Twitter Tips: Remember These 5 ‘Don’ts’ to Succeed in Twitterville

Twitter is a quasi-perfect virtual (online) democratic community: if people find it hard to digest your words and opinion, they can (and they will) vote with their fingers! It takes just a quick click, i.e. choosing the unfollow or block features, and your twitter feed is removed forever from their life causing the end of your twitter story. Ironically, for businesses small and large, the goal of Twitter and other social media tools like Facebook is to grow fans and build relationships, not tear them down. Still tweeples make mistakes that are surefire ways to lose followers and irritate friends on Twitter. To master the fine art of befriending followers, here are five ways to not be annoying.

1. Don’t tweet every 10 seconds. There are some people you follow that seem to be tweeting so often that it must be on auto-pilot. Okay, we got your point. You are a social media addict; but is it so necessary to prove it? I think this way of using Twitter as a blasting machine is a drag. I’ve had to remove people from my lists because their tweets were the only thing in my stream (does anyone else find this language a bit ridiculous? LOL).

2. Then there are the Tweeple who ONLY engage in 2-way conversation – unless you’re hooked up to Twitter 24/7, it’s very hard to follow. Don’t over-do it unless you want a free ticket to the Twitter hell!

3. Don’t follow people because you want an auto-follow back. I believe a lot of people are doing this using an automated service in the hopes that you, too, are using an automated service and will immediately follow them back. The point being that they can then sell to their thousands of followers. Don’t be a spammer and don’t strategize to become one either.

4. Don’t just retweet, but come up with your own stuff, too. This is more easily done for bloggers, of course, but if you don’t write your own stuff then go out and find unique news and articles and white papers, etc. that haven’t already been retweeted 478 times. The Twitterverse will appreciate you for it. Similarly, don’t engage too much in the #FollowFriday madness; what’s the point when #FF is already dead!

5. Don’t isolate yourself and send one-way messages. If you are not reading and interacting with others in this twitterverse community, you will not be forming any relationships. Without interactions, you will not create a partnership and benefit from the great potential that is out there for businesses to share ideas and turn these tweets into real time meetings.

One of the greatest compliments you can receive is when you are ‘listed’ as a conversationalist. That will put a smile on your lips. I strive for a balance when I’m engaging on Twitter. What about you? What is your Twitter success mantra?