sure hope not. If you did, you can definitely change your tactic with a couple of simple tweaks to your tweets. If you have questions about how to improve, just ask in the comments below.
Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing.
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