Jul 27, 2009
Top 20 Don’ts of Twitter
Many people scoffed at the idea of using Twitter for business in the early days. It was difficult to fathom how any business could benefit from microblogging, i.e. sending out short messages to people you don’t know. However, Twitter can indeed be useful, helping businesses build trust, monitor their brand, market their products/services, and provide customer service. There are plenty of tips out there about what you should do on Twitter but there isn’t much advice about the faux pas of Twitter. Here are the top 20 don’ts of Twitter that you should keep in mind to ensure that your Twitter marketing efforts are successful.
1. Don’t write about mundane, boring things all the time. If you tweet enough times about what you ate for breakfast or how the cat did his business in the litter box, you will get un-followed.
2. Don’t ignore people who reply to your Tweets or send you direct messages. The essence of Twitter is interacting with your followers whenever possible.
3. Don’t tweet more than 10 times a day or so. When you tweet too often, it takes up too much space and draws attention away from other tweets. Leave all that talking for your blog.
4. Don’t say anything that could get you in trouble or get you fired. Twitter has demonstrated time and time again that it is public, meaning EVERYONE can see it, including your boss.
5. Don’t forget to use Twitter lingo. When you re-tweet something, use RT and when you want to respond to someone or share their presence with your followers, use @name. Use @name and RT generously in order to connect with your current followers and expand your follower base.
6. Re-tweeting something? Don’t RT without acknowledging the person who tweeted it first. Use @name to acknowledge the person who originally tweeted it.
7. Don’t talk about something really cool without providing a picture or link. Let your followers see, feel, and experience whatever it is you are experiencing! Words don’t always do it justice.
8. Don’t follow hundreds of people in a period of a few hours. It makes you look like a spammer and can lead you to lose your credibility.
9. Don’t tell your followers when you are going on vacation. It’s an invitation for thieves!
10. Don’t expect people to follow you if you have 0 updates and have signed up for Twitter simply to get people to click on your link. People will block you or ignore you if you do this.
11. Don’t focus on quantity when trying to increase followers. Quality is more important. That means you should just ignore all those tweets telling you how you can get 1,000 followers instantly.
12. Don’t get too personal or emotional in your tweets. Think business.
13. Don’t repost the same tweet several times. A maximum of three tweets is sufficient. And delete the older duplicate tweets when you tweet something more than once.
14. Don’t “break” news if it’s more than an hour old. Chances are your followers have seen and heard it already.
15. Don’t tweet broken links. Check all the links you plan to tweet to ensure that they are not spam or broken.
16. Don’t send automatic DMs with spam. That includes thanking people for following you and linking to your site. It looks impersonal.
17. Don’t use a product image or a hand holding a wad of cash as your Twitter image.
18. Don’t use all 140 characters in your tweets so people have space to add RT and @name to your tweet when re-tweeting.
19. Don’t tell us what you are doing. Although it says “What are you doing?” above the tweet box, don’t take the question literally. The key to success on Twitter is answering the question, “What can you share that would be of interest to others?” every time you tweet.
20. Don’t use Twitter as a replacement for Google. If you don’t know the answer to something, Google is the best place to look it up without annoying all of your followers.
1. Don’t write about mundane, boring things all the time. If you tweet enough times about what you ate for breakfast or how the cat did his business in the litter box, you will get un-followed.
2. Don’t ignore people who reply to your Tweets or send you direct messages. The essence of Twitter is interacting with your followers whenever possible.
3. Don’t tweet more than 10 times a day or so. When you tweet too often, it takes up too much space and draws attention away from other tweets. Leave all that talking for your blog.
4. Don’t say anything that could get you in trouble or get you fired. Twitter has demonstrated time and time again that it is public, meaning EVERYONE can see it, including your boss.
5. Don’t forget to use Twitter lingo. When you re-tweet something, use RT and when you want to respond to someone or share their presence with your followers, use @name. Use @name and RT generously in order to connect with your current followers and expand your follower base.
6. Re-tweeting something? Don’t RT without acknowledging the person who tweeted it first. Use @name to acknowledge the person who originally tweeted it.
7. Don’t talk about something really cool without providing a picture or link. Let your followers see, feel, and experience whatever it is you are experiencing! Words don’t always do it justice.
8. Don’t follow hundreds of people in a period of a few hours. It makes you look like a spammer and can lead you to lose your credibility.
9. Don’t tell your followers when you are going on vacation. It’s an invitation for thieves!
10. Don’t expect people to follow you if you have 0 updates and have signed up for Twitter simply to get people to click on your link. People will block you or ignore you if you do this.
11. Don’t focus on quantity when trying to increase followers. Quality is more important. That means you should just ignore all those tweets telling you how you can get 1,000 followers instantly.
12. Don’t get too personal or emotional in your tweets. Think business.
13. Don’t repost the same tweet several times. A maximum of three tweets is sufficient. And delete the older duplicate tweets when you tweet something more than once.
14. Don’t “break” news if it’s more than an hour old. Chances are your followers have seen and heard it already.
15. Don’t tweet broken links. Check all the links you plan to tweet to ensure that they are not spam or broken.
16. Don’t send automatic DMs with spam. That includes thanking people for following you and linking to your site. It looks impersonal.
17. Don’t use a product image or a hand holding a wad of cash as your Twitter image.
18. Don’t use all 140 characters in your tweets so people have space to add RT and @name to your tweet when re-tweeting.
19. Don’t tell us what you are doing. Although it says “What are you doing?” above the tweet box, don’t take the question literally. The key to success on Twitter is answering the question, “What can you share that would be of interest to others?” every time you tweet.
20. Don’t use Twitter as a replacement for Google. If you don’t know the answer to something, Google is the best place to look it up without annoying all of your followers.
Labels: social_media
