Jul
6
3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters
12 Days of Twitter :: Day 5
(What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?)
When people first sign up for Twitter, they have a tendency to get a little excited and make some mistakes. Today’s Twitter Tip includes three of the most common mistakes made by newbies.
1) Auto Replying New Followers
There are services that allow you to send an automated direct message when someone follows you. Everyone has probably gotten a DM that you immediately can recognize as a bulk message. “Thanks for following me! I make monetizing your blog easy. You can find out more at www.exampleblog.com.”
If I follow you and I get an auto-DM, I will immediately unfollow you. A lot of people think I’m being harsh, but here’s why I do it. If I’m following you, it’s because of something you said, or I already know who you are and what you do. I don’t want to be spammed, and that’s exactly what that kind of message is…SPAM.
If you continue saying interesting things, you will make me want to find out more about you. I will click on your profile and follow the link to your website. It’s more work on your part to make me interested and get me to your site, but ultimately it’s marketing that matters.
2) Adding hashtags to every post, or too many hashtags in a single post
Hashtags are great and very useful for tracking conversations about a subject you’re interested in. Use them when it matters. You don’t have to include a hashtag in every post. More importantly, you don’t have to fill your tweet with hashtags. Let’s look at an example. I tweeted this the other day:
Cool!! I just noticed the last WordPress update made the theme editor more like a regular HTML editor (numbered lines & colored code).
Since the tweet was about WordPress, and that’s the main subject, it would have been good for me to make WordPress a hashtag (my mistake!):
Cool!! I just noticed the last #WordPress update made the theme editor more like a regular HTML editor (numbered lines & colored code).
Unfortunately, I’ve seen tweets that look like this:
Cool!! I just noticed the last #WordPress #update made the #theme #editor more like a regular #HTML editor (numbered lines & colored #code).
Whoa!!! Too much. First of all, trying to read that breaks my concentration and may cause me to have to re-read a tweet to understand what the person is trying to say. Secondly, it tells me either you’re a newbie and just don’t fully understand what hashtags are for, OR, you’re trying to hashtag-spam your way into people’s searches.
Use hashtags when you think others might be interested in the subject you’re tweeting about. Make them count!
3) Over-tweeting
I did a tutorial of TweetDeck, and in it you hear me call some people “hyper-tweeters.” Hyper-tweeters are people who tweet too much. It seems like they find something to say every couple minutes. It can be overwhelming for your followers, and will often lead to people unfollowing you. The same thing goes for too many @replies or Retweets. Keep in mind that your followers might not be following the person you’re @replying, so if they want to know what the heck you’re talking about and be a part of the conversation, they’ll need to click through to that person’s profile to see what that person said to you.
When I tweet more than five times in a day, I start to get uncomfortable.
Unless I’m providing (what I hope is) valuable content in 6+ posts, I try to stay at or under five. Please don’t take my number as a hard fast rule for you. My limit is based on my gut and watching the response of my followers. It could be very different for you. Listen to people’s reactions, and occasionally look at your Twitter stats (Twitter Counter). If you notice you’re loosing followers, one reason may be that you’re tweeting too much.
I want to point out one thing. If you’re on Twitter for yourself, and you don’t care about building a network, then there is no such thing as over-tweeting. Say what you want, any time you want!
Read More
Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter
Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols?
Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations
Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny
Day 4: Follow Responsibly
Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find
Day 7: Twitter Mobile
Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
Day 9: Mix it Up!
Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit
Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance
