Dear fellow Tweeters: Here’s a list of Twitter Don’ts. If you find you can’t help yourself, or if you actually prefer to keep these on your Do list, please at least do your followers a favor by adhering to “moderation in all things.”
Yes, I know the ego is tough to keep in check; so just consider this a helpful “check” list:
1. Don’t use Twitter as a replacement for Google
“Does anyone know what time Lost starts?”
2. Don’t constantly ask people to digg, stumble and vote
“Please, I hardly ever ask…can you digg this article?”
3. Don’t feel compelled to report on the number of followers you have (yes, we know where to find the number if we are curious)
“In honor, of my 1700th follower, I am going to kiss my Chia Pet.”
4. Don’t abuse the requests to retweet (unless it’s an emergency like an Amber Alert)
8 am: “Please retweet…” 11 am: “Please retweet…” 1 pm: “Please retweet…”
5. Don’t take an Unfollow personally and don’t report on your Unfollows
Why do you think anyone cares?
6. Don’t threaten to Unfollow your followers if they don’t start answering your questions and engaging with you as often as you want
Now that’s what I call “social.”
7. Don’t just follow people who share your exact interests and beliefs. Mix it up a bit. Follow people you disagree with
You may learn something new or gain a new perspective (or, at a minimum, become tolerant - now THAT’S what I call “social!”)
8. Don’t report your Twitter rankings
Again, who cares? Actually, some people might (like people who aren’t on Twitter - heh)…I don’t.
9. Don’t abuse Twitter as a primary tool to promote your events and products
As a marketer, I can tell when this happens. For those with a following, it is called “lazy marketing.” For those without a following, it’s called “stupid marketing.”
10. Don’t announce who you’re unfollowing
One more time: Who cares?
11. Don’t tweet your rules for following and unfollowing (if you must have these rules, maybe you can put a link to them in your bio?)
This takes away from the spontaneity and beauty of that whole “social” thing.
12. Don’t announce your Twitter Update milestones
“For my 10,000th update on Twitter, I wanted to hang a Disco Ball - but this is actually the 10,000th update. Does it still count? Maybe I’ll do something for the 11,000th update then.”
Anyone care to make this list a “baker’s dozen?” What are your thoughts?
UPDATES for 9 March 2009:
- Don’t live-blog (on Twitter) about ongoing secret negotiations
- A Completely Unscientific (Yet Accurate) Look at Social Sites [this is good fun!]
- Are You a Twitter ReTweet Thief?
- Twitter Throttle [Tweak tweet flow from certain Tweeps using this handy Script]
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
and don’t forget: don’t use twitter as an alternative rss-feed.
Thank you so very much for this list. 100% FACK!
Thanks for that. Translated these really good points into german and repostet it on my blog http://www.doctormorph.com.
All the best,
Matt
Matt’s last blog post..Twitter-Praktiken, die man vermeiden sollte
Excellent points. And the caveat of “moderation, if you must”, makes me feel a bit better because I have, on occasion, done one or two of the “don’ts”.
A peeve not mentioned is Auto DMs - I don’t need a DM for following, although it’s nice, but not if it’s automated. And really not if it directs me to check out your web site or blog. If you can’t say something genuine, don’t DM it.
#13. Don’t hold prolonged two-way conversations. Take it to DM. It clogs up my timeline and makes it harder to find the tweets I AM interested in.
Janet’s last blog post..Because, ya know, pimping children isn’t BAD enough
13. I really don’t care what you are eating/cooking/drinking unless you are doing it somewhere or with someone interesting or something interesting has or is about to happen. You at the drivethru waitinng in line clutters up my page of people with something to actually say. /rant
MOD-ER-ATION is key. Don’t like the folks that tell me every - little - blog they are reading from sunup to sundown and beyond. Especially ones that say “Reading this blog - http://www...” and there is nothing that indicates what the blog is about.
DON”T follow me if it is obvious that your twitter account is a marketing account for the latest health drink, massage parlor or hair tonic.
I agree Bart. Moderation is key - that’s really a key point here. While I’m not particularly big on Social Media rules, I was compelled to post this list because of certain Tweeting patterns that are becoming quite common.
Thanks so much Matt! I appreciate it. I plan to post a complementary Twitter Do’s list as well….
Thanks for your input, Janet!
Yes, I agree too about the two-way conversations - sometimes. For me, Twitter is a great place to have thoughtful and thought-provoking conversations (locally or globally) — whether you want to join in or even just listen. So I guess it depends if you like the topic of the conversation, eh? I’ve been pretty lucky with that. I admit I’ve been guilty on occasion of personal conversations that probably would have been best conducted in DM though…but I do make a point of keeping it super brief. For me, on the flip side, idle chit chat can give me a glimpse into the Tweeter’s character and personality, which is cool too. But again, it always boils down to “how much,” you know?
What do you think?
The best part is we all have the choice to ignore Twitter when we want or we can use tools like Twitter Snooze ( http://twittersnooze.com ) when we want to tune out a Tweeter.
p.s. Some of the folks I follow will even give a heads up if they’re about to engage in an ongoing stream (like watching a movie or #journchat or queries) and I think that’s great because it’s polite. It’s the social thing to do.
Glad you stopped by,
Jaculynn
Sandra, thanks for rounding out the list! I know. The question “What are You Doing?” is taken literally by Tweeters. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could choose among 3 or 4 questions we wanted answered by our fellow Tweeters and flag the one we want answered on any given day. The other Tweeters could do the same and only “like flags” would make it through your stream….hmmm…
Ann, great point. The Auto DMs have raised the ire of many in the Twitterverse over the past few months. This robotic approach to using social media is not going over very well with the folks in my Twittersphere. It’s like getting spam email.
Yes, as I mentioned in an earlier comment, the list is a general guide. Because we aren’t robots it’s not reasonable to think we can abide by all these “social” web rules! heh. But there is such a thing as abusing your audience with a specific message and I put a great deal of weight on the value of “moderation.” That’s all. I don’t have a problem with Tweeters giving an occasional update about follower numbers or ratings, etc. But when it’s a constant that seems to keep growing in the Twitterverse, it makes me wonder about purpose, value and intent. Although these trends are now so popular that I don’t believe anyone even thinks twice about it….
Then there are others who manage such topics and announcements with a great deal of social tact and grace…like Ann Handley of MarketingProfs today who hosted a drawing today on Twitter in honor of reaching a specific follower number. It was painless and it was fun. I also participated. The whole thing focused more on benefitting her followers and less about her talking about her # of followers. Do you know what I mean?
I’m grateful for your comment. Thanks again.
It seems like the people who are clueless about Twitter aren’t interested in listening to ways to improve. I’ve never received a DM or @ after I ask new followers without bios or URLs to send me one, so I think I’m going to stop doing this either on my profile or in the form of tweets.
Some Twitter pet peeves can vary among cultures. Within the China Twitter community, many pet peeves in the U.S. such as engaging in long @ conversations and tweeting when you don’t have anything particularly useful to say are totally acceptable.
Beth Evans’s last blog post..Bet You Haven’t Seen These, Yet - New Beijing International Movie Week
This is a great article. I agree with all of the above.
#11 really resonates with me as I ran into a marketer using it to the extreme. He started talking to me briefly on Skype, then followed me on Twitter and Skypes a few minutes later that if I do not follow him he will unfollow me. It screamed desperation and was seriously tacky.
Jamie Pelaez’s last blog post..I Killed the Can’t, but I Did Not Shoot the Deputy!