30 ways to fail on Twitter

30 ways to fail on Twitter

Twitter Logo FailCulled and curated from a few of my archived blog posts, a few tips on Twitter protocol that might enhance your social media credibility and encourage real people (not Bots) to follow you.

However, to conform with the (slightly misleading) title of this blog post, which you’ve probably guessed was crafted to attract attention, just do the opposite of the items in this list!

  • Don’t auto-reply to follows with a link to your free (but crap) ebook.
  • Don’t provide an obscure description of who you are and what you do.
  • Don’t have a completely blank bio.
  • Don’t refer to yourself as an “expert”.  That’s for others to judge.
  • Don’t have a profile photo or an image that only makes sense to you and your imaginary friends.
  • Always add a link to a great resource you’ve cited.
  • Show you care by customising your background.
  • Don’t have big gaps (e.g. days) between posts.
  • Don’t follow over 1000 people in a 2-hour period.
  • Don’t write about the cat/hamster/holiday over and over again.
  • Don’t swear and expect business people to take you seriously.
  • Don’t over-abbreviate.
  • Don’t tell people on the public timeline that someone else is on vacation.
  • Don’t reply on the public timeline when you meant to DM (or when it should be a DM…).
  • Don’t retweet EVERYTHING!
  • Don’t follow everyone and everything – even those with zero tweets.
  • Don’t auto DM spam.
  • Don’t be stupid (this one is a bit of a challenge for politicians, elected councillors and footballers!)
  • Don’t assume that Twitter is a marketing plan.
  • Don’t get into an argument with an idiot – they will always win!
  • Don’t take credit for tweets that did not originate from you.
  • Don’t report on every piece of news you can get your hands on.
  • Don’t tweet about your need for coffee in the mornings.
  • Don’t tweet emotional rants!
  • Don’t worry about your follower count. The content of your tweets is far more important.
  • Don’t pay for followers (most of them will be bots anyway) – quality trumps quantity.
  • Don’t let spammers into your feed.
  • Use hashtags (and if possible, ones that are already in use) to categorise information.
  • Don’t overuse hashtags (e.g. several in one post).
  • Don’t post a picture of yourself holding a knife, gun or other weapon.

You can probably think of more – if so let me know at @stephendale and I’ll post an updated list.

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