Having been on Twitter for a few years now, I would like to think that I have seen everything but I haven’t. Am learning every single day. Always learning. I’ve made a few mistakes myself in the past! Still do sometimes. It is interesting to see the reaction of others to certain tweets or comments. I have noticed that the most popular tweets are ones that are sharing positivity or good content. Information that will assist others really works too!
I know there are newbies joining everyday so I have put together my top annoying things that people (not always newbies by the way) do.
1. Linking Facebook to Twitter. This is my number one! I never ever click on a link on Facebook. Why? Because this says to me that the person running the account is not on Twitter. They are unlikely to engage with me or anyone else. If I saw a hotel with Facebook linked to twitter (i.e. no tweets at all, just FB links) I will not follow them, or ask them for info or RT them. Ever. So this account is missing out on reaching their customers, engaging with them, and also missing out on valuable Retweets to over 19k people. (potentially more if others Retweet my retweet) It makes the account look lazy even. Anyway I am on Twitter, if I wanted to be on Facebook I would be on Facebook.
2. Automated direct messages after I follow you – Will be followed by a swift unfollow. Maybe that is just me, but it’s true. My direct messages are for important messages that I know others don’t want to put in front of the public so I have to take time to go to my messages to check what is so important…..and it’s an automated message….might not seem like much time to you but when I am busy, tweeting and running other twitter accounts it is a distraction that I just don’t have time for.
3. Asking for a RT when you aren’t even following me or you have never engaged with me before. Also, asking for a RT by direct message. Why can’t you ask me in public? Hmm. It depends on whether it is a friend or not though. I don’t mind doing this for people who I already engage with but it makes me wonder sometimes why can’t people just ask me on Twitter?
4. No photo on your avatar – People buy from people, get yourself on that photo! Happy smiley face please. Put your logo on your header or other way around depending on how big the company is. But please put something there. A flower, a dog anything.
5. Not thanking us for Retweets. Please thank someone when they RT you. Especially thank them in public. I always try to thank anyone who RTs me, except sometimes if I am on the road or not online at the time and the RT comes later in the day. But I certainly try to engage as much as possible.
Anyway……look, we were all new once. So ask for help if you need a little bit of a boost. That is fine. But please don’t just take take take. Working together, we can assist one another and that way everyone will do well on Twitter and most of all enjoy it! It’s all about the people you know!
If you want to learn how to use Twitter effectively for business come to my next Workshop.