How NOT to Suck on Twitter When Starting Out

I’m relatively new to Twitter. I love the daily interaction and ability to connect with so many people out there in the Twitterverse (even though using that term still makes me feel ridiculous). People will constantly tell you what you should be doing on Twitter to grow your audience, make more connections, and build your platform. How do you avoid some of the early mistakes though in order to get out the gate the right way?

Here are 10 things I learned as a newbie on Twitter so you can avoid sucking from the get-go:

1. Don’t bulk add a ton of people – I was guilty of this at first. You can’t just follow everyone in the world without having people follow you as well. There is a magic ratio Twitter uses. I blew right by that mark when I first started. I quickly hit the threshold of following without also growing my followers. Twitter smacked me down and I started acting responsible from that point forward.

2. Don’t send Direct Messages (DMs) unless absolutely necessary – Receiving a DM can be both cool and creepy at the same time. Most of the DMs I received originally were related to some product or something non-personal the individual wanted me to check out. Delete. There is also the issue of even noticing you have DMs. I barely notice when I have one. For the time being, just refrain from sending DMs unless you REALLY need to.

3. Don’t follow everyone back – Before I knew it I had all sorts of Twitter users following me that really had nothing to offer. They were brands or other businesses posting about guess what – their business. I made the mistake out of the kindness of my heart to give the good ol’ follow-back. What a mistake. They just fill up your feed and make it really difficult to dig in and see the real valuable content you want. Keep your feed clean and only follow those that will provide you true value or engagement.

4. Don’t go crazy – This is a marathon not a sprint. Don’t add a thousand people, send 300 tweets a day, monitor trends on the hour, and attend Tweet chats all night. You will burn out. Ease into it, enjoy the flow, and relax.

5. Don’t hook up your Facebook page to your tweets unless you really mean it – If you go into your account settings you can choose to have all of your tweets also post to your Facebook account. This means each time you tweet it will show up on Facebook as well. Given Twitter is really for the short attention span and quick bits of information, this doesn’t exactly align with the Facebook concept. Put it this way. If I tweet, “just saw a guy get passed on a scooter by an old lady rollin in her Buick #embarrassing” your Twitter followers may have a slight giggle. But, do your Facebook friends really need that level of information hitting their feed? Doubt it. Be smart about when you link the two. If you do feel the need to link accounts for a particular tweet, such as a new post on your blog, make sure you disconnect the link after you are done.

6. Don’t spam people with offers, coupons, giveaways, etc – I understand people are trying to make a dollar online. I get it and I’m all for it. But for God’s sake, at least throw in a few random personal tweets from time to time. Nothing gets you on the Unfollow list like bombarding people with free giveways and coupons all day. Take the time to engage with folks on a personal level. I bet they will be more apt to go out and use whatever you are pushing on them.

7. Don’t market your latest content over and over and over – Announce you have a new blog post. Maybe an hour later let people know again. Sprinkle it in from time to time, but don’t repeatedly tweet the same reference to your new post. It gets old for those that are truly engaged with Twitter. I’m not saying don’t promote your awesome work. I’m just saying be a little more strategic and a little less flooding.

8. Don’t underestimate the power of a Re-Tweet (RT) – I like when people retweet me. There is some level of validation and friendship when someone goes to bat for you like that. I try to retweet as much as possible without making it lose luster. I don’t retweet everything, but if someone I’m following announces a new post on their blog and I read it and enjoy it. Retweet! It doesn’t take much work and people really do appreciate it.

9. Don’t use something other than you for your picture – Sure there are brands on Twitter and maybe you are representing a brand. But, in most cases you should be showing a picture of YOU. Even if you have a brand you are associated with, I’d much rather talk to you versus a brand image. It just isn’t very personable engaging with an icon. Maybe it’s just me.

10. Don’t over-inflate your follower numbers – It’s no secret that you can use a service or go out to Fiverr and have someone generate thousands of followers for you. Just stop it. It is pathetic and really embarrassing. Oh, and people can dig into your followers to see how legit they are on sites such as fakers.statuspeople.com. It’s ok if you just started out and only have 14 followers. See number 4 above. You have time. Twitter isn’t going away anytime soon. Continue to engage and provide quality content and people will start to follow you. I’d much rather have quality followers than a ficticious following of 250k.

What do you find annoying with people on Twitter? If you could tell someone new to the platform what they should avoid, what would you say?