5 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Twitter Relationship
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I find Twitter to be one of the best social media tools around. The fact that it only allows you 140 characters to get a message across usually means that there’s no waffle.
People genuinely think about what they want to say, and it’s a great way to connect with people you share interests with, personal and professional.
Yet lately I’ve been getting a little frustrated with Twitter – not the service itself (although the fail whale is never a pretty site). No, my frustrations lie with the way many users are spoiling what Twitter has to offer – at least for me.
I know that people use Twitter for different reasons and I have no qualms with that at all. I just feel that some use it less effectively and far more selfishly than others. So here, in no particular order, are my Top 5 peeves when it comes to Twitter use. (These are just my peeves – it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right – Twitter should be used how you want to use it).
- Shameless self-promotion. Yes, we’re only human and that means we like to talk about ourselves. Yet social media is all about the conversation and interacting – sharing others as well as yourself. There’s nothing more annoying to me than a Twitter stream from someone that is nothing but a plug for their latest blog post or product. To me, that doesn’t offer anything to the community – sorry.
- Selfish shouts. One of the reasons I love using Twitter is the way I find great new content, thanks to users I’m following recommending new blogs to check out. This has introduced some great opinions to me that I would never have been aware of otherwise. However, only recommending blog posts where you’re mentioned? Just as bad as shameless self-promotion (and possibly a little egotistical).
- Twitter DM spam. So I’ve just agreed to follow your Twitter updates, and BAM! All of a sudden you feel it’s acceptable to send me direct messages telling me to sign up to your newsletter or join this group or that forum. Sorry, no – show me that you’re offering something selflessly and I’ll find that information anyway. Bombarding me with DM’s is akin to email spam and I instantly delete that.
- Open conversations. This might be a bit contentious and I apologize if it comes across wrong – that’s not my intent. But if you feel that you’re going to have a long conversation with a particular user, can you use the DM option? Seeing half a conversation taking up every other Tweet isn’t particularly conducive to community spirit. You wouldn’t like me listening in on your phone conversation, would you?
- Competition Tweets. While it’s nice to have the chance to win something at any time, Tweeting about it every other minute is not a great way to go about it. Instead of blasting everyone in your Twitter stream, why not have the competition URL and short spiel about it in your bio?
I’m not saying that Twitter is becoming annoying per se – just some of the ways that it’s being used.
Of course, maybe I’m missing the boat altogether and it’s me that’s in the wrong and the above points are moot. I’d love to hear your opinion, and if there are any other Twitterisms that annoy you.
79 Responses to “5 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Twitter Relationship”
I think you must be reading my mind, Michael.
You mention “quality over quantity” and I don’t think anyone could ever argue with this (at least argue with a genuine enough reason, that is). I think this is where social media is maturing as opposed to the early days of online interactivity – now it is (for the most part) about the sharing and growing together.
If you want to win a popularity contest, fine, that’s your prerogative – but I probably won’t be a part of it as you’ll invariably be too busy number-crunching, as opposed to contributing anything worthwhile.
Thanks for reading and sharing your views, I appreciate it.
There’s nothing more frustrating than those whose tweets follow the lines of:
‘I have 500 followers!’, ‘I have 600 followers!’, ‘I have 700 followers’….
You know what? I don’t care how many followers you have! Trust me, if you solely post tweets detailing the number of followers you have, you will offer no value to those following you. I consider one of the most valuable aspects of Twitter to be the information you get from those you follow. If you increasingly alienate your followers, they will invariably stop following… This may actually damage your brand equity as a further corollary.
The Lovable Rogue´s last blog post..The Social Media: Are You Open to Interpretation?
This is one I’ll share with people I know are new to Twitter. I’d love to DM it to some of the obnoxious follow-everybody self-promoters too, but that would mean I’d have to follow them & I don’t want to encourage them.
SuzeMuz had a post that mentions the quality/quantity issue as well, at http://suzemuse.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/the-secret-to-success-in-social-media/. I commented there on my experience of having someone criticize me for not having enough Twitter followers to be worth listening to. Wow, good thing my self-esteem doesn’t reside in my computer screen.
Personally, I’m not on Twitter for direct promotional purposes. I got on to check it out as a potential tool to incorporate into the communications work I head up for Washington State University Spokane (@WSUSpokane), then got hooked (or got ADD–take your pick).
I’m so glad I did it as a private individual to start getting some idea of the culture, although it feels as if it’s moving so fast that whatever is recommended as a best practice today will be the sign of a newbie in a week or so. It would be a fascinating sociological and linguistic study to track the emerging and changing norms.
The “selfish shouts” go right over my head because of the nature of Twitter. I scan the stream, click on a few links that look interesting, and my browser launches a bunch of new windows. I’d have no way of realizing that someone pointed me to a post that mentions him/her directly unless I paid a lot more attention to how I got there in the first place.
I did very quickly form opinions of who was tweeting links to great stuff that wasn’t all just their own–@Chris Brogan, @kanter, and others. I’d better go figure out who tweeted the link to this… oh yeah, it was @PressReleasePR. I think that generosity pays off. Twitter: Just another chance to affect your karmic balance.
@BarbChamberlain
Barb Chamberlain´s last blog post..Getting older, or, it’s not fair but nobody said it would be
You are so right! I’d add Mundane Posts – tweeting things like I’m eating meatloaf (which by the way I am, but who would be interested?)
juliemarg´s last blog post..Elephant and Castle – Dublin, Ireland
@ The Lovable Rogue. 100% with you on that one, Chris. I have eyes – I can see how many followers you have. As Michael mentioned in his comment, it’s better to have 500 followers offering something worthwhile as opposed to 5,000 followers just making up some popularity contest numbers. And you’re right – your brand can be affected with this type of promotion.
@ Barb Chamberlain. Some great points you make here, Barb. I read that post by Susan Murphy – she’s one of the bloggers I tend to read quite a bit as she always has something interesting to say. The example you use of the Twitter user who wouldn’t follow you because you couldn’t possibly be worth following due to lack of numbers? Probably better off without him/her.
That’s an interesting premise you raise regarding the sociological and linguistic study – I for one would be very interested in reading such a study. It’s true – share with others and they’ll be quick to share with you as well. And at the end of the day, isn’t that how we all learn and grow?
@ Julie. Yes, I knew I forgot one of the better ones!
Mentioning your current food choice or latte isn’t always the most stimulating of conversation pieces. Unless you want to recommend I try a certain brand..? 
Thanks for reading and commenting guys, always appreciated.
I don’t think you have any reason to think you’re wrong. It’s your opinion that those particular activities can be annoying on twitter and I agree with many of your points here. Typically, if someone persists with the types of tweeting behavior that you’ve described then I’ll unfollow them or just won’t follow them in the first place. But that’s the beauty of social media/networking- we have the choice of who, what and how we choose to interact with people. Those who are successful in using social media are the ones who figure out the “correct” or acceptable etiquette as a means to convey their thoughts, messages or for creating actual relationships/connections. Those who fail to understand that about social media are the ones that we ultimately find annoying or just plain “noisy” and their use of social media in the first place becomes futile.
Just my two cents.
Kimberly
@jkvirtualoffice
http://www.jkvirtualoffice.com/blogThanks, Kimberly. I agree that carrying out the points I mentioned (and I’m sure everyone has their own to add!) is a quick way for me to unfollow a user.
Perhaps some people don’t realize that their use of Twitter can be annoying – after all, I guess there are no ground rules on how to use social media. Then again, who am I to say what’s annoying and what’s not?
As you say, there will always be two camps in social media (and this is probably true of a great many things). One will invariably be right while the other won’t – which one is which will depend on your point of view.
First time visitor. I love the look of your site, and this is a well-thought out and written post. I’ll be back.
witchypoo´s last blog post..Best contest Ever
As you can imagine, Danny, I wholeheartedly agree and appreciate your putting out there in a blog what so many of us think to ourselves. Your third bullet point is the one that gets me the most I think… I JUST followed you because for some reason you seemed like you’d be interesting to me, and you turn around and auto-reply to me with a sales pitch? I don’t think so!
Great job, as always. I appreciate your service to the online community.
Be well, my friend.
I recently unfollowed someone for their sudden interest in using 4 letter words and someone else that just kept sending shameless self promotion, but overall, most I follow are pretty interesting and worth the time. People who send out rapid fire posts can be a little annoying too – where there’s something like 10 per minute – that is just too much.
Brent Haeseker´s last blog post..Mild Mannered Consultant by Day – Slightly Less Mild Mannered Consultant by Night
Danny:
I’m really new at Twittering. But I’ve read alot about what it is and what is isn’t. I agree with you on your 5 points. I appreciate relevant info that is useful and not merely self promoting.@ witchypoo. Thanks for stopping by, and taking the time to read and comment – always appreciated. I look forward to seeing you around in the comments section.
@ Lizz. Funnily enough, it was actually your experiences with that PR user that nudged me in the direction of this post. I’d been debating for a while whether to run with Twitter annoyances or not, and yours (and a few others) experiences made up my mind. The third point is definitely one of the more annoying peeves – a sales pitch is all well and good, but keep it for the right place and the right time. Your own blog, for example, or a landing page…
@ Brent. That is one of the biggest saving graces on Twitter, I believe – the personal choice. Without the option to unfollow or block, I feel the service could get really bad for spammers. Thankfully, while the power is in our own hands to control who and what we follow, then Twitter will remain a great place to meet interesting and knowledgeable people.
@ Bernie. Good to have you on Twitter, Bernie.
I think most people are sensible – the ones that spam or use it annoyingly are probably the same ones that would send you generic emails about how they made $10,000 in 3 minutes using a 2-minute egg timer… Thanks for reading and sharing your view, guys, I appreciate your time.
Danny,
You’ve created a great set of guidelines for how to be a star Twitter user. By keeping things conversational, sharing good content you come across and generally being aware that other people have to read what you are saying (if they choose to follow you), you ought to keep most users on Twitter happy.
However, when things go awry and the tool becomes your self-promotion platform plus your main line of conversation with others, things can go sour very fast.
I love the argument Louis Gray made recently that basically says we are in control of the noise we see on Twitter and in social media. It’s very easy to hit the ‘unfollow’ or ‘block’ buttons, and I also applaud the Twitter team for giving us those abilities.
The hardest part about all of this is that even with great blog posts and ‘do not’ lists like this, we’ll still see users disobeying the unwritten rules and scaring off more of the core Twitter users. I’d love to see those types of users forget about Twitter and move on to the next big thing, but chances are they will only keep growing in numbers as time goes by.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the compliment, I really appreciate that and glad the post “hit home”.
I guess this is the problem of something going through its teething stages – although maybe not, since MySpace is still getting hit hard with the “teenage girls in bikini friends”. Hopefully, as you say, Twitter will outgrow this malaise.
I must admit, it makes me wonder what the offline persona’s of these people are like. Are they as forceful offline in a stereotypical marketing/advertiser/PR kind of way, or are they fairly shy and simply using Twitter (and similar) to be more vocal? Who knows?
As you mention, the great equalizer is that we ARE in control of the noise, both incoming and outgoing. The outgoing noise we should respect – the incoming noise we should expect, and deal with accordingly.
Thanks for reading and sharing your view, appreciated.
Yikes. I’ve been using twitter mainly to post my latest posts and to make an occasional comment about your mustache for Movember. In general, I’ve started unfollowing those people who chat non stop. Personally, I still haven’t found my groove on Twitter but I imagine that I will with time.
I think it’s definitely a learning curve for Twitter, Steve. The main thing is that, as you mention, people find their groove – if they still feel the need to constantly self-promote and offer no real value, then fair enough, there’s always going to be people like that. And, there will always be people that follow this approach.
It’s just not for me, and judging by the comments here, it’s not for the majority of Twitter users either. That’s the great thing about social media – we seem to be moving away from “me, me, me” to “we, we, we” and this will work its way across the different social media platforms.
Thanks for reading and commenting (and most definitely thanks for the mustache love!)
Danny,
First time visitor to your site – and agree with your points – they are right on! The other piece I find of no value is when a user consistently updates via txt or a feed – it is merely a one-way relationship.
Cheers!
@jjbuss´s last blog post..Sarah Palin vs. CareerBuilder on Facebook
That’s another good one there, Jason – seems that there are quite a lot of irritable foibles kicking around the Twitterverse. I’m sure we could all write a book on them
Thanks for stopping by and look forward to hearing more from you.
Danny ~ These are all great points and pretty much sums up my frustrations with Twitter too. I’ve also read about Qwitter … the program that will let you know when someone quits following you and at first I thought, “Why would I care if someone quit following me,” but then it was explained that there are many out there who follow so that you’ll follow back and then they unfollow immediately. Geez … people … so I might get it just to drop the peeps who do that. As mentioned, thanks for writing what most all of us are thinking! *SmiLes* Suzanne
Money Making Ideas ~ Suzanne´s last blog post..Top 7 Home Business Ideas
That’s another annoying thing about Twitter, and thanks for reminding me about it, Suzanne. There are a lot of people that follow then unfollow just to boost their faux popularity.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views as always.
Danny, I agree on all of your points, but I do find that other’s self promotion does point me in the right direction at times. I think it really comes down to balance- like everything else. The goal should be finding a happy medium between contributing to the discussion and making the conversation completely one-sided.
The one addition to your set of rules that was suggested by juliemarg is one I wouldn’t necessarily agree with; even though I don’t find them to be all that helpful. But in terms of the original inspiration of Twitter (What are you doing?), I don’t think you can fault anyone for staying true to the original intent. The great thing about Twitter is that the conversations have evolved to a great place for sharing information and thoughts, but the origins will always be the origins.
Hi Scott.
I agree there’s nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion – as you mention, how else is anyone going to know you’ve published a new blog post if they don’t subscribe to you. Where my annoyance lies is with the users who do nothing but post links to their own blogs – new posts, old posts, simply the main URL, etc. That’s when it changes from being a simple acknowledgment that you have a new post, to not offering anything of value to the conversation.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your view, appreciate it.
Agreed. Please contribute more to the conversation than you, yourself and you.
Good points, but the white text on colored background is hard to read. There’s a reason black on white is the statndard.
@ Chris. Props for first one to complain about the colour scheme
Thanks for stopping by.
Danny, thanks for your thoughtful conversation here and comment on my blog.
Re: your post — I’d add users who Tweet “too much” (subjective). I’m going to try following you but am concerned when I see a “nuclear fallout cost,” (try the URL).
http://followcost.com/PressReleasePR
Re: my post — I’m with you on not putting too much weight on the Twitter-user lists. *However,* as a recipient of the “Top 50 Tweeples to Follow” nod, I’ve met more than 100 users I likely otherwise would not have met who found me on @PRSarahEvans list. It worked out nicely for me.
I see it as a third-party endorsement and another way to raise brand awareness (in this case the “Joe Hage brand”), nothing more.
Thanks for the conversation!
Joe HageJoeHageOnline.com´s last blog post..A Twitter dilemma: To follow or not to follow
Hi Joe.
I’ve seen that result before (the “nuclear fallout” grade). That’s why I don’t put too much leverage into a lot of these tools – Grader, Tweeples, Followcost, etc. What Followcost in particular fails to look at is the quality of the Tweets in question. I’m not saying that every one of my Tweets are groundbreaking fonts of knowledge, but on the other hand I’d certainly say they aren’t of the annoying nature discussed in this post. I’m sure you’ll make your own mind up on that one.
I agree with you on that you met people that you wouldn’t have otherwise (hence my “don’t take this the wrong way” approach on my comment to your post).
The only thing I would say about most lists is that generally the majority of people on them would have a large follower base anyway – it’d be more beneficial to have undiscovered users as opposed to the normal Chris Brogan, Problogger, Scobleizer, etc. As I mentioned, it’s all usually relative to the person compiling the list.
But, like I mentioned, that’s not to take anything away from your inclusion and it’s great that someone with quality input is being recognized.
Thanks for reading and sharing your views, and look forward to hearing/reading more from you.
Hello Danny, just delighted to find you through a new friend at stumbleupon.,and agree with all the points you make in your post.
As a newbie to social media it certainly is confusing to know what the correct etiquette might be, which is where lurking comes into it’s own! However you can lurk forever and never really learn how the site works unless you take the audacious step and get stuck in.
It became clear to me rather quickly that there were many different types of user on Twitter, including a great swathe of spammers , although most in this group would be horrified to be described thus!
The most annoying group to my way of thinking, are the ones who post a page of tweets that welcome all new followers. Does anyone care who is following you? if all you are concerned about is numbers!
I have met some fantastic people on Twitter including many from whom I have purchased products and it’s a joy to follow them . Not really interested in the type that Follows 1850 has 300 followers and 4 tweets and no website url!Keep up the good work and Thank You to Chris who commented above.
Thank you, Robin, and good to have you here.
This is the main “problem” with social media on the whole, I feel. It is still a new medium (although it’s been around in many guises for a few years) that we’re all still learning together.
Yet the way I look at it is that people generally take their offline persona into the digital one. Usually this is fine – yet you will always have various people offline who are mean, vindictive, selfish – the list goes on.
I’m not saying that Twitter spammers fall into any of these descriptions necessarily, but at the same time they may be the same ones that would call you incessantly about double-glazing!
The great equalizer as far as Twitter goes is that the power is always in your hands – if you don’t like what someone has to say, simply un-follow or block them. That allows you to maintain the audience you actually want to connect with.
Thanks for reading and sharing your view, and hope to see you around here more.
An interesting blog to find! A few of my annoyances…
- People retweeting some self-promoting tweet more than 3 times. I think it’s fine to retweet a couple of times cos of the various timezones, but there’s one guy who I am just about to unfollow who does it about 5 times an hour.
- Those who experience deep and meaningful distress about a glitch in grader reporting a lower popularity for them! (bless)
- Those who unfollow someone just because they aren’t being followed in return and make a huge song and dance about it.I quite like hearing about the humdrum things people are doing (like what they are eating) so long as it’s only every now and again. I have unfollowed quite a lot of people who seem to report every breath they take throughout the whole day!
Reeta
@reetaluthraReeta Luthra´s last blog post..Gain Precious Years Through Improving Your Decision Making Strategy
More good examples, Reeta. The constant re-Tweeting is definitely up there. I know my post goes out automatically when published thanks to Twitter Tools, and I’ll maybe re-Tweet about 4-5 hours later as a new Tweet, but that’s about it. I’ll also occasionally go back into old posts and re-Tweet that, but that’s months after publication – after all, new followers wouldn’t have seen it.
I have to admit to being utterly non-plussed with this whole Grader tool. Is it really important to be amongst the elite? And isn’t the whole grading system open to abuse – simply gather followers and post a lot of Tweets and that seems to get you a high score. I’d rather concentrate on gathering quality connections and sharing worthwhile and useful information as opposed to trying to top the league in Toronto. But, each to their own, I guess…
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, appreciate you sharing your views.
Not sure if the reply to my comment about the colors being hard to read was meant as sarcastic or sincere, but my comment was sincere.
Anyway, what exactly is a Twitter spammer, considering that you have to follow someone to read their stuff? If you chose to follow them, how can their posts be spam?
Hi Chris,
Sorry for any confusion – the reply was sincere.
With regards a Twitter spammer, while you do need to follow someone to read their Tweets, generally you don’t really know what they’re like until you have been following them. Yes, you can read their previous Tweets, but many people don’t take the time to do that.
That’s when the problems can begin – all of a sudden your Twitter stream is filled with self-promoting Tweets, re-Tweets taking you to affiliate links, Direct Messages to sign up to newsletters, etc…
Additionally, someone can’t Direct Message you until you follow them. By waiting until they are followed and then sending you an invite to sign up for their newsletter, blog posts, sales pitches, etc, makes them the worst kind of spammer.
Thanks for stopping by again, good to have you here.
Man, did you third point hit a nerve with me. Yesterday two people followed me, I checked them out and they looked interesting so I followed them back, and then both of them sent me sales links. I un-followed them immediately. I’m not quite sure how I feel about people sending me links to their websites and asking me to visit them, especially since that’s a part of how I decide if I want to follow someone or not, but thus far I’ve just ignored those messages.
Mitch´s last blog post..Curious About Your Backlinks?
I hear you Mitch.
Everyone wants to promote themselves, or their business, or their affiliate scheme – that’s fine. But do it respectably.
Have the URL in your bio.
Tweet occasionally directing people to your sales page.
Have a blog where people can get all this information.
If you’re seen to offer something of value, people will naturally want to know more about you, and ask if you have any more info about yourself. That’s when you can show them the sales page, your affiliate scheme or whatever. And you won’t lose followers into the bargain.
I thought the ” rules” as far as Twitter is concerned are “there ARE no rules.” At least that’s what the Handbook says (I think). It’s very much each to his/her own. The minute people try and slap on their own rules on everyone else it becomes a completely different experience. I’ve discovered very interesting thoughts, trends, blogs and opinions on Twitter and met very interesting people. It’s only because of someone tweeting this post that I’m commenting on it. (And by the way, white on black is very hard on the eyes).
I presume that those using it for what we might call “shameless self promotion” do it because it works for them AND their followers. At least one of the things Twitter is said to be beneficial for is as a way to market and promote yourself.
I too would prefer not to have overkill on promotional stuff, but I know I have the choice to “unfollow” folk if it gets to me. So far, that’s not the reason I’ve unfollowed or blocked – but have unfollowed from the spam bots, or, if it turns out that I’ve actually nothing in common with someone I followed.
When I have a new blog post I will generally tweet it and if I find stuff that I think is interesting I’ll both Tweet and check it out. I find interesting people all the time.
I’m often so busy it’s hard to keep up with finding and sharing. That’s just the way it is. I’m not interested in 1,000′s of followers and have learned to tune out the “I have a twitter grade of 500″ or “I’ve just reached my 20,oooth follower” because I really don’t care. I could wish it was “only this” or “only that” but as long as the unfollow button is there I consider I have the power on that one
I think with Twitter right now you set your own rules and let others set theirs…’cos there’s always the chance that one person’s rules won’t work for the next.
Nicky Jameson´s last blog post..13 Ways To Build Trust and Community With Social Media
I agree, Nicky – there are no rules and Twitter (much like any facet of social media) is used in the way individuals want to use it. These are just my personal peeves (although it would seem that many others share them and others as well).
I would never say “my way is better than your way” and if people want to use it for self-promotion and nothing else, then fair play to them and if it works all the better. It’s just not for me.
Thanks for sharing your views, appreciate you stopping by.
I like what Scott Scotch had to say: “I think it really comes down to balance” . I think that no one type of posting should really permeate all of your postings. A little bit of self-promo, some pointing to (other’s) good blogs or articles, a quick political comment and a once-in-while hey, look what I am doing, keeps it interesting and fast paced.
And then, as was stated above, the great control we have is to UNfollow.
http://twitter.com/ChelleCordero
Chelle Cordero´s last blog post..Creative Writing Workshop
Good points, Chelle, and ones that I think you’d find resonate with the majority of Twitter users. Mixing it up is key and if you look at the most effective users of Twitter, I think you’d find they do all the things you and Scott cover.
Thanks for stopping by and look forward to hearing more from you.
I just wanted to let you know I think it’s great how you answered virtually every person who commented on your post!
And, I agree with all the comments about annoying twitterers, even though I’m a novice at social networking – I especially don’t like the cussing in writing or the thank you DMs with a sales pitch.
Mrs. MoneyMerge´s last blog post..To Pay Off or Not To Pay Off Your Mortgage – a question on many people’s minds
Thank you Mrs Moneymerge (great tag by the way, very James Bond)
Hopefully I can always take the time to answer people that have taken time out of their own day to read and comment. If I ever stop replying, I hope people like your good self will put me in my place
The dicey part is deciding when a simple question/answer format, or chiming in on something turns into a conversation. Maybe it’s valuable to invite many into the conversation.
The art is in forming messages that invite others in, and knowing when to use DM to take the conversation out of the main conversation.
After all, Twitter is one, big conversation.
Agreed – Twitter is the ideal medium for encouraging conversation. I guess my “peeve” on that one is where 2 people ping each other back and forth every minute (or more) and then it can get annoying.
But, as you say, it’s all in the user’s hands how it’s used.
Ah. Well, I’ve been assuming all along that I’m guilty of #4, but maybe I’m really not. Which also means my own personal Twitterverse isn’t guilty of it, either (@thebrandbuilder, that means you!).
I’m thinking that a string of 4-5 messages on the same topic would fall into your #4, but maybe not.
Hi Danny- appreciate your insights, I'm new to the social media world-fun to learn along the way!
HollyFound my head nodding as I read this post and the associated comments. One small pet peeve I'd like to add is the sheer number of self-proclaimed "social media experts" on Twitter. I'd imagine there are literally dozens of honest-to-god SM experts in the Twitterverse, but most of the folks who claim to be SM experts aren't anywhere close from what I can see. Having a blog and a twitter account does not an expert make (at least not in my book).
Everyone has aspirations, but if there's one thing we should have learned from George Bush's time in office, it's: don't claim "Mission Accomplished" if you've only just started.
I completely agree Marianne.
I tend to find that those that are self-proclaimed "gurus" or "experts" are, like you say, anything but. That kind of reputation comes from recommendations by others and the ability to back up your claims with substantiated results.
I've seen "gurus" that don't even know what Stumbleupon is, or why you should always claim your blog in Technorati. Sorry, next…
Thanks for your insight on this particular subject. Seeing that I am fairly new to twitter this was extremely helpful. It may be reevaluate what I do and what I say on the sight. I liked the idea of connecting with others of like intrest and seeing what people were saying but I realize that I have been one to communicate annoying tweets from time to time. This has helped me to be more resourcefull and strategic in what I do on twitter and my other social networking sites. I look forward to starting my new journey on twitter to not only fill my followers in on exciting things in my life but also connecting them to other intresting topics and great articals that others are putting out there.
I guess I said all that to say, I don't want to be selfish in my attempt at twitter. Thanks a lot for your insight.
Great post, I agree with all of that, just hope I am not doing any of it myself! Need to watch myself more.
Hi there –
Thank you for your insights here.
I have been on Twitter for a week. I have found some great resources (including your blog) but have also seen users with a style of tweeting I don’t enjoy and would not want to imitate. .
I am trying really hard to learn the right way to use the forum, both for my benefit and to add value to the community. As a total newbie, I wonder “Am I supposed to DM each new follower and thank them?” “Should I just tweet links to my blog, my products, my store?”
“What do I have to say that will add value?” “Exactly how do I collect quality followers?” “What is correct etiquette for RT, DM, and what the heck does # mean?”
I realize I have to work these things out for myself. I am thankful for sites like yours with guidance and advice.
All the best – Hilary“…I wonder “Am I supposed to DM each new follower and thank them?””
I’m new too. I noticed that the people who I Followed, who seem to be making a sincere effort to interact and add value, all sent me a “Thank you” for my Follow. I am doing the same to those who Follow me, if it looks like they aren’t just “head hunters” – people who follow everyone possible, just to have a large Follower base.
That’s not right or wrong, it’s just my decision on how to interact with those who I think add value in the areas I am interested in.
““Should I just tweet links to my blog, my products, my store?””
As another newbie user, I say a hearty “PLEASE don’t!” This fits into the “shameless self-promotion” and “just plain annoying” categories …
Every blog and forum is already flooded with people over-promoting their products; there is more “junk” out there than real conversations and real exchanges of info. I hope I’m not one of those, they really really annoy me
“what the heck does # mean?””
I just learned this! It’s cool.
When you have a topic of your own that you want people to be able to find easily, then you create your own “#something” – called a hash tag.
Got this from @BianaBabinsky (a very helpful Twitterererer) : ” tag ur tips with a hashtag … that way peeps can search for the tag and see all…”
For example, if you want to post an inspirational quote every Monday, you can use a hash tag like #Monday so people can type it into the Twitter search and see everything you posted with #Monday in your tweets.
@Hilary. That’s the great thing about Twitter, Hilary, there’s no real “right” and “wrong” way to use it. The above list are just some of my pet peeves, yet to others they may be perfectly fine and I could be the one that’s wrong.
The best thing to do is just be yourself and, as in life, be with others how you’d like them to be with you. That should be a decent starting point. But most of all, just get talking and have fun!
Be sure to say hello, I’m always around.
Thank you for sharing your insights, Danny!
We are all different and Twitter can accommodate our versatility. And it isn’t a matter of “right” or “wrong” as you’ve mentioned…perhaps another way to see it is “working” or “not working”…it presents a more neutral outlook.
I am very new to Twitter and on the first couple of weeks, all I did was observe silently until I figured out what would work for me…I am still sculpting my needs and sculpting what I can do to offer back to this incredible community!
My general concept is this: If something annoys me, I add it to my list of what not to do. If I like something, I add it to my list of what to do…I guess it all boils down to “tweet unto others as you would like others tweet unto you” :~)
And it is more important to me who I follow…I choose this very carefully because these are the people I can learn valuable insights from…having a zillion unconnecting followers is a waste of everyone’s life currency!
Thank you, Danny, for the opportunity to learn from you everyday!
“Authenticity needs no selling just sharing!” ~Henie~
Best Always,
HenieCan you add “Sports Play by Plays” to your list?
If I wanted to know anything about the game, I’d be watching it. I don’t need 81923749823423 tweets from a user letting me know how the World Series is going.
Nice post Danny. I must say that when being new a community, you must find your way, find out who you like and who you don’t like. Simple as that. There are relationships that have been built solid and here are conversations that have bee established. Take your time before doing anything rash.
The person who said “if I wanted to watch the game, I would need Twitter” paraphrasing. First of all, it is not all about you – shocking eh? But there are others around the world that do not get coverage or they are away from any communication – and would love to see that – simply unfollow until the game is over – or how about joining in the discussion and get to know others, wow what a concept. Figure this out, if you think the world evolves around, it doesn’t, if you think people in a community are going to bow down to you, they want – you have to earn respect and the right to be in the community -no more free passes on any site, especially Twitter.
Nice post Danny – I should read you more often.
JanSimpson
Thank you for this article. I’m a total newbie and will openly admit that I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to social netwoking. I got the hang of facebook, i guess, but Twitter is still a bit of a mystery. I’ve found some really interesting people to follow through it, and some links to great posts like this one, but I still don’t really get how to become a part of the tworld. How do you find followers when you’re just starting out? That’s the one thing that I really haven’t figured out the answer to… I mean just because I follow someone that I find interesting, and they have 1000′s of followers, they don’t even know that I exist… and I can’t get involved in the conversation, even if I have something to add, unless they’re following me…. so that’s where I’m really getting a bit lost, lol…
Anyway, once I do have followers, now I know what would annoy them
so thank you very much for that!The truth is, Sandi, there are no rules to Twitter. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes – the ones above are just my own personal peeves
But I’m sure I do things that people hate as well, which is cool – after all, we’d all be boring if we did the same things.
Honestly, just be yourself, do your thing, and people will either like what you’re doing or not. It’s the great thing about the UnFollow feature
“How do you find followers when you’re just starting out?”
Good question! I found that as soon as I found a couple people to follow (found their link on their blogs or Facebook page or somewhere) then I started getting people “following” me. So I’d go to their Twitter pages and look through THEIR follows for people I think look interesting.
Also, 2 days ago I signed up at MrTweet.net which compares your twitter profile to others and delivers a list of people you might want to follow. I’ve found it somewhat useful, finding a few new people to follow.
– I don’t understand why people have thousands of Follows. It takes time to read posts and respond to ones of interest, and I’m already overwhelmed with 30 or so Follows. But some people do, I think, consider it a matter of pride to have thousands of Followers, regardless of their ability to actually interact with even half of them.
Best of luck
My #1? The endless “what I ate for dinner” tweets. If you have nothing to say, then don’t post. Do you call your “real world” friends every 15 minutes to tell them you just ate an orange, or you just cleaned the cat box, or you’re about to go to sleep? I don’t think so! So, why post it in Twitter to people you’ve never met? Why would they care more than your real-time friends? News Flash: they don’t.
And, probably along the line of “continuing personal conversations”, just saw 10 posts from the same person saying “@someone Thank you.” No one else knows what he’s thanking them for. So what value is there in making his gratitude public?
I’ve just joined Twitter a few weeks ago and still don’t see value in it. I’ve found a few resources, but I’d find them anyway if I did a search. I’ll probably delete my account in another week, it is a timewaster.
Great blog post., Nice to meet a genuine community oriented individual.
Your blog gave me something to think about.Thanks for sharing
Danny, thanks for the great tips. I am a new tweeter and I am trying to figure out how I fit in it to all the other conversations. I have learned a lot from you.
The thing I hate most about Twitter is the numbers game–I follow about 150 people and it’s all I can do to keep up with all of them; I can’t imagine having to follow more. I actually read every tweet from every person I follow, and I pick those people very carefully because I devote a very decent amount of time to following what they’re saying and reading the links they share. I admit I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking I need to ramp it up to try to get more followers to get more blog readers to….well, to become exactly what I’m not sure!
It feels a little weird being a social media enthusiast who knows all the right things to do to increase my numbers–and making a choice to not do them. But my life is complicated enough as it is!
I know what you mean about the numbers game, Maggie (which may seem kind of ironic, looking at my own details).
Too often it does seem that a lot of people simply want to add, add, add. For what reason? Is it to inflate “importance” or “expertise”? Is it to help persuade people you must be an expert?
With my own account, I continuously cull dead accounts, or inactive ones that haven’t conversed in over a month, usually. The others, while I may not be able to chat with every single one all the time, do offer the opportunity to read that one great and inspiring tweet from out of nowhere, so I am loathe to lower it more.
Tools like Seesmic Desktop help, definitely, as does Tweepular. I wrote a short while ago on tools to help you maximize your Twitter use, if that helps?
But, at the end of the day, it’s what you’re comfortable with. After all, you’re the one using it every day.
Hey Danny
Great info about twitter tabus. I think people do not understand the concept of engaging, interacting and that purpose of twitter is to create two way message. not one way.
I think people do too much advertising and not interacting and they wonder why nobody responds.. Hello…I love your suggestion about open conversation.. Very good!
Thank you
Tatyana
Today, there're even more stuff to feel annoyed about: people that think twitter is a new money opportunity and spoil our feeds with affiliate offers.
But hey, social media is still a numbers game for the majority of users. It's all about the number of followers/friends. Until that change and people give focus on stronger relationships instead of quantity.
I'm just starting to figure out how to use Twitter effectively and have fun with it and really appreciated your blogpost!
Have any of your thoughts changed in the past year, Danny?
.-= Ari Herzog´s most recent blog post …Showcase Sunday: Satisfying Videos to Watch =-.Probably more “lenient” on the open conversations angle, Ari, but the rest are all still current takes.
…and now?
(Who would have guessed this posting would be #2 on a google keyword search?)
Same as 2009 – #4 is less of a bane, but the rest still stand.
What was the keyword search?
For “replyme” — a WordPress plugin I’d written about in the past and am considering again. I wondered if you’d written about it, and oddly this page came up — though don’t know why.
Huh… bizarre. Gotta love that organic SEO
Wow Danny great article!.I agree with everything you said. I think I am guilty of DM spam. I have a script that auto DM’s a user after they follow me. Well might take it off soon, but great read. I’m gonna send it to a few friends that are doing the same.
Completely agree with you Danny. There are users that feel it’s a competition to gain the most amount of followers. That’s exactly what Twitter is NOT about. Using the age old saying “It’s about quality not quantity” is particularly apt in this case. I like to build a rapport with my followers instead of just playing a numbers game. If I have 500 users who offer value I see that as much more benificial than having 5000 of which I know a handful of names.
For the people that tweet purely about their product or service constantly I choose to unfollow and it’s out of sight out of mind. If I write a blog post I’ll tweet about it once and once only. People who want to find it, will.
Thoughts?
Michael Litman´s last blog post..More about that thing called Social Media..