Posted by Justin Dupre on Feb 26, 2009

The Wrong Way To Use Twitter

I know Twitter has become a nearly essential and integral part of social media. I use it, my friends use it, and there is a huge chance you probably use it, too. Before I used it, I thought it was, well, the most ridiculous thing that I’d ever heard of. Only 140 character “tweets” are allowed? WTH?! But by the time someone talked me into using it, it’s become a large part of just connecting even further into the web and society for me.

However, there are some of those that take it a step too far with Twitter and I’ve found some bad habits you probably shouldn’t part-take in. If you already do them, you might want to take a step back and rethink your social media organizational skills and plans.

Follow Everyone

There are lots of people on Twitter that have 1,000+ followers, and lots of those guys follow everyone of their followers back. Are you really going to keep track of all that? Before following anyone, I always examine their tweet history to see whether or not they are just rambling about what they ate for dinner (@johnchow) or if they are posting questions, links, and tweets that can further my business or personal life to new levels. Obviously, one gets taken off my follow list if they fall out of habit.

Re-tweeters

I can’t stand this new feature. It’s like the new Pokemon or Yo-yo. Everyone wants to get along and do it. So often I see the same thing RT’d over and over again. I can understand the importance of getting a good message across, and certainly it is a good social marketing plan, but please don’t retweet every damn tweet and post that A) is from a Twitter user that has 1 bajillion followers already, B) that you retweeted from 10 other people that retweeted it into your time line, C) that just wastes my time and yours. You should be making Twitter as productive as possible.

Tweeting on the Job

Hey! We all get busy and stressed from our jobs. We can’t help but want to take a break. You want to know why this (the U.S.A.) economy sucks though? Because we are all too lazy and doing something else while on the job rather than being productive and creating quality products for the US and foreign economies to consume. I put Twitter at account for perhaps 1% of this. Stay off the Tweet-line at work, do your job, take a Tweet-break at lunch, and maybe once after you finish your work and are just headed home. Twitter is not an essential item for the work place, and it should stay out of it (same with your Facebook and Myspace profiles).

Tweet-Havoc

I like to check my tweets about once every hour or two. I only follow 50-some people so it’s normally a very short list of Tweets to go through. However, what gets you an instant dis-follow is seeing 5+ Tweets in a row from the same person. I mean, sometimes they are spaced out a few 15-30 minutes apart, which is understandable. But when I see 5 Tweets, completely irrelevant to each other, my needs, and are spanned out within the matter of 5 to 10 minutes, I can’t stand it. I don’t want to read your senseless rambling and chances are that no one else cares. Space it out and take a short break from Twitter.

Following Me… And 1,000 Others

Some people just add people… and add some more… then some more with no reason other than to hope and pray that the person they followed will follow them back. Social media marketing at its worst. It’s a disgusting and overused tactic. I’d hardly ever follow these guys unless they are offering something in return for me.

The best way to play out Twitter is to use it for pro-production purposes. Keep it closed while you are working, and play with it on a short break. Post useful Tweets, and try to limit the amount of times you tweet. If you’ve got to Tweet-back to other users, consider direct messaging them, avoiding a long, irrelevant Tweet time line. Follow those that are close to you and you feel may be of some use. And lastly of all, if you feel I’ve helped you with this post at all, you can follow me and I’ll post some more tips at @justin_dupre. I’m not going to guarantee that I’ll follow you, though.