Twitter faux pas (10 Twitter no-no's)

I’ve now published two articles on twitter etiquette (twitterquette) and they’ve been well received. What about twitter no-no’s. What NOT to do or tweet on twitter? Here are ten that I’ve come up with. What are your suggested twitter no-no’s?

1. One word tweets. At least put a few words together and have something make sense. Single word tweets mean nothing to pretty much everyone. This includes mentions that are nothing but a user name.
2. Old, old, news. Re-tweeting your discovery of a video that went viral four years ago is top notch lame! Everyone else on the internet has already seen it. Be happy you finally did and move on, no need to remind everyone.
3. Your upcoming blog post. Tweeting about the amazing blog post you’re going to write is ridiculous. Too often I see tweets mentioning “going to write (or publish) an amazing article soon” … well, tell us when it’s done!
4. Over tweeting! Few things are more annoying on twitter, than an automated post of about 20-30 tweets from one person. I don’t look at any of them, and I normally end up unfollowing.
5. Hash Tag Abuse. Use popular and established hashtags. Don’t make up your own.
6. Meaningless replies you mention and reply to someone but it seems to be a two-person conversation. Twitter is a public forum, if your posting public tweets make them understandable to everyone observing.
7. Your holiday plans. Like any other social networking site, twitter just isn’t a safe place. Tweeting your upcoming holiday plans and announcing your empty house to the world is extremely unwise.
8. Dangerous geo-tagging. Connected to #7, geo-tagging yourself can be dangerous, especially if you’ve pinpointed your house, and broadcasted your holiday plans. be wise.
9. Tweet stealing. If you like what someone said, give a proper mention or re-tweet.
10. Personal tweets. That’s what facebooks for, don’t you think?

Bonus mention: The ultimate twitter faux pas?

On twitter people want to know who you are and what you’re all about. What do you stand for? What do you tweet about? Are you a human? A profile pic, and a brief bio are key to using twitter properly. So ditch the default ‘twitter bird avatar’ and take a moment to write something about yourself. Leaving these two things out may be the ultimate twitter faux pas!

Would love to hear your opinions, and twitter faux pas that you think should have been included. Maybe I will post a second list!

19 comments

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Jul 4, 2010

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Belle Epoque says:

6. I disagree with this point. The @ symbol shows you are replying to someone and that it's part of a conversation. If someone engages me because of something I've tweeted, I will reply. Obviously if your entire twitter stream consists of this, then you're not using it the right way, but to have a quick back and forth with two or three people a day, is not unusual for me. It consolidates relationships and ensures they are more likely to retweet me in the futuyre. As your follow and friend list grows, this is unavoidable.

5. I also disagree with this point. There is very little room in a tweet to correctly describe or encapsulate what a link I post is about, and using the hashtag feature can be a useful alternative to an entire sentence or word, even if the hashtag you're using is not considered “an established hashtag”. Additionally, there's plenty of comedians out there who use the hashtag in a funny way, and I don't find that annoying, it's creative.

Brian says:

I think much of what you say is based on personal preference. I don't have an issue with half of this stuff but I can see how to some people its can get annoying. I rather enjoy tweets assuming they aren't being repeated over and over to me that is really annoying.

I do agree that posting your plans on twitter/facebook stating you're going to be away from your empty home for 2 weeks on vacation is pretty lame LMAO.

danielsnyder says:

Jul 6, 2010

Belle, appreciate your candid feedback. I think I'm realizing I may have been expecting everyone to agree with my point of view. Obviously this isn't the case! 🙂 I should expand my horizons and realize not everyone uses twitter the way I do. Upon further review my points are somewhat subjective.

Quick feedback has given me some ideas for a new post. Like I said in my above reply, maybe I shouldn't be quite so subjective. Thanx for feedback!

Jason says:

Thanks for sharing the tips.

Thanks for your comment Jason…

stubbyd says:

Jul 12, 2010

Absolutely agreed …. on some of these 😉

Don't quite see what you mean by 'Personal Tweets' as surely every tweet is just that? Or are you saying you don't want to know about my child or my day or …? Then unfollow as that's our perogative.

On the point of 8 – why? Why do people 'check in' with 4q or gowalla? I really don't get that and despite a quarter of my twitter followers using it none of them have yet answered me why.

Came here by way of Lee (@Security_FAQs) – now added to my rss reader.

“FREE KEY”

Zolex PC says:

Jul 13, 2010

I think it depends on how you use Twitter, whether for personal use or business use. A combination of both also applies. For business purposes, tweeting about personal information to your customers about Johnny's Home Run in Little League is not necessary. However tweeting about how happy you are for solving a customer's problem would a good tweet.

danohlerking says:

Jul 14, 2010

you left out the biggest twitter faux pas of all.. and i've been guilty of it far too many times… the shoulda-been-a-DM tweet. it's like a digital version of the dream where you find yourself in your high school classroom wearing just your boxers. only difference: it ain't just a dream.

Jul 18, 2010

Oh yeah! What about tweeting stuff you didn't mean too? I don't know if this happens to often, but I was responding to a personal text on my cell phone, and ended up texting direct to twitter (oops!) my text went to the masses. haha.

True, I actually struggle with the balance between personal and business use. I primarily use my twitter account for infosec purposes, but I'm also a huge Toronto Blue Jays fan… my Blue Jays tweets don't seem to mix well with my niche… what to do?

Hey thanks for your comment (and really sorry for the delay in responding, it's a one man show and I've been on holiday!). Will get you a copy of Safe Returner ASAP. Yeah of course personal tweets are important, for if we do not engage than what is the point? It is social networking after all isn't it. I am starting to re-think that one.

bloggerden.com says:

Jul 19, 2010