Becoming a TwitterQuitter
60% of new users leave Twitter within the first month. This is no big surprise, because Twitter doesn’t make sense at first: it’s hard to understand the point. A lot of folks think everyone is posting inane comments to their friends, like: “I just ate and enormous bowl of broccoli!” or whatever. But that isn’t the point. Nowadays, Twitter offers you a chance to connect to valuable information and potential clients. You won’t realize this at first, because it takes a while to build the community, so give yourself a bit to figure it out.
Diving in as a HyperTweeter
Overtweeting is a little like talking too much: it’s annoying. If you update a few times every hour all day long, you’re likely to get unfollowed. This happens to big-shots and insignificant persons too; people just don’t want to read all those posts from you. Unless, of course, they are really important, interesting or relevant tweets. So be honest with yourself: do you really have more than 5-6 worthwhile Tweets a day?
Looking Like a Hashtag Spammer
Hashtags (#) can be very useful if you’re interested in a particular subject and you want to contribute to the trend. They are especially popular at conferences or events to help people connect. However, if you overdo them, you’re overdoing it. For example, don’t use #hashtags in every #Tweet, or every other #word. It’s hard to read and useless for others. One significant hashtag every once in awhile is probably sufficient.
Hiding Behind a Blank Square
It’s pretty easy to add a picture to your Twitter account, and nothing says “I don’t know what the story is here” as much as a standard icon. Add a picture or a logo. And add your bio. Don’t be a stranger to the community, or it’ll be a stranger to you.
Novice Tweeters often get flustered as they enter the field of Twitter, since it’s easy to trip over unexpected no-no’s in foreign and unexplored territory. Luckily, you do not need to move forward alone; you can go armed with advice. If you want to get a really good sense for the ins-and-outs of Twitter, check out the how-to guide at Practical Social Media.
