Tuesday, 24 July 2012

How not to use Twitter

There are no hard and fast rule for using, or abusing, Twitter. But here are some of my "cautions".

  1. Following everyone and anyone; indiscriminate following, in the hope you get followed, is a short term action with long term consequences. Before I follow someone, I often look at who they are following. That way I can get a feel about their interests.
  2. Not having a profile photo or putting up a picture of your dog. I want to follow a human ad I want to know who they are. Anonymity doesn't allow for constructive tweeting.
  3. Random discussion.  A bit of chat is fine, but when my Twitter stream is filled with a discussion on the merits of gooseberry jam versus Seville marmalade for the morning toast - then I'm going to do some unfollowing.
  4. Too much personal information: I really don't need to know about your dandruff, your toenail fungus or what you got up to last night.  Perhaps you could save that for private discussions amongst close friends.
  5. Using Twitter to sales pitch using automated Tweets: Endless automated tweets, or even ones done by hand which continually sales pitch your own stuff can feel a bit mob-handed and lead to unfollowing.

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