Here is a short list of some things never to do on Twitter. I hope that this list is helpful and may stop a bad habit… Before it’s too late. If you have any question you can always tweet me at @madisonzyluk or reach me on our company account @verdadesign. Happy tweeting!

 

1. Don’t Auto Direct Message People!

This is turning into spam. I am at the point where I don’t even check my DM’s anymore because 95% are spam. So if I don’t reply to your DM you know why! Impersonal and just annoying…

 

2. No Picture or Bio!

People like to see who they are talking to, a self pic if you are a person or logo, or relevant image is a must! It’s simple to do and makes a huge difference. Many people including myself will not follow people with no bio or picture because they tend to be spammer.. Which is never fun.

 

3. Beware of Spelling Errors!

If you are human, it will happen. Simply proof read your tweets to maintain a level of professionalism.

 

4. Don’t Ignore People!

Always answer if someone poses a question, it’s polite and can be great fun! Engaging with your followers is a great way to build online relationships with clients and customers! Ignoring people makes you appear distant and unreachable. This is especially important if you are a company and your followers are trying to engage with you about your products and services. Don’t ignore, you’ll be a bore!

 

5. Don’t Swear!

I can’t stress this one enough, avoid any profanity on twitter! It makes you seem trashy and anyone with morals or who care about her online reputation who sees that will be likely unfollow you. Tsk! Tsk!

 

6. Don’t Mass Follow!

I am fairly generous when it comes to who I follow back. If I go out of my way to follow someone it is because I believe they will add to the online conversion and add relevant interesting information. Having an uneven number of followers to following ratio shows that you are not interested in communicating but only in attainting a high number of followers. Never good.

 

7. Don’t Have Numerous Accounts!

Less is more in this case. I suggest having only two accounts if you must. One for your business and one for personal or a happy mix. You don’t need to create a new account for every online campaign. Keep it simple so that it’s easier for people to keep track of you.

 

8. Don’t Over Promotion!

Many people set themselves up for failure by solely promoting themselves, their products or services without adding anything of value to the conversation. It is a one-way street to social media solitude and no one want to engage with a robot. It’s fine to plug your company’s promotions or self promote every once in awhile if it is of interest, but do try to tweet about things that your target audience is interested in. Easy Peezy!

 

10. Don’t Write in All Caps All the Time!

This is more out of personal preference. Having all caps on you profile bio and tweets makes you look desperate and usually suggest yelling. Just use it if you’re angry and want to alienate your followers! ;) If you are doing it because you believe it is a sure way to get attention, you may be doing something wrong, instead focus on tweeting about content relevant to your target audience.

 

11. Don’t be Racist or Sexist!

You would think that this one is a given… but no. I can’t even count the number of people I have unfollowed due to a prejudiced remark. Most of these tweeters are young and may think it’s cool to emulate what they see being said in the media. Not cool.

 

12. Don’t Tweet Long URL’s!

Many sites still do not have Tweet buttons or URL shorteners. There are ways around this such as using an application like Tweet Deck with a built in URL shortener or bit.ly. You can even customize your URL link with http://bit.ly/ The reason that you want to keep your URL as short as possible is so people can easily Retweet you without erasing any of your original tweet! There has been some debate on this topic however, when you do use a URL shortener and there is no web address, you never know where that link could go… Although I have never encountered this issue, it is something to be aware of.

 

13. Don’t Fill Up the Feed with Long Conversations!

I must admit I have been guilty of this one. Sometimes conversations between two tweeters can go on for awhile and fill up the twitter feed of others. People who do not use lists find this extremely irritating (as I’ve been told! ). Sometimes it is better to Direct Message, use online chat or simply text the person if you can.

 

I hope you took something away from this list! Please comment and add you own deadly Twitter sins! I would love to hear them!