Top 10 Cardinal Sins of Twittering and Some Twitter Etiquette Tips
Sin #1: Protected Updates
Twitter is a social network. I am not sure that it could be more social than it already is. Yes, you have every right to protect your updates but that is like going to a party and closing yourself off in one room with only few of your closest friend. That might seem pretty comfortable and low risk, but what if in the next room with all the other people chatting is a love of your life, or a person that ends up signing up 120 reps in the 30 days that follow. Unless you’re truly not on there to socialize – open your doors to the world and yes, socialize!
Sin #2: No Pic
It does not matter if you’re blond or brunette, short or tall, big or small, pretty or not so pretty – in your head, what matters is that you’re real. Networking is a relationship business. No one likes to have a relationship with a picture of a shadow. People are looking for people they can connect with, that they can find commonalities with. In my talks with super-marketers I’ve heard many times over and over: they don’t even bother following people who don’t have a pic uploaded. Don’t miss out on the relationships that could potentially change your life – show yourself off!
Sin # 3: No Bio
Uuu…this is a good one. The bio is like your opening line when you meet someone. It needs to have a bit of a punch at first and end with something down to earth. For example: it should start of with something that makes you unique, that makes you stand out, that shows you off as a leader and a success in your arena, a bit of a superstardom. The last part needs to be something that shows that even though you are superstar in what you do, you’re still human, just like peeps looking at your profile. You put the pants on one leg at the time, just like they do. You’re approachable and just a tweet away.
Sin # 4: No Updates
Twitter is very much ‘pay-it-forward’ type of a deal. You have to engage in conversations, you have to contribute to the twitter audience, and you have to respond to those who seek you out. Again, it’s a social place. You have to be social. When someone is looking at your profile if they see no updates, chances are they
will not follow you, at least not with an interest. You have to be proactive, you have to be involved.
Sin #5: Wrong Type of Updates
I have visited many, many Twitter profile pages where a person has a page after page: “Thank you, thank you for the follow, I’m following you too, thank you, thank you, thank you…” – it’s nice to be polite but those messages should be mostly done via Direct Message, so that your updates can stay clean of ‘meaningless’ chatter. Your updates need to provide value, they need to be amusing, they need to be fun, they need to be current – to include things that people are interested in but have not heard yet anywhere else. If you can be the one to give them what they cannot find elsewhere, you will be their go-to person. You will be a leader in their eyes. Go ahead – update the world!
Sin #6: Spending Too Much Time on Twitter
This one maybe great for Twitter, but not so great for your business overall. Twittering has shown to be truly addictive. It can take hours and hours of your time, make it very interesting for you, but keep in mind: your time needs to be spent on the things that are giving you’re the most number of leads. If that is not Twitter for you, schedule time to be on there, and when the time is up – LEAVE and go work on what does produce leads and make you money NOW.
Sin# 7: Not Following People Back
Have you ever looked at the profile and saw 10 times more followers than the number of those they follow? Now it might be great for a little while, but after that when people stop by your profile and are checking you out to see if you’re worth following, they might opt not do to that if they get an impression you will not follow them back. Especially if your updates do not reveal anything radically interesting.
Sin #8: Not Keeping the Ratio in Tact
Speaking of follower and those you follow. At some point you will have to keep an eye on the numbers. If you want to follow 1500 people, create updates once a week and you have only 17 followers, Twitter will not like that. It will think you’re spamming people which you probably are. When starting off, first 30 days or so add about 50 people a day. After a few days unfollow those who are not following you. After you have reached 1200 follower and your account is over 30 days old, you can venture in adding 75-125 or so new people to your follow list. After you reach 2000 you will get blocked by Twitter if you’re not keeping the ratio lower than 10% between those you follow and those who are following you. So if you’re being followed by 2000 peeps, you might be able to go to 2200 that you follow. Make sure also that your number of updates is proportionate with your follower/followee ratio.
Sin #9: Quantity vs. Quality
No, it’s not all in numbers – when it comes to Twitter. There is a big difference in $$ collected between having a 10,000 person “list” of people who have no earthly idea what you do, no understanding or interest whatsoever in what you do and having a list of 1500 quality people, who appreciate what you do, have interest in it and desire to partner with you to achieve more. Spending hours chatting with 10,000 people who don’t care a bit about your business or you, vs. spending few hours of quality conversations with 1500 people who are ready to whip out a credit card and follow your advice. I prefer the second scenario, you?
Sin #10: THOU SHALL NOT SPAM/PUKE
The ultimate sin of all sins, we all talk about it, it gets mentioned million times a day, yet, hundreds of people daily will try to spam and puke on their cyber pals. You would not walk into a party and started yelling into peep’s faces to go check out your link to the best business opportunity in the world. The same principal applies in social media as well. Social media is a place to meet people, to start up conversations with people you ordinarily would not have a chance to speak to, spark up some interest in mutually beneficial relationship on personal or business level and from there lead people to your sales funnel (blog, landing page, Facebook, etc – IF they are interested in following you). Twitter is not a place to sell, it’s a place to create reason for people to want to know more about you and what you do.
Now, if you’re a rock-star, and we have few of those too on Twitter, you don’t have to follow any of these rules. People just naturally flock to you based on your previously created image. For us regular mortals, avoiding these 10 sins can make a difference of life and death on Twitter.
Long live the TwitterLand!
What is your biggest Twitter “sin”? Please comment – I’d love to hear what you have to say!
To learn more cool Twitter tips enter your email…enjoy!
Aleksandra
Related posts:
- Top 10 Things You Must Know About Twitter
- Top 3 Secrets to Success
- Social Media is changing – again. Where do we go from here?
- Do These Two Things and Explode Your Productivity
- Powerful Lessons from Your Prospects
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Top 10 Cardinal Sins of Twittering and Some Twitter Etiquette Tips | Aleksandra's Blog: Interesting article, this is one of my favourite subjects and one I am obsessed with. LOL. I love keeping up to date on all things new so i’ll definitely be bookmarking this page. Keep up the great work!
Dear Aleks,
Thanks four tweety tips. I look forward to more tips and happy tweeting to you.
Regards,
Jason Gaya
Thanks for the great tips. Who do you use for auto DM ?
http://www.socialoomph.com
A great article for a newbie! I will try to follow all ten but I can’t quite understand #8. Could you tell me where I can receive more explanation.
Hi Mimi, try here: http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/68916
Twitter: mickarhie
says:
Like the sins. No way will I entertain a follow without a bio.
Great tips! My greatest twitter sin: Getting bored too quickly and unfollowing people. I shall try to be more social.
Only if you’d like to create some relationships =)
Thanks Aleksandra for sharing with us. I certainly picked up many good points.
Regards
Abhay
OooW…. it is verry nice…
thanks your article….
Twitter: MichaelConquest
says:
Great Tips! I just RT’d this out to my followers…You have a really great blog here and seem like a really great person! Keep up the great work
Best Wishes,
Michael
I agree with spirit of all, except #1 and #2. If we’re talking about “personal use”, then
If Twitter is a “party”, I’m ultimately the “host”—and get to say who’s in or out. I’m looking to engage people with similar interests, not find my husband. Because after all, anyone can still abuse the internet.
To each their own.
THUMBS UP to you!! Excellent blog! Every point is valid and oh-so important! Cheers!
Very good article on the 10 greatest sins on Twitter. I’m new on Twitter and see #FF in other peoples tweets. Do you know what it means? Tweet me @Casey_Peacock
Actually I read some of the comments and have gone back over the article and if its ok to add something I disagree with Brian about it being petty when you unfollow those who dont follow you. The one caveat you must put in place is how long its has been since their last update . If they havent followed you back and its been some time since they last updated then for me they are gone so I can become useful to some newer and more active followers.
Thanks Aleksandra I see you are already following me and I definately will stay following you.. Rock on!!!!!
here’s the Eleventh Commandment – please don’t send my a DM to ‘welcome’ me or ‘thank’ me for following you – especially with a link to your biz etc… let’s start ‘dating’ before you walk up and French Kiss me, just sayin’…
It wastes time and clogs up my inbox for phone texts…
and many are canned (probably most) so it comes across rather disconnected.. my two cents…
I myself don’t like “canned” tweets, automated / scheduled tweets or repetitive tweets. I do unfollow people who do that. I’m a conservative tweeter and blogger and prefer to tweet with mostly those types, or other people who are tolerant and ‘in the middle’, u know? I have a few Liberal followers too who I joke and kid with, that’s fun too.
One other thing: joking and kidding and making fun of celebs is ok… like my last tweet about David Letterman “Hey Dave, what’s the matter? Couldn’t keep it in your World Wide Pants?” but never make fun of a race, culture, religion or other personal things, because that is just not cool. I make fun of Obama all the time, cuz he deserves it. LOL but mostly I have found twitter to be a very social, warm and funny place to hang out and tweet about things I am interested in – family, politics, 80′s stuff, comedy and music. I like to mix my updates up and have recently started a blog. Cuz as you can see, 140 characters ain’t enough for me! lol Great article by the way!!!!!
Couldn’t agree more… common sense!!! No bio, no photo, no location, no tweets, NO FOLLOW. Oh, and how about being relevant?? More people need to read your blog Aleksandra!!
I protect my updates because of the porn spam..I can’t stand to open up my page and see 10 new follows from perverts! It’s a waste of time. I also love to accept new follows who aren’t going to try to sell me something, convert me to new age, or argue about politics. I get plenty of arguement from my liberal family and friends…I want to brainstorm, gather information, organize and FIGHT for freedom!
All the rest looks pretty good! Thanks for your effort to educate!
I don’t know about #7 … it seems to me that 90% or more of the people who follow me do so via some program that sweeps for keywords in my Tweets … if I don’t see some “content” on their first page that interests me, they don’t even get a second look. I wonder how people manage having several HUNDRED follows, let alone THOUSANDS … my current follow list is under 150 (and I’ve been using Twitter for two years), yet many days I have a hard time keeping up with the information flow. I don’t mind having people follow me, but unless they’re doing something more than trying to sell me something, I have zero interest in following them.
No pic and no bio, to me, just means newbie or shy. I think just about every spammer I’ve ever blocked has had a picture, a bio, and a custom background. This doesn’t mean I condone leaving off the pic or bio, but it’s not what I’d consider a spammer flag.
Agreed completely about following people back. With the exception of spammers, of course. And people with dollar bills on their background image.
This is a great article and a must read.
Please follow me: @seahawksspot
I think that everyone on twitter should read this. Great article and a must read.
Please follow me: @seahawksspot
#8 kinda makes me twitch a bit.
Sure, try to keep things even-steven (the Twitter API sort of requires it), but to go through and unfollow people just because they didn’t follow you back? That’s petty and juvenile. First of all, the reason you FOLLOW someone on Twitter is because they post updates which educate, entertain, or otherwise enrich your life – NOT to gain followers yourself.
Maybe, if you provide actual value, instead of links to more MLM blogs touting themselves to be mega-super-business-experts (without actually mentioning a real product or service), people outside the “industry” would be more inclined to follow you back. Social media (Twitter included) works for those businesses that view their followers as actual friends – real people with whom they have quality conversations. If you’re not genuinely interested in what someone on Twitter has to say, then you shouldn’t follow them. It’s called Karma.
Seriously. Do you want 10,000 followers who follow you just because you followed them first? Or would you rather have 1000 followers who recognize you and want to engage?
Hi Brian, I agree with you on quality vs. quantity. But when you get to larger numbers Twitter will not let you follow new followers if your ratio is too high (those you follow vs. those who follow you) – it views it as spammy – kind of like: you may not give enough value if you have 5000 people you follow and only 200 who are willing to follow you back. And every day you have people what just simply throw the towel in and decide not come back to Twitter, of you find more quality followers and you’d like to replace the “not so quality” ones – that would be the reason for deleting those who are not following you. And that pertains to “regular” folks. Now the big gurus you’re learning stuff from ie Tony Robbins and such, may not ever end up following you back and that’s OK. There are only handful of those and they are worth following even if they don’t follow you.
I happen to be a ”newbie” and also a human-being with feelings, desires,integrity and an ignorance in the computer world. We as people when first meeting put eachother in a ”box”, a catagory, slapped with pre-conceived label without prior investigation. This is true ”ignorance at it’s best!” Contempt prior to investigation!
I’m looking forward to learning a great deal from other’s and to offer at the same time my own personal experience’s , knowledge and skills in surviving in this fast, competitive world of communications. My hat goes off to you Aleksandra for your intelligence and compassion for sharing all your thoughts and concerns. Thanks for the intoduction! ( oh no, did I commit a Cardinal Sin by expressing my gratitude?) LOL…
Thanks Andy. Yes, you’re so right on with that whole “contempt prior to investigation” comparison. The irony is that people apply that same thing in their business all over the place, like trying to sell everybody. Everybody is not every body’s prospect. A bit investigation prior to communication can go a long way. And no, that was definitely not a cardinal sin!!! Glad to you have you as my newest reader.
Awesome! A lot of people should read this. Tweeting it now.
YOu can follow me @carrriekrishnek
Thank you Carrie for the comment and tweeting my article… I’m following you too!
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
great information we should all take this as a word to the wise.
Great list! No pic or bio speaks automatic spam to me.
For spending too much time on twitter, I started using tweetlater. Because every time I went to twitter itself, I spent too much time. It’s important to still interact, because you get so much value from the information others are tweeting, but you’re right that it’s not good to spend too much time on there.
As for the abundant ‘Thank you for following me,’ YES – DM those non-content comments!
Very helpful, common sense which many people lack. I don’t like it either when someone does not have a photo or bio. I also don’t like it when you find someone and you follow them they don’t follow you. That’s like saying hello to someone and them turning your back on you. Also, just because you’re a celebrity it does not mean everyone celebrates you. For example, I really wanted to meet Andy Rooney I admire his work and love to listen to what he has to say. Andy followed me back I was so trilled that he wanted to meet me and I hope he finds my twitters interesting. On the other hand Ashton Kutcher you’re not being genuine you take twitter as a game. Even though I enjoy his work we have nothing in common to talk about so I won’t follow you! Sincerity is everything:)
Very good article! I was inspired to check it out because somone on Twitter said they committed #6, lol. I find myself on #7 and that’s only because my computer is very slow to load pages while I’m checking profiles of followers to determine if I should follow back. I already know what kind of people I want to follow.
Yes, bio and pic very important until……..I don’t look like that anymore, LOL LOL.
Ok I see that maybe I’m guilty of a few of these sins however
I’m still new the the whole social media phenom, heck
a few months ago I wouldn’t have been caught dead on myspace, facebook
twitter or any of the other sites mainly because I always thought
of them as awesome time wasters maybe a lot of fun but just another
distraction that keeps or minds numb and dumb, just a bunch of mindless peeps chit-chating about nothing….how wrong I was. And now that i found another awesome site like yours I can learn even more about the power of social marketing.
Excellent advice. Hoping this goes viral in Twitterland. Thank you.
I did a few of those yesterday. My first day. Thanks for the info, will pass along!
“The bio is like your opening line when you meat someone”. Throwing meat at people…
will try it
Great info for a newbie. Any place I can get a temp pic like yours until I get a real pic of myself?
Excellent article, and dead-on accurate. Good job.
Great article, thanks. I absolutely agree that no pic and/or no bio seems odd on a social media site like Twitter.
Very helpful!
Nice article, thank you for the list
Well said! It gives me the creeps when someone has no pic and no bio!