Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts – My 10 Cents

Posted by TeamCharlie on March 1, 2009 under Gabe's Twitter Gems, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter for Beginners | 15 Comments to Read

Twitter is not rocket science, people.  What I offer is common sense here.  Twitter is a medium that connects people from all over the world. If you use it properly, you can connect with a lot more people in a very meaningful way.  Having immersed myself in reading about and participating in the Twitter Universe the last few months, I came across a tidbit that says that posts that use “Top Ten This” and “Top Ten That” are retweeted more often.  So there is a gem for you before I even get started.  This list is purely my own, but I am sticking to it.  I hope it helps.

One caveat: As I reread this it appears like I am dictating.  I am just a guy who loves Twitter and enjoys connecting with people.  I am not telling you to follow these rules. I put them forth as suggestions because following them has made for a very positive Twitter experience for me.

#1 Tweet Content

Don’t persist in spewing why I should buy what you are selling.  This should be self evident, but there are many people who still think if they keep ramming their business into my Twitter stream I will buy from them.  Just the opposite – you will be unfollowed at minimum.  When I look at a person’s profile, if I see that the majority of their posts try and lure me to their commercial web site, or tell me why they are so great I simply don’t follow them. It amazes me that so many people still don’t get that.
Do ask about other people’s businesses. Find something you have in common and tweet them about it.  The best use of Twitter is when you are engaged with someone else. Once you engage they will be more curious about what you do.

#2 The Retweet

Don’t keep asking us to retweet about something that will benefit you.  That gets annoying fast and will cause an unfollow if practised too many times.
Do retweet others’ posts that impress or interest you.  This is a common way of showing respect to those that you follow.  Just last night I was retweeted four times regarding one tweet.  Three of the people that retweeted I wasn’t following.  Their interest showed me we have something in common so now I follow them as well.  Sometimes you can connect with people just by retweeting them.

#3 Followers

Don’t ask for followers.  I often see tweets such as “Please RT – I am at 986 followers – help me get to 1000!”  When you think about this you should see how little sense it makes. It simply shows how self-serving you appear to be.  If you do get that extra 14 followers as a result chances are they aren’t following you because they care about what you say anyway.  “Empty” followers are worse than no followers at all.
Do ask what you can do to help someone else.  Look for tweets that ask for something you can help with and respond.  It shows that person you are listening to them and want to help.  That’s how you engage on Twitter.  Those followers will come naturally and that is really what you want.

#4 Recommendations

Don’t ask for recommendations.  I often see tweets that say “Please vote for me! Please fave me! Please recommend me to Mr Tweet!”  Think about this. If you were at a party would you go around the room with a petition asking people to sign something that says how great you are? (If you would you seriously need help.) :) It’s obnoxious, people!
Do recommend other people to Mr Tweet.  Since you can only recommend one person at a time, this shows that person that you respect them, took the time out to care about them and hold their tweets in high esteem.  They will get a notice that you did this and they just might return the favor.

UPDATE: 4/22/09 Ok I had to come back and edit this one because I have been asking for votes all week as we have a chance to be on Richard Branson’s Pitch TV.  It is definitely out of my comfort zone but I am thinking of all the lives it can change (besides our own) if we win. So I still think it’s spammy to ask for votes, but use your own discretion and try and do it tactfully if you must.  I will say that I did lose over 50 followers (some who had been with me for a while) when I did it a bit too much. So the concept still proves to be true.

#5 Testimonials

Don’t tell me how many followers you have because honestly I don’t care.  Tweets such as “WOOT! I just reached 1000 followers!”  are self-serving and annoying.  It makes those of us that have fewer followers feel less important, and those that have more don’t really care.
Do make us laugh or retweet something that makes you laugh.  Be entertaining. I read once that a good Twitterer is one that makes other people’s lives just a bit better for that day. One recent tweet that sticks out in my mind is “I’ve always disliked the word ’nougat’. Just saying.” Now I can’t tell you why that is funny to me but it just is. In writing this I even had to go back and research who wrote it so I could give him props, so @jleveille thanks for that!  Turns out he’s a local. Who knew?

#6 Information Dissemination

Don’t hold back information.  Being coy with what you know will get you nowhere.
Do be generous in what you give out.  I would even go so far as to recommend that you Google information that other people are looking for if you don’t know it.  There is no better way to engage someone than to solve a problem for them.

#7 Another about Followers

Don’t follow people for the sake of getting return followers.  This does work if all you want are numbers following you. And numbers following you are just that – they could care less about what you have to say. These people are easy to spot. They are following 2000 people (Twitter’s limit unless your followers are proportionate) and have far fewer followers. I never follow someone when I see this in their profile because they are only after the numbers. Guess what else is going to happen if they have followed you?  In order for them to reach the 2000 follower mark they will have to continually unfollow and follow others. So chances are they will unfollow you anyway.
Do be diligent in uncovering your target demographic.  When you look at a profile, see if you have anything in common with that person. Make sure that they engage with others - this increases your chances of engaging with them.  Followers come naturally from this type of behavior. People discover that you are engaging so they want to follow you as well. 

#8 Stop the Profanity

Don’t swear in your tweets.  I might be a tad biased about this one because my 10-year-old daughter is on Twitter as well and I would rather not have her bombarded by vulgarity.  But in my mind ther’s more to it than that.  It is simply about acting professionally.  Being on Twitter is like being at a crowded party.  The only difference is that on Twitter your voice is MUCH louder than it is at a regular gathering.  It is so loud that everyone can hear you.  Would you climb up on a table and yell profanities at a party?
Do respect that there are people in the room that may be offended by this sort of behavior. This will only reflect back on you in a positive way.

#9 Update your Bio

Don’t hide who you are.  How can we find something in common with you if you don’t tell us about yourself?  The more information you give us the better.  Another of my pet peeves is people who attest their location as “Everywhere” or “Planet Earth”.  I really want to know your town and state or province.  That makes you unique. I can ask you about what it is like to live there.
Do put as much information in that section as you can.  People are interested in you and your bio is part of what makes you interesting.

#10 Spam

Don’t spam. People who do won’t be reading this so I go no further as to why.
Do report spammers. @spam seems to be the place to report spam on Twitter.  Follow @spam and they will follow you right back. They ask that you DM (Direct Message) them details.  (Note – they are also a good follow warning you of the latest scams going around.)  Please use this properly.  The last two nights I have received many new followers with the same name of “Sale Today” or “alwayslearning24″. They have one update with a link to their spamminess.  I reported them. I ask that you do not report someone who is new to Twitter and is sending out too many spammy tweets just because they don’t know any better.  In this case I recommend educating them or unfollowing them.

I hope you have found a gem or two in this list that helps you.  Feel free to leave others that I missed in the comments section.

Update – “The Extended Dance Version”

Because I can’t just keep to ten and I keep seeing more do’s and don’ts in my Twitterstream, I wanted to share more, so here goes:

#11 About Yourself

Don’t tell us how many emails you have in your InBox.  I have seen a rash of this lately.  “Oh I have 250 emails to get to – how to find the time.”  Guess who cares about this? Not me.  It tells me that you are trying to point out how important and/or popular you are. Yawn.
Do share something about yourself that draws me to you.  If you don’t appear boastful it might help someone make a connection.  Here’s an example of something I saw yesterday that connected with me.  @AlaskaArtist tweeted the following: “Today’s Alaska Photo: http://tinyurl.com/aeaxxx.”  I have been to Alaska and I love it there. So of course I am going to click on the picture and it was beautiful. She even sells the photos and I didn’t feel her approach was spammy at all.  There are many ways to send out enticing tweets – this is just one example.

#12 Third One re Followers

Don’t pay for followers.  Another trend I am seeing is “I will donate $xxx.xx dollars if I get to XXXX followers by March 5.”  Somebody please explain to me how this makes sense. First of all you don’t seem to care who the followers are so you are announcing to everyone that you are just looking to bump up your numbers artificially.  You are trying to make that OK by making people think that you will donate money as a result.  I also never see tweets that say “I just got my XXX followers by XXX date and here is a twitpic of the receipt that proves that I donated.”  The accountability is hedgy at best.
Do get followers naturally by engaging with people. If you want to donate to a charity, just do it – the world doesn’t need to know about it.

#13 The Direct Message

Don’t automatically direct message (DM) me after I follow you.  It insults not only my intelligence but all the others that you are sending them to. There is no personal touch to it and if you pay attention to Twitter most people hate them.  Putting a link to your “whatever-you-are-selling” inside the DM makes it even worse and will more often than not cause people to unfollow you.
Do send @replies to people.  This is a much more personal way of communicating, and people realize that you formulated a tweet that was meant just for them, so they are much more apt to respond.  One of the people I follow, @AlexKaris, has close to 19,000 followers at the time of this writing.  Every time I have @replied to him he has responded.  That to me is amazing. Now I don’t do it often to him because I respect how difficult it might be to manage that many followers, but the fact remains he makes an effort.  All the “uber-twits” on Twitter should use him as a model.  Regardless of how many or few followers you have, please respond to these @replies because if people went to the trouble to contact you about something you should return the favor.

#14 Your Ego

Don’t ask certain people for a follow.  It is presumptuous and can put them in an awkward spot.  This goes along with don’t feel bad if someone you think should follow you doesn’t.  Both have happened to me. I asked someone to follow me who I thought would thank me for giving them my Twitter ID and they never followed me. What’s worse is that a few months later they did and in a day or two unfollowed me!!  Hey folks, guess what? This happens. Not all people are in to you. ;)
Do enjoy the people that are following you.  Get to know the people that you don’t know.  It is so much fun. In order to force myself to engage more I am starting up a new trend for myself.  Each Friday I plan to post the “Top Ten New Connections for the Week”.  These are people who I feel I have connected to in a small way for the first time. It may be with just an @reply or two, but the next time I see their tweet there will be just a bit more familiarity with the person behind it.  I encourage you to try this practice. If you don’t have a blog just keep a record of them and try and get at least 10 new connections per week.  This really pushes me to seek out tweets I can relate to and respond in kind.  I would love to hear about it if you start this habit yourself.

#15 Getting People’s Attention

Don’t @reply someone with your great business deals or acumen.  Boy is that one ever obnoxious.  I had never experienced that until a few days ago when I got a reply saying something like “@KidsAreHeroes Come check out our web site – we’ve got GREAT deals!”  I said to myself, “Well that was annoying.” but let it go.  About a day later I got another similar reply from the same person.  Sorry guy, but I had to block you.  I do not block people without giving them the benefit of the doubt first.  The only people I block are out and out spammers.  I think the person behind this was not necessarily a spammer.  I think he just didn’t know any better but he left me no choice other than to block him.
Do retweet.  Do you want people to notice that you exist? Retweet the posts that are interesting to you.  But be careful, if I see someone’s profile and all they do is retweet then I don’t follow them.  They are trying to be falsely generous and people can see through that.  Make sure you retweet only the tweets that move you in some way. So, what is retweeting and how do you do it?  Retweeting is simply reposting someone else’s tweet to your followers.  The format is as follows: If I tweet this: “I just ate a Twix bar with a fork!” the retweet would look like this: “RT @KidsAreHeroes: I just ate a Twix bar with a fork!” A newer method that has surfaced recently is this: “I just ate a Twix bar with a fork! (via @KidsAreHeroes)”  I’m not a big fan of the latter as it uses more characters. (Hint: If you want your posts retweeted more often, leave enough space for this to go in front without editing: ”RT @YourID: “.)
Another way to get people’s attention is to @reply them with an open ended question, or a compliment on their tweet.  Say something to them that beckons an answer. That’s a good way to keep on people’s radar screens.

#16 Managing your Profile

Don’t only talk to yourself.  Remember that when people decide whether or not they will follow you, the crucial thing they look at is your profile.  There are three things that are important here: your picture, your bio and your tweet content.  Even if you are not posting your link each time and not bragging about how great your business is, it is a turnoff if you are not engaging with people.  I want to see plenty of @replies in your profile so that I know you are conversing with people.  That is the reason to be on Twitter -  to engage with others.
Do @reply to people – even if you don’t know them.  Or should I say especially if you don’t know them.  That is the key to being successful on Twitter and that is to connect with new people. You can’t do that by talking to yourself.

#17 Your Brand

Don’t keep changing your brand.  A brand takes time to establish. Many people do not even consider it.  There are several things associated with your brand, but what I am specifically referring to here are your picture and your Twitter ID.  I would take some time to choose them both in the beginning and stick with them. I recently blogged about a Twitter friend and linked to his page so people could follow him. He had a cutesy acronym for an ID.  He decided after I blogged that he wanted a different cutesy acronym.  Now my post goes to a dead link. Try this: Go to Google and search for ‘Twitter’ and your Twitter ID.  Depending how much you update you should see plenty of hits.  If you change your ID they also will all be dead links.  Changing your picture doesn’t have as much of an impact, but it does have some.  The more times people see your picture the more it breeds familiarity.  Familiarity is what people are comfortable with.  Keep changing the picture and you lose that familiarity.  Sometimes I look through the pictures of people that I follow to find someone specific.  Maybe I cannot remember their ID specifically but want to find them.  I look for the familiar picture. If they keep changing it I may not find them.
Do be consistent with your brand.  Select a picture, Twitter ID and background carefully in the beginning.  Once you have settled on something, stick with it!

#18 The Retweet (part deux)

Don’t retweet someone’s post and then as soon as you get a thank you ask them to retweet you.  This puts the person you retweeted originally in an awkward position and could cause an unfollow.  It tells the person that you were never interested in the tweet in the first place, that you are more interested in getting your own posts retweeted.
Do retweet others’ posts that impress or interest you.  Period.  Ask nothing in return. Create posts of interest so others will likely retweet.  If you are not getting retweeted, there might be a reason.

#19 Games on Twitter

Don’t play games on Twitter unless you expect to be unfollowed…a lot.  Now I am totally against the Spymaster, Mafia140, “I gave you bla blah so you should give me a gift” type activities on Twitter because they clog my stream with noise and they are often part of auto-DMs.  But I cannot equivocally say don’t play them.  If that’s what you enjoy then go for it.  But don’t expect people to take you seriously as a professional.  To use the networking event example again, if you were attending one, would you bring out a game of parcheesi?
Do engage with others by starting conversations.  Period.

#20 Ranting

Don’t rant on Twitter.  Or at least keep ranting to a minimum.  If I see a heated discussion between two people regardless of who started it and who I think is in the wrong, I usually follow neither of these people.  Now I know that Twitter is a GREAT place to rant and I admit I’ve done it once or twice but the rationale here is that people have their own issues and are not likely to want to be saddled with yours.
Do write tweets that are positive.  These will attract a lot more people to you than those rants.

Ok that’s it for now. Hope you all are benefitting from these. Again – feel free to tell me what your do’s and don’ts are in the comments section.