In case you haven’t heard, Twitter is HUGE. It can be a great way to reach a whole new audience for your message/product/service…if you’re doing it right.
If you’re not, you could be alienating the very people you hoped to connect with.
Here’s some guaranteed ways to suck hard on Twitter:
1) Favoriting your own tweets. This is the real life equivalent of walking around saying, “Hey, I’m awesome!” to everyone you meet. If your tweet is that good, someone else will favorite it.
2) Retweeting crap. When you see something awesome, interesting, or helpful on Twitter, you retweet it so your followers can benefit from it, too. You do NOT retweet stuff like people saying hello to you. And yes, I’ve actually seen this!
3) Tweeting five million times a day. No matter how fabulous you are, people will want to see tweets from others they’re following as well. If you’re tweeting constantly, you are filling up your followers’ timelines so they can’t see anything else.
4) Hijacking a useful hashtag to prove how witty you are. One of my favorite hashtags of all time is #mswl (manuscript wish list). Agents and editors tweet about what they’re looking for. Awesome! But someone had to keep posting stupid jokes using that hashtag. It was disruptive and completely annoying. I not only unfollowed him, I blocked him. If you’re going to use an immensely popular hashtag, use it wisely.
5) Promoting your business/service/blog/novel/dancing monkey incessantly. I recently got involved in an interesting conversation on Twitter. Or, I thought it was a conversation. Then I realized the woman was only in it to promote her services in every single tweet. Imagine meeting someone at a party whose every word is about what they do for a living. Bo-ring! Not to mention obnoxious. (And if you claim to be a marketing professional, that’s an extra two strikes, because you should know better.)
6) Tweeting about nothing. Everyone has something interesting to say. Everyone. I truly believe that. So no tweeting about what you ate for lunch (unless it was truly fabulous and you’re including the recipe), how bored you are, or that you’re going to bed. No one cares. Well, maybe your mother, but no one else.
7) Tweeting about your baby’s bowel movements. Enough said.
What social gaffes have you seen on Twitter? I’ll probably add to this list over time.
Oh, and feel free to follow me @JH_Moncrieff.
I follow a number of new-related organizations. What bugs me is when they tweet a headline but don’t add the link to the article. Then 10-15 minutes later they tweet again with the link. It’s like they want to get the jump on the story…Maybe it’s meant to tease the reader but it really just frustrates me.
Hi Lisa! Thanks for your comment and for coming back to the blog. It’s always great to see you.
I’ve actually never seen that before, but you’re right–that is completely annoying! I’ve unfollowed news organizations and reporters for completely filling up my timeline to the point I can’t see anything else.
I want to know what’s going on in the world, but not THAT much.
I am on Twitter but don’t tweet so much. I agree favoriting your own tweet is like liking your own status on facebook. Who does that? lol
But as old as I am I do like when I can get a “famous” follower…lol. Yup I said that.
Great read as usual Holli!
Thanks for your comment, Tina! I’d be thrilled if I got a famous follower too. So far, my closest brush with fame has been Laila Ali retweeting my tweets. I walked on air both times it happened.
I appreciate your kind words! Welcome back to the blog.