If you’re new to Twitter or been on it for a while and wonder what will kill any social media strategy you may have involving the 140-character service think about this: It may be that you’re committing one of the seven deadly sins of Twitter!
Anger: How often do you see people saying something out of anger on Twitter and you just know they will regret it? If you are feeling angry go for a walk or find a punching bag and leave Twitter out of it.
Greed: This shows up when tweeps are greedy with others’ time (tweeting too much in too short a time) or following too many people in hopes that some will follow back and build their follower numbers. The old saying that "the more you want something, the more it eludes you" is true on Twitter too!
Laziness: People who auto-tweet and don’t engage (respond to questions and/or thank others’ kindness on Twitter) are usually easy to spot … and as a result they do not build communities of value.
Pride: Words on a screen can so easily be misinterpreted without the visual or audio cues we get from other forms of communication. Tweeps who fly off the handle at a perceived slight are victims of pride and likely revealing a lot more about themselves than they realize. If you always assume good intent until undeniable evidence to the contrary you will do fine on Twitter.
Desire: This manifests itself in Twitter users who are too anxious to achieve their goals on the network and spend a lot of time pursuing them oblivious to what is happening around them on Twitter. This narcissism is rarely rewarded.
Envy: This is one of the ugliest sins and shows up when a Tweep decides to use Twitter to tear down another Tweep (usually someone with more standing on the network). If you’re turning green with envy over how well others are doing on Twitter learn from them – don’t attack them.
Voracity: The "voracious" Tweep is that person who retweets (RTs) and comments indiscriminately – usually dozens of times in a short time period. For 10-30 minutes at a time Twitter is, in their minds, all about them.
So, does this list capture the main sins of Twitter? I’m sure there are others you’ve seen if you’ve been in social media for any length of time. Please share them here I’d love to write a follow up post on this.
The 7 Deadly Sins on Twitter
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Courtney Hunt said:
This is a clever treatment of an important concern - Twitter abuse! The post and the comments offer a nice complement to the ideas I laid out in a "Twitter Worst Practices" post earlier this year. Please feel free to add a comment there linking back to this post.
http://tiny.cc/SMinOrgsTwitterPost
Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD
Founder, Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community
Founder, Global Center for Digital Era Leadership (GCDEL)
MelsAttic said:
Thank you for this! I'm having trouble getting the hang of Twitter, so these tips are greatly appreciated!!!
Cori Glover said:
Super article! I've just started engaging in the 'Twitter' world so I'm still learning. Thank goodness I haven't sinned! (I don't think!) Funny tho, I have already noticed each of the things you've mentioned. At first, I was following everyone that followed me because I thought it was the 'polite' thing to do. It didn't take me long to unfollow. Their tweets were either all about selling their service or product or simply of no interest. Since I am new in my career, I chose to follow those whom I thought I could learn things from. I hope this isn't bad! As I have learned something or come across something interesting, I in turn tweet for others. From time to time I tweet something simply personal too just because I think it's nice to show a personal side. Again, great article! I twittered it :)
Anonymous said:
Personally, don't agree that you should be playing "Moses" and laying down the law.
IMHO social media of all kinds is open to new ideas and new approaches to free speech and by pontificating sends a chilling effect on what otherwise is a Hyde Park of ideas and thoughts.
tc
Amy Turner said:
Biggest pet peeve: When someone is mentioned in a #FollowFriday (#FF) and they RETWEET it to their followers (who are, duh, already following them). It fits into the 'pride' category.
Second biggest: When you manually put "RT" then quote the tweet THEN answer at the end of the original tweet... without a barrier as to what you're talking about.
Example:
BAD:
RT @john_smith It's a beautiful day outside. I think I will take a walk.
GOOD:
I think I will take a walk. | RT @john_smith It's a beautiful day outside.
ScifiAliens said:
Then there's the misdirect, where the profile gives the person's professional or semi-professional interests/attributes--but their Tweets overflow with irrelevant (or worse, outright boring) everyday stuff. Sure, we want to know something about them but it's easy to overdo it, especially when they run out of clever ideas. It's better to post fewer Tweets than something that causes people to unfollow.
Mike Johansson said:
Debra - great additions! I especially appreciate the name "Twitter pokes" since I see this behavior daily. And I'm very glad that getting this out of your system made you feel better. Thank you again!
MarketMeSuite said:
Great post!
I agree - envy is probably the worst one. Trying to tear other people down to build yourself up is rarely rewarded by Karma ;)
~Tammy, CEO @MarketMeSuite
Debra Russell said:
Additional Sins IMHO:
Pride - thinking you're too famous to follow back (Conan, come on!)
Self-aggrandizement - tweeting other people's awesome quotes, with no attribution - as if you said that really wise thing.
Complete self-absorption - me, me, it's all about me! Listen to my music! Hey, follow me!
Stupidity - Oh, wow, aren't my shoes awesome? Look, I'm eating at Dennies. Oh, my kittie did the cutest thing - here, kitty.... - boring!
Twitter pokes - following people and immediately unfollowing them - hoping they won't notice or have autofollow on - and will follow you back without noticing you've already unfollowed them.
Selfishness (or cliquish behavior) - protecting your tweets. Really, are you saying stuff that is so personal? Why would you do that on Twitter, anyway. Why even bother being on Twitter if you're not willing to participate in the public conversation? Just go be on Facebook.
Just plain rudeness - Look - if someone does you the favor of RT, #FF, or S/O to their followers about you - you must say thank you! It's a gift - a gift of exposure to all the people following them. Even if they only have 5 followers - they are probably 5 folks who have NEVER heard of you until now! You have GOT to say thank you in the public stream (which also exposes your followers to them - paying them back, in kind!)
Phew - I feel so much better now!
Mike Johansson said:
Thanks Stephanie! I guess we can only hope that short of an apocalypse of Biblical proportions those who abuse social media will just have to be slowly weeded out by attrition.
Steph Parker said:
This is great! I wrote a post not too long ago about the "7 Deadly Sins of Social Media" and it seems like you and I are both frustrated by the same patterns of social media behavior. I think people forget that just because Twitter lets them post whatever (and however) they want, doesn't mean they should. Nice list!
Anonymous said:
How about this one: Tagging another user at the end of every one of your posts because you want that person to read your tweets. I called it a "forced follow."
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