Twitter helped me change my career path to go from a cog to a business owner. So it’s fair to say that I’m on Twitter a fair amount and while I’m not a Twitter guru *shudder*, I see a lot of people using it completely wrong.
You’re doing it wrong if…
Your Twitter Is Purely an RSS Feed: There’s nothing that turns me off more than a Twitter feed full of links with no substance. It’s great that you blog, and even better that you’re a guest blogger on other sites. Kudos for getting your content out there but please don’t treat your Twitter account like an RSS feed where you dump all your links, constantly. I want to see interaction and conversation. I want to see @ replies. I want to see you mentioning other articles you enjoyed and WHY. Give me something more than the same thing I’m getting in my Google Reader.
Your Twitter Is Full of RTs Without Any Input from You: If I decide to follow you, it’s because I’m looking to have a conversation, and learn about what you think. You must have original opinions. So you liked an article and want to share it. Why? Make the most of those 140 characters by telling me why you think I should click on the link you just shared. You wouldn’t refer a friend to job without telling the recruiter why they’d be a good fit for the job so why are you spewing out links without any sort of unique input?
You Use Auto-DM: No. Just no. I don’t care how interesting your Twitter content is – the second I get an automated DM from you, I’m automatically unfollowing you. I might put you on a list so I can check in on your Twitter feed once in a while but I won’t make the mistake of following you. NOBODY LIKES IT. So, please, stop it.
You’re A Collector: You know the type – only following accounts to get more followers (probably to auto-DM them. Those sneaky punks!) This is equivalent to friend collecting on Myspace. Stop obsessing over the numbers and focus on the quality of your interactions. Trust me, you’ll get a lot more out of Twitter that way.
You Don’t Mind Your Grammar: I realize that 140 characters can be tricky but the beauty of Twitter lies in those 140 characters. It teaches us to be succinct and use our words wisely. Typos happen but there’s no excuse for you to use “ur” on a constant basis. Also, can we please get back to basics and use the proper “you’re/your”, “there/their”, etc? I begin to lose respect for people who are supposed communications professionals who completely disregard the basic rules for grammar.
You #FollowFriday Your Entire List: The point of Follow Friday is to give recognition to certain people on Twitter. Maybe they’re new to Twitter, or they provide awesome information that you want to share with your network. If you’re participating in #FollowFriday, tell me WHY I should follow this person. What is it about them that makes them worthy of my time and attention? If you have a #FollowFriday tweet with just as many Twitter handles as you can fit into the 140 characters with no context, you’re doing it wrong. Basically, you’re just spamming. On that note, @moxie_marmalade made a good point – Don’t just RT #FFs that you’re included in. If you want to return the sentiment, do so in a Reply, not a RT. (Again, you’re spamming.)
You Don’t Do Your Research: A simple letter could mean the difference between reaching out to the wrong person on Twitter. Make sure that you do your due diligence before mentioning people willy-nilly on Twitter. Go on www.twitter.com to make sure that the person you’re reaching out to is, in fact, the right person. Example: At one of my internships, I had a fact-checking project that involved social media handles for speakers for an upcoming conference. Mind you, the fact-checking I did came AFTER the speaker information was posted online, and there were to many instances when the Twitter handle was incorrect because no one did the due diligence to make sure they were linking to the correct “Sarah Smith”.
Twitter is my favorite. Please stop ruining it.
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