Ten Twitter Mistakes Brand You as Newbie or Worse

Twitter is a new form of communication for many, and as more of us adopt the practice we must learn new rules and ways to connect to people. The funny thing is that many of the rules you learned for communicating face-to-face continue to apply even though so many users seem to forget these rules when they first connect on twitter.

Here is a list of the Top Ten Twitter Mistakes I see made by both newbies and experienced spammers. If you make these Twitter mistakes, you may wish to change how you tweet if you don’t want your followers to think you are one or the other.

1. Shouting to make a point. I would have thought everyone knows by now about capital letters and computer communication, but some newbies are still shouting their tweets to world. While it is not a big deal to sprinkle in an all caps word or phrase for emphasis on occasion, most of the time it is not necessary and makes you look unsophisticated.

2. Blasting the same message over and over. I am going to play mother here and remind you that just because everyone else does it, does not mean you should. How long would you pay attention to the guy at a party who keeps repeating the same thing? This Twitter mistake is the number one reason I stop following tweeps.

3. Being oblivious of messages that mention you. On your Twitter dashboard you will see @username. Be sure you are checking this regularly and responding to tweets that address you directly. Of course, you may ignore those messages that are annoying or spammy, but you should be aware of what is being said to and about you.

image of in reply to twitter mistake

4. Not reading the in reply to. Have you ever walked in on a conversation and made an inappropriate comment because you heard a statement out of context? Twitter helps you avoid this gaffe by letting you see what tweet came before. Under every tweet is a timestamp that will also indicate whether the tweet was a reply to an earlier tweet. Click on the phrase in reply to … to better understand the context of a conversation.

5. Updating from multiple platforms. Many social networking programs and sites will let you send automatic updates to your Twitter stream when you post to their platforms. Some tweeps don’t realize when they are setting these updates on various platforms that it can have the effect of duplicate, triplicate, even quadruplicate simultaneous tweets.

Let’s say you set your blog to notify Aweber, Twitter, and Facebook when you post. Then you set Aweber to notify Facebook and Twitter whenever it receives an update, and Facebook to update Twitter. Whenever you publish on your blog, you risk having four identical tweets hit your stream at the same time. This looks to many tweeps like Twitter mistake #2.

6. Ignoring retweets. Every time someone retweets you, they increase your exposure and influence, therefore most tweeps thank their retweeters. You will see most retweets in your @username stream but for some reason a few retweets do not appear there. If you check the Retweets option on your dashboard, and then Your Tweets, Retweeted you may see a few retweets you missed. Ignoring retweets is not the worst Twitter mistake you could make, but the more gratitude you show those who retweet you, the more they will help promote you to others.

7. Sending direct messages. Direct messages look like spam and should be reserved for the times when you want to share private information with someone. If you wanted to send someone your e-mail address, for example, then a direct message might make sense. Otherwise, recognize that Twitter is all about public messaging and save your direct messages for e-mail.

8. Offering a prize to milestone follower. Big Twitter mistake. If you are at 975 followers and you tweet that you will give a prize to follower #1000, that works as a disincentive for #976 through 999. Why would people want to push your count closer to someone else’s win? Better to offer something smaller to everyone who follows until you meet your goal. Or offer to enter all new followers in a raffle for a big prize. You might want to include your retweeters in that raffle as well to give them an incentive to promote you.

9. Following and then unfollowing when tweeps follow you back. Some users use this practice to quickly inflate their follower counts. Some believe that they will look more influential if their follower count is significantly greater than the number of tweeps they follow. Remember that your influence comes from the number of people who actually listen to you, not an artificial number of supposed followers. You build credibility by building relationships. Rapid follow/unfollow practices do not build relationships.

10. Protecting your tweets when using Twitter for business promotion. This may be the most foolish Twitter mistake I see new users making. If your Twitter account is for personal use and you only plan to connect with friends and family, then perhaps you would want to protect your tweets. Personally, I don’t trust any of the social networks to keep updates private all the time, but that’s your business. However, if you are on Twitter for business promotion, you do not want to make it difficult for potential customers to follow you. Protecting your tweets defeats your Twitter marketing efforts right from the start.

When done right, Twitter can be a great way to build your brand and your following. Take care to avoid these common Twitter mistakes so you will not be perceived as a newbie or spammer.

Please contact me today if you are interested in learning how a freelance writer can help you manage your Twitter and other social media.

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