People come to different Social Media platforms for different reasons with different levels of experience- this is the diversity that keeps things interesting. But, it always surprises me how often I see large companies, or other so-called “Social Media Pros” using Social Media incorrectly, especially in Twitter. Here are the Top 3 Things I wish companies and pros wouldn’t do on Twitter:
1. Ignore other people The operative word in Social Media is “Social”. Why would you create a Twitter account and ignore people? That’s just what HBO did when it recently created @webofsecrets to promote its show Big Love. I am a fan of the show- I love it, DVR it and watch it religiously each week. So, I was pretty enthused when @webofsecrets began following me. I followed back and sent an @reply that wasn’t replied to. I read the posts on the profile and was confused. There were no @replies at all, and in fact all the posts seemed to be steamy secrets. Were they those of the show’s characters? Followers’ DMs? Emails? I sent a DM, again with no response. The point of a Twitter presence is to be accessible to people- to interact with them. At least answer your DMs HBO!
2. Utilize auto responders If you haven’t heard this from a hundred other people already, take it from me: People don’t want your robot sending them a message about how thrilled you are that they’re following you. Get it? You’re faking personalization and people don’t like fake.
3. Publicize your personal rules for using Twitter Hey, guess what? No one cares. I don’t need to know that Twitter is like your “personal party” and that you “drop in and out of following people”. I won’t freak out or take it personally if you stop following me, and I don’t need a preemptive explanation on why that may happen. I don’t need to know how you qualify people to follow or not follow, and I definitely don’t care that you’re excited to get your 5,000th follower. It’s so impersonal and condescending, get over it.
What am I missing- How do you see companies and “pros” misusing Twitter?
4. Tell others how to use Twitter.
5. Tweet incessantly about how to get more followers (seriously, fuck these people).
6. Swear too much (whoops, guess I’m not a pro).
7. Not understand the norms.
8. Never, ever reply (similar to your first one).
9. Use twitter literally. Seriously people, tell me something interesting. If you’re just going to get something to eat or you’re busy, feel free to DM or IM, cause most of us do not care.
10. Be specific. This isn’t the place for PR spin.
11. Ignore advice that other people give. We’re really all in this together.
12. Hard sell
13. Insert yourself in the middle of someones conversation
14. Stalk
15. Post nothing but links (I have Digg / Mixx for hot stories)
16. Only DM to a reply (are you ashamed of being seen with me?)
17. Connect your Twitter feed to Facebook and take over friends status feeds
18. Act like a celebrity
19. Push only your blog posts
20. Act like a journalist
#17 Wins in my opinion.
Never, ever, EVER connect your Twitter to Facebook unless you use them for the same thing and you update very infrequently. In which case you’re using one or both incorrectly.
I’ve done it. I’ve had friends do it. But until a person can easily select which tweets go on Facebook from the most popular clients (I love TweetDeck) just say no.