What is a Twit? It's not the same as a tweet although it's sometimes referred to as one. Is it a person? Is it short for Twitter? Is it a tweet gone viral? Or a tweet gone bad. Or neither?
Here is a definition according to FreeDictionary.com
twit: twit·ted, twit·ting, twits To taunt, ridicule, or tease, especially for embarrassing mistakes or faults. See Synonyms at ridicule.
1. The act or an instance of twitting.
2. A reproach, gibe, or taunt.
For the purpose of this blog post we will use #3 above “a foolishly annoying person”. I am taking liberty to change it to “a foolishly annoying twitterer”. Not sure if “twitterer” is a word. However, for this post we'll assume it is. Heck, it's marketing. We make up words all the time, right?
33 Tips to NOT be a Twit on Twitter!
1. Do not send auto direct messages (DMs).
2. Don't invite me to your mafia family, farm, or ask me to buy your get rich quick scheme via auto DM. I already have a family, plenty of rugrats and a business that is running fine.
3. Wear clothes in your avatar pics. Naked photos are not going to get me to click the link to your mafia family.
4. Don't tweet like a sailor and drop the f-bomb in your tweets. If I want to be offended I'd rather be laying in the sun and listening to the local neighborhood teenage twits.
5. Don't join a Twitter chat about social media and complain the whole time about how much you miss the yellow pages or how terrible it is people are addicted to social media. We know we're addicted. Don't be a twit and remind us.
6. Don't auto tweet that I unfollowed you. It won't get me to follow you, sorry.
7. If you are interested enough to ask me out on a tweet date, please at least read my bio first & you'll see I am married.
8. Don't be tweet jerky (aka be a jerk).
9. Don't tweet mad.
10. Don't drink and tweet or tweet and drive. My car was totaled last week by a lady texting and driving. Not cool.
11. Don't tweet photos of every meal you eat. I am shocked how many people do this.
12. Don't tweet boring photos from every @FourSquare check-in. Do your followers really want to look at a table, sign or wall? Crazy how much I see these.
13. Don't send random tweets asking people to retweet unless it's for a good cause. If it's a link to your blog, don't do it.
14. Don't retweet yourself.
15. Don't send the same tweet over and over in one day. We know you need to increase blog readership. However, if you focus on good content and connecting with real people, the readership will organically increase more consistently.
16. Don't only respond and/or tweet with people with high Klout, PeerIndex influence scores. Remember your best potential leads may have a zero Klout score!
17. Don't only tweet when you have a new blog post.
18. Don't only talk about yourself. Show some social media love for others.
19. Don't forget to have a conversation. Twitter is not a broadcast station. Use it to connect and get to know people.
20. Double check your links before tweeting. Don't tweet a broken link. I might never click again.
21. Don't tweet or retweet stuff you haven't read.
22. Don't just retweet with never a comment or opinion. It's easy to tell the clueless twits as they don't know enough to have an opinion. Know your stuff. If you don't then go spend more time learning it and then come tweet about it when you have more value to add for your audience.
23. Don't include popular tweeters names in your tweets just to get attention.
24. Don't overuse #FF (Friday Follow) just to get attention.
25. Don't thank every single person individually who retweets you if you get a ton of retweets just to raise your Klout influence score. I saw a blog post where someone was purposely doing this. Crazy!
26. Don't use my twitter name as your H1 tag on your doorway spam website to drive traffic to your blog. Google doesn't like this and neither do I. I actually busted a local SEO/social media agency doing such to me and several competitors this weekend. Not cool.
27. Don't hi-jack tweets. This means you take my tweet, retweet it but change the link to your spam site. Most people will block you and report for spam asap.
28. Don't tweet every minute of your life. I don't need to know when you have gas or need to go buy tampons. I saw a girl post she was out of tampons the other day. Why??
29. Don't be afraid to ask me to follow you if you like my content and would like to be real friends.
30. Don't be afraid to talk to me. Can't believe how many people I meet at events who tell me they've been following me for a year. However, they've never talked to me. It's about conversation and relationships people. Talk!
31. Be smart. If you live alone don't tweet every night you get home & let people know you are alone. You're asking for trouble. Not all tweeters are nice. Be careful.
32. Don't tweet about your clients online strategies in a way that jeopardizes their “secret sauce” for your own benefit.
33. Don't spend all day tweeting and bossing other tweeters how they should tweet. How you tweet, what you tweet, when you tweet should be part of an integrated marketing and business plan that supports your business goals and objectives. You may know your stuff but I guarantee many people know more. I know this post is a bit bossy but you read it all the way to #33! :)
Your Twit Turn
What are your thoughts? Are you a twit? Do you know a twit? Do you have other twit tips to help tweeters from being a twit?
Thanks for putting so much information in a clear and easy to understand format. It is refreshing to read an article like this without the gobbledegook!
Thanks Maurice. Glad you liked it.
Ugh I know some twits who violate quite a few of these. Nice post.
Ha me too! Too many. Thanks for your comment Dan!
Animated profile pics annoy me. Just tweet useful info if you want to get my attention!
Amen!
An animated avatar is automatic no-follow for me.
Hilarious. There are tons of people out there that definitely need to read this article! Thanks for sharing. -cc
Glad I made you chuckle. Agree 100%! Have a great week. Thx for your comment!
Only rule 11 seems a touch out of hand. I would much rather people be tweeting pics of their meals (and other personal stuff) than RTing top 10 tips on blogging, etc. Great post tho.In fact maybe replace number 11 with : Don’t RT blogs titled “Top tips…” even though this was a good one.;)
Seriously? Not me. Unless they’re eating somewhere different or super yummy, why tweet about it? I saw a tweet of a McDonalds Double Cheeseburger the other day. Makes no sense to me. However, all matter of personal choice.
Only reason I use the “tips” is people like them. Often times it’s not as much what we want and like but what our readers like, right?
Thx for your comment. Have a good week :)
Pam,
Personally I feel that social media blogging is plagued by “tips” blog posts. Someone noticed that the RTs on “tips” posts go through the roof, so suddenly every blog post is a tip post – not talking about you, or even this post. I long for more substantive blogging, especially in the social media sphere. There are so many significant things to be blogging about. I do love this post of yours, it is full of thought. But I cannot help but also mention that “tip” blogging and RTs are definitely pushing the media in the wrong direction.
Thanks for allowing me my perhaps contrarian thoughts!
Best.
Kevin – You make valid points. To me it all comes down to objectives. It depends on what audience you want to connect with and why. What is your mission? What are you wanting to accomplish. Who are you writing for and why??
For our strategy we have multiple layers. I write the “tip” style content for easy read & consumption for newbies, execs & more. You’d be surprised how many highly qualified leads we get from “C” level readers with a simple list of tips. I have had several investors contact us based upon “tip” style posts.
I think often times we over estimate the knowledge of those reading our tweets and blogs. I have found that many people new to social media like the simple “how to” or list style content. They have something specific they are interested in learning and want a simple way to get there.
On the flip side I personally (and sounds like you do too) desire thought provoking conversations that dive deep into social media ecosystems, human behavior, engagement strategies and more. I try to write a varying set of posts with focus on core business & marketing objectives.
We’re getting ready to launch a new training series targeted at newbies so I’ll be posting a series of “tips” and “how to’s” already in the editorial calendar.
We keep close eye on metrics from all platforms including email. Thanks to tools like Infusionsoft I know who clicks on what and where they are in our sales funnel.
In all honesty we let the metrics tell us what people like. If it generates meaningful conversation, connects me w/like minds, gets clicked, retweeted, new email subscribers and $$ in the bank then it’s working.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments and for voicing your honest opinion!
Pam
Pam, well stated . . . both the list of tips AND defense of lists of tips.
THX for both.
I am so happy you began with don’t Auto DM. So intrusive, makes me want to unfollow the person immediately.
Personally, I believe in Twitter, i.e. that it is the right platform to substitute for lots of the emails inundating our lives — get to the point and don’t send me every email sent regarding the one topic.
Anyway, all that being said Pam, is there anyway I could publish this WITH your defense of lists as a Guest Post on my blog?
Thanks for your consideration . . . and wisdom and style.
:-)
Since we’ve followed each other for several months but never had a conversation, HELLO! :-)
Good article. Many of those things are so ridiculous that I’m amazed you find a lot of people doing them! One thing I would add is tweeting too much about one’s children.
Hi Nick! Hello :) I know it’s crazy isn’t it! Yes, I agree about being careful about the children tweets. I share very little about my kids for many reasons.
Hope you had a good weekend. Appreciate you stopping by & leaving a comment!
Great post!! This is all great advice and I hope it is heeded!
Jennifer
Great post Pam, I especially like Nr. 14, I feel it can easily get annoying to see the self-RTers. Oh and of course Nr. 1 is key to point out! Buffered that one for sure! :)
It’s really helpful post. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Twitter is a free, social networking service and micro-blogging application that enables users to send and receive “tweets.” Twitter may prove to be a useful tool in you marketing toolbox, and even better, right now it is free! All listed steps are true and doing great for me. Thank you for the post.
work at home
Great points Pam! Many made me LOL because of their utter truth! So sorry to hear about your car getting totalled, happy you are alright– Florida needs to ban texting and driving.. I see it all the time here in Sarasota~ Blessings~ @KnDino:twitter
It’s not the popular opinion, but I am SO over the 4Square tweets. I really don’t care where people are, unless it’s someplace really fascinating like a cafe’ in Bangladesh. I am sure I do tons of things that annoy others, like my quotes….I just love my inspirational quotes…but it is also a true facet of my personality, because I actually use those quotes to motivate me throughout my day….every day. It changed my outlook on life, and I guess I like to share them. I try to mix it up, and have a variety of conversations…but I know that I’m far from perfect myself. And…I own that.
I really enjoyed this post, Pam. Good points delivered in a light-hearted manner. I hope all the tweet offenders read this. It is amazing what kind information and pictures are posted on Twitter, isn’t it?
Recently I’ve noticed points #23-25 getting out of hand. I’ve accidentally self RT’d a few times but I immediately delete it. Then there are the people who automatically RT the RT you did of their tweet. That annoys me too. (boy that was a tongue twister)
I look forward to reading more of your articles!
First day of Twitter and this is the perfect post for me. I’m still not sure how to do a RT, so I copied your URL and sent it in an email to my writer friends! Oh, and super nice surprise to see you signed up to follow me. Thanks! You made my day.
I love it, Pam. You echo so many of my sentiments. Thank you.
I have a couple more:
1) If you want people to follow you, post a bio and include your city.
2) If you want to have an extended conversation with another Twitter friend, please take it to DM and don’t fill my Twitter stream with your private chat.
And I might amend your #3 above to save HAVE an avatar (profile pic). Twitter is about about people relating to people, not faceless eggs. I’d even take that a bit further and say that if you’re tweeting for your company, don’t use your logo. People don’t connect with logos. Use a picture of yourself, and add your company logo in the lower 1/3 somewhere if you must :)
Thanks again, Pam.
Thanks so much Pam. I am very new to twitter and a new comer in the social media circle. I see your points as guidelines…haha…thanks
Sentido practico. Gracias.
Thanks Pam. You never fail to make me laugh each time I read one of your posts.
#30 – Okay, I’m not afraid to talk to you!! Hi, how are you?
As for most of the others, didn’t know people did those things. I’m building a business not trying to get my butt virtually kicked! I guess those are good things to look out for.
But I’m guessing you don’t want to come to my mafia family’s Sunday picnic out at the farm till you get to know me better? :)
Have an awesome day.
Looking forward to the next post.
Ana
Hi PamI’ve just started on Twitter with our business and am on a steep learning curve. Any chance you can run a similar do’s and don’ts for businesses.
Cheers Roger
PS. Am an old g*t swimming against the flood of digital technology, but necessity now means keeping ones nose just above the surface of social media. All help appreciated
[…] “33 Tips to Not be a Twit on Twitter!” by Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) […]
Pam,
My pet peeve is when someone tweets “need coffee.”
I really don’t care. Just make yourself some coffee and get over it. Don’t tweet it and don’t post it on Facebook. If you have a really cool blend that you think I should try, tweet that or post that after you’ve had your coffee.
Nancy – MoneyDiva