Twitter Faux Pas

By | February 17, 2010

Image from Flickr by: jessamyn

I’ve been on Twitter since February 2007. I still really enjoy the conversations there, but I find I am resorting to Lists of people more than watching the public timeline nowadays.

Last week I was thinking about writing a post on some of the worst mistakes people make on Twitter, so I asked you for your thoughts on this. Here’s some of the answers I got from my friends:

@chaoskitten82: posting stuff like “i’m having a terrible day” or “so-and-so broke up with me again” when it’s too personal…it’s awkward

@ThadHatcher:  Quotes turn me off b/c it feels like you are tweeting just to tweet and care 2 much about

@bretthenley: over using words like “sell,” “cheap,” “buy” and “social media.” Perhaps that’s more of an annoyance than mistake …

@briancauble: Biggest twitter mistake is following way too many people before building a following.

@4byoung: Auto DMs have to right up there. How about every 3rd Tweet as a plug for your business?

@thecreativeone: Caps lock. Can’t stand it!

@JuliaThinks: live-tweeting a tv show/sport event. Ok to make few comments, not 20+. If I wanted to know, I would watch it myself.

@BradBlackman: The biggest mistake people make on Twitter is complaining about how bad their boss is!

@CathyWebSavvyPR: Agreed: worst twitter mistake – Auto DMs. Also brands who just broadcast – automate tweets, never interact.

@lespaulrob: i would have to say ONLY retweeting other people. gets old fast.

@Jammond: Using text and leaving signatures attached.

 

What would you add to the list as a Twitter personal annoyance or major faux pa?

 

Image from Flickr by: jessamyn


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  • http://twitter.com/kapgar Kevin Apgar

    Maintaining multiple Twitter accounts via something like Tweetdeck and then Tweeting a personal note to your business account. Been there, done that. No T-shirt.

  • http://blog.thesilvagroup.net/ Kenny Silva

    Auto-DM sales pitches are up there for me.

  • http://www.davemadethat.com Dave Delaney

    Good one. I've done that too.

  • http://www.davemadethat.com Dave Delaney

    For sure. Auto DM anything is on the top of my list.

  • lajason

    I'd add sending out a rapid-fire stream of tweets to the list. When I see 5+ tweets immediately next to each other from the same source I tend to just ignore them all. Tools exist to help space out tweets if you can only schedule one session a day to tweet.

  • http://www.davemadethat.com Dave Delaney

    That's true. Great point.

  • http://www.davemadethat.com Dave Delaney

    That's true. Great point.

  • http://www.samdavidson.net/blog Sam Davidson

    In working with several nonprofits to understand and effectively use twitter, I'd say their mistake is talking too much about themselves – akin to a business trying to “sell” too often. It is about a conversation (at its best) and a sneaky sales move (at its worst).

  • http://b6s.net/ Anne Moss

    Some of these are so obvious, I just try to avoid following people who do them (thinking blatant marketing/spam and quote bots).