5 examples of what not to do on Twitter

Twitter etiquette or to put it another way, the ‘dos and don’ts’ can be tricky to understand sometimes. How to behave on Twitter has also changed over time. For example, it used to be standard practice to thank everyone for following you but not so much anymore as the social network matures and the number of user’s followers increase. Here are five things to avoid on Twitter together with examples.

1) Don’t overpost
Don’t send out a number of tweets at the same time as this fills up the timeline of your users and can be irritating. Much better to spread tweets out during the course of the day. A scheduling tool like Buffer - find out more - can help. A case of ‘do as I say’ not ‘do as I do’ below.

2) No auto Direct Messages please
Usually these are setup to automatically send a direct message to a new follower. They are impersonal and are just another unwanted and unnecessary message. The most irritating ones are those that pretend to ‘thank you’ for following when all they’re trying to do is sell you something and the ones that refer to the pointless TrueTwit validation service. They’re often poorly constructed too.

3) Don’t tweet anything that suggests you’re breaking the law
Now this might seems obvious but not to Sunith Baheerathan who tweeted this last week:

4) Don’t overuse hashtags
Overuse of hashtags makes your tweet ugly, difficult to read and severe overuse makes a tweet non-sensical. A maximum of two hashtags is recommended.

#Tips and #Strategies to get more #publicAppearances and free #PR http://t.co/4DbvdjJ829 #Publicity #smallbizchat #Branding #HomeBiz

— Zarstar Mom (@zarstardesigns) August 18, 2013

5) Don’t be inappropriate
If you’re tweeting for business or an organisation it’s important that your tweets are appropriate and reflect the values of your brand. Tweets like this one on the day A-Level results were announced should be avoided.

On the flip side. If you have failed, smash the training in then smash the jägers in then smash a porker and a kebab.

— Tewkesbury RFC (@TewkesRFC) August 15, 2013

This entry was posted in Good And Bad Social Media and tagged etiquette, twitter by Jonathan Pollinger+. Bookmark the permalink.