I’ve only been on Twitter for about a year and wonder why I didn’t join sooner. Facebook had been my primary social networking tool of choice, but now the party’s on Twitter.
Twitter is a convenient tool for spreading and gathering information. News is disseminated faster than the traditional outlets that used to run the show. I like looking at everyone’s beautiful fall photos and family pets. Most importantly, I appreciate Twitter’s value in networking and connecting with people I would have never met in my daily life. I think social media can enhance relationships instead of hinder.
I have a lot of love for twitter so this post is a tongue-in-cheek rundown of my least favorite types of tweeting behaviors. I was inspired by Ed Kohler’s post, #Twitter #Behaviors #I #Can’t #Support.
Massive Quantities of Tweets:
I don’t mind semi-frequent or even frequent tweeters. What I’m referring to are people who take tweeting to the extreme. Just the other morning, I woke up to find my feed dominated by a woman who literally tweeted 30 times within a single hour. They weren’t even original thoughts, but links to promote her website.
Now, I realize many bloggers use HootSuite and other social media managers that send out scheduled Tweets, so I’m unsure whether or not people are hand typing these repetitive tweets. Either way, I really don’t want to know about your giveaway every half an hour.
Includes I Follow Back in Their Profile:
Do you
actually follow everyone back? Including the weird porn bots and random Long John Silvers franchises in neighboring states? This statement screams desperation.
When I was new to Twitter, I learned that if you follow one of these f*****s back, an onslaught will immediately find you. If you want to increase your number of followers, then go ahead and follow them back, but you will soon come to HATE your Twitter feed. It’s not worth it.
People Who Think They Are Regina George and Twitter is Their Lunch Table:
I might occasionally send a tweet to Anthony Bourdain for the heck of it, but I’d never actually expect to him to respond. I’m referring to people with exponentially less followers who won’t respond to tweets, but want to solicit everyone’s donations for their latest Kickstarter projects.
If you don’t enjoy when the general public tries to interact with you, then make your tweets private. Personally, I’ve connected with a lot of cool people by responding to thoughtful tweets from those I didn’t already know and my life’s all the better for it.
Then, there are the Tweeters who blast too much of a certain type of content that includes the following:
Inspirational Quotes: Quotes are great. We can all use a little extra inspiration on some days. It’s satisfying when you find a sentence that perfectly summarizes how you feel. I don’t mind the occasional inspirational quote, especially from people who don’t make a habit of it, but I’ve found there are people who only tweet inspirational quotes.
Life coaches are the worst. I would choose a life coach based upon any other factor than the volume of Rumi quotes he or she regurgitates via Twitter.
Lots of Links: I love that people share interesting articles and photographs through Twitter. But I don’t love the people who tweet vast quantities of links that contain no description of the link or explanation about why the link is significant to the tweeter. Worse, yet, if they all link to something self-promotional.
Sometimes my Twitter feed is dominated by tweets announcing that so-and-so posted a photo on their Facebook account. I’m sure you can imagine what happens when these they update their Facebook photo albums. You get an individual tweet for every photo that’s added.
Give-aways and Sponsored Tweets: We all want to win prizes. Now, companies and bloggers ask participants to retweet things like, “I just entered _____’s giveaway for a free _____! Retweet to enter.” It’s a clever marketing strategy but I just find these tweets so annoying. Maybe I’d find them less annoying if I actually won something.
Corporate tweets are usually pointless, such as McDonalds asking who’s excited for Halloween or Walmart requesting people to retweet if they plan to visit their local branch to purchase holiday meal supplies. Do sponsored tweets actually move people to click on them to get more information? Do they actually make consumers feel engaged? I think I’m so jaded that I my eyeballs automatically gloss over them.
