I know. It is the current cool thing to be on Twitter and have a gaggle of followers. Or so it seems. We see future value and business use in micro-blogging, however, it is hard to fully interact with 200 - 300 people on a daily basis if all of these people are posting several times a day (or even an hour) spanning a whole host of topics. Many Twitter accounts seem to be a mish-mash and hardly any of the topics tend to be particularly helpful or informative.

I, personally, like to follow people that follow a certain business-oriented style of sharing information. I like reviews of software, discussion about marketing techniques, links to new hardware having time-saving elements, etc. I don't like wading through hundreds of emails about cats, dead batteries, broken shoe laces, stopped up sinks and what's for dinner. I don't follow those types of Twitterers. I don't expect that they would like to follow me either.

It is safe to say that there are 2 clear types of Twitter users. Business-oriented Twitterers and Social Twitterers. Social twitterers are the cat-battery-shoe-sink-dinner crowd and that is fine if that is what they want to do with their time. Basically, any type of interaction is accepted in the groups of a casual, social nature and most twocialites won't care about the "Twins" etiquette list below.

Those who will care about "Twitter Etiquette" are the people that see Twitter as a micro-blogging tool to network and share business information with other like-minded professionals.

I'm sure there are other issues that affect business-oriented choices to follow or not-follow Twitter accounts. I'll be sure to update the list as things arise. In the meantime, cultivate useful Twitter resources and enjoy fruitful tweeting. Be sure to add your "peeves" in the comment section.

Collective results will also be posted as a friendly user-guide list on my blogger blog and also on www.JITweb.com. Thank you!


Follow me on TWITTER! http://www.twitter.com/karendhill
http://www.JITweb.com *~~* http://www.JITseo.com
Also look for Karen D. Hill on Facebook.

Let's Go Through The List of Twitter Sins:

1. Not Monitoring Your List Of Who YOU Follow - We know people like to have "friends" and follow who follows them, but if the group of nice Twitter followers grows into a rude, crude bunch of foul-mouthed, uneducated rogues bent on disruption of constructive exchange of ideas - that will likely result in an UN-follow.
   
   
2. Expecting People To Follow When You Don't Contribute Anything - If one signs up for a Twitter account and expects people to follow just because it is there, then they have got the wrong idea about the community. A Twitterer has to give in order to get. Even if a person is only interested in tweeting personal things, there has to be input and updating. Lack of tweet-substance usually means a No-follow.
   
   
3. Name-Dropping and Expecting Famous People To Follow You - This Twin reverts back to # 2. Celebrities and public figures are already influencing society since they are in the public eye. We as "commoners" don't have that luxury. Famous people follow very few folks because they usually aren't interested in reading anything other than what they write themselves. Call it narcissistic, but it's true. They won't follow you, but you are welcome to hang on their every word if you want to.
   
   If your Tweets are all about "the famous people you follow" and complaining that "this famous person or that famous group won't follow you", then expect that most other people won't follow those kinds of tweets.
   
   
4. Your Bio Is Obviously Fake Or Non-Existent - Take the time to fill out the bio. If folks are tweeting for fun, take the time to let people know your non-business interests through your bio. If people are tweeting for networking, then other networkers will understand from a business-oriented bio that you probably won't fill up their page with tweets about your dog passing gas or how ugly your mother's' new shoes are.
   
   If you are feeling funny and decide to fill out your bio posing as Santa Claus living on Uranus - okay, we get it. You are 11 years old. That is so AOL. Nothing screams "newbie" or "don't follow me because it's not worth it" louder than having an incomplete, fake or blank bio. Automatic NO-follow.
   
   
5. Posers Using Twitter Management Tools - People that are running multiple Twitter accounts and managing them using a tool that allows tweeting without actually signing in to the Twitter site accounts are not usually genuine about what they are doing on Twitter. I don't really have use for this type of duplicity.
   
   Most people that use this type of tool have 15 or 20 Twitter accounts and act like they have a group of people interacting with each other in order to orchestrate an eventual (but daily) sales pitch that directs followers to a certain web site sale, product or service. I have seen posers like this more times than I care to acknowledge. It is sad, and results in an immediate UN-follow.
   
   
6. Smart-alecks And Wise-Guys Should Stick With MySpace - If someone takes the time to ask a question, then one should take the time to answer the question properly. Sometimes, it is better to say nothing at all by not answering. At least if there is no response at all, the instant UN-follow won't happen after sending a smart-aleck, flip response. If people could read minds, they wouldn't have to ask questions. People are generally very busy and won't ask a question unless they really need clarification, particularly on Twitter.
   
   
7. Not Changing The Brown Twitter Avatar - This may seem like a minor thing, but since we are talking about using Twitter under business aspects, the standard avatar should be changed during the time the bio is filled out. Ignoring the personalization of this seemingly- minor thing affects the perception of sincerity using Twitter as a solid networking tool. Ignoring it also causes the NO-follow reflex.
   
   
8. Communicating With Texting - Again, texting is a red flag. Other juveniles might follow and text back but professionals and business people don't follow texting in Twitter. It might be cute and fun to 12 year olds, but business people have other things to do besides trying to decipher texting. People usually exercise NO-follow if tweets in texting-speak exists to begin with and UN-follow if texting starts to creep in to tweets.
   
   
9. Using A Username You Wouldn't Tell Your Mother - It's been more than a decade since the community days of AOL. People are taking their usernames much more seriously. If a person uses a goofy, profane or insulting username on Twitter, the professional community reaction is going to be plain and swift: No-follow.
   
   
10. Update Flooding - Have a concise, important point to make within the 140 allotted characters. If a blog post is imminent, by all means, post a 'Tiny URL" link to a blog post. It is inappropriate to use 10 tweets to make a very long post. The accepted use of Twitter is the premise that the micro-blog will give valuable information in a concise, targeted statement. Detailed information will be linked to.
    
    Very busy executives, business owners, entrepreneurs and small business owners have very little time to digest large amounts of information. That is why Twitter is so valuable. Tweets, when thoughtfully used, can be helpful, informative and efficient. Update flooding is a definite UN-follow and UN-follow can't be performed fast enough if update flooding is a flood of useless statements, flaming or God-forbid, blatent sales pitches.