10 Reasons I won’t follow you on Twitter

There are probably hundreds more, but …

There are probably dozens if not hundreds of reasons some people on Twitter won’t follow others. Here are my Top 10 reasons.

I won’t follow you if …

1. You don’t have a bio: There may be a good reason, but I can’t imagine what it is. It takes 30 seconds to say something about who you are. The same thing goes if you don’t have a geographic location. It does not need to be specific: city and state or city and country will do just fine. Of course, if you have something to hide … that too is reason enough not to follow you.

2. You don’t have an avatar: The Twitter "egg" avatar just tells the world you haven’t made the time to get a small picture or symbol out there … or maybe you have something to hide.

3. You have been on Twitter for less than a month: Unless I can see a history of activity stretching back at least a month I suspect all Twitter accounts to have a.) hidden agendas or b.) be the accounts of people not fully committed to being part of the Twitter community … yet. I’ve been told this is hard on newbies, but I know from experience that too many newbies set up an account, tweet a few times and then go silent. (Of course if I know you in real life, that's different.)

4. You don’t tweet at least once per day: You don’t have to tweet every day, but if you’re only tweeting once or twice a week the chances are I will miss your tweets and we really won’t interact at all. So why bother?

5. You have nothing to say or share: We’ve all seen the accounts where people build large follower numbers and in three months on Twitter have only tweeted a few dozen times to let the world know “It’s raining here now” or “Just made a PBJ sandwich.” Really? Is this adding value to anyone? Yourself included?

6. You follow way more people than follow you: You may not be a creeper. You may just be desperate to build a large online following. Either way you scare me.

7. Your Profile reveals you are mostly there to sell: I get stuff pushed on me in plenty of other ways. I don’t need Twitter to feel like a selling channel.

8. Your tweet history is full of self-promotional words or links: If “you” are all about “you” and the things “you” want to sell or promote, then “you” clearly missed the memo that Twitter is supposed to be a “social” medium. “You” don’t need me to follow “you.” All “you” really need is a mirror so you can admire the view. See Commandment No. 1 in 10 Commandments for Social Media

9. You are promoting porn, gambling or other vices: ‘Nuff said. If I wanted this stuff I’m pretty sure I could find it on my own.

10. You are a business and only ever tweet about the business: As much as you love your business and think everybody else should too, I’m sorry I just don’t care. Having said that, I will admit to connecting with social causes and the organizations that support them. That at least seems more in the spirit of social media.


Related posts:
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
What Twitter isn’t
10 Commandments for Social Media

Social Media expertise is hard to find

Beware of people claiming to be experts and offering dubious training

It seems a day doesn’t go by when there isn’t an email solicitation, a tweet or a Facebook status update offering the services of “a Social Media expert,” “a Social media guru” or “a Social Media marketing authority.” But who are these people?

With the notable exception of a few universities and some fairly new institutes and academies there is not a lot of professional teaching of Social Media going on. So how is a business or individual to decide which “expert” to hire?

In Microgeist’s excellent blog post What a Social Media Expert Should Be explains that a Social Media Expert, SME, will likely need to be well-versed in (among other things) the wide range of Social Media tools, the correct way to use each of these tools, a broad knowledge of trends in the rapidly changing world of SM and be able to offer a wide variety of options for any given client.

But there is more to consider … and it really is more about the SME’s approach to Social Media.

A flyer I recently saw promised that in less than a day a particular seminar would teach participants how to “gain the competitive edge in Social Media” and “position yourself as an expert.” It goes on to say that in just a few hours seminar participants will learn to “leverage the power of Social Media marketing to grow your business.”

This seems counterintuitive because Social Media is about:

· Being social, not being a marketer or a salesperson.

· Helping others, not gaining a competitive edge (presumably at the expense of someone else – a decidedly anti-social approach)

· Growing your relationships, not growing your own self-interest (business and otherwise).

Yes, Social Media is a powerful new tool for connecting with others. And it will by its nature allow relationships to sometimes lead to commerce. But when someone offers a seminar lasting a few hours and promises to make you an expert and show you the “secret” of using Social Media to grow a business … be careful.

Many of these people are well-intentioned, but some are just in it to make money and grow their reputations. Before spending your hard-earned cash here are

5 Questions to Ask Any Prospective Teacher of Social Media:

1. What are your credentials to teach Social Media?

2. How long have you been in Social Media? (And where can I find you in Social Media – which platforms?)

3. How successful have your past seminar participants been?

4. Among past students who recommends you and where can I contact them?

5. What is the potential for follow up once the course/seminar is over? (Will the instructor be available for further consultation?)

An unsatisfactory answer to any of these questions should be your first red flag that you are dealing with someone who wants your money more than your Social Media success.

Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness

1. Add value to others’ lives. This is the Golden Rule of Twitter.

2. Don’t ask for anything. Or at least don’t ask 99.9 percent of the time.

3. Use RT (Re Tweet) label. Taking someone else’s tweet and then tweeting it as though it were your information, in a sense, is stealing. Be original. There is no shame in a RT. Without people doing this some content would not get very far.

4. Thank people … often. Thank them for following you. Thank them for RT-ing you. Thank them for including you on a #FollowFriday list. Thank them for a great tweet.

5. If you reply, mention what you are replying to. “Great tweet” is meaningless response if the person you are getting back to has had more than a single tweet in the past week.

6. Use Direct Message for anything that is less than positive.

7. Only use Reply if you think your followers will care about your reply.

8. Do not use an auto responder or an auto follow bot. It sends the message that your fellow Twitterers are just numbers and not that important to you.

9. Play nice. It seems so obvious, but if you anything you say on Twitter can be misconstrued (where a lot of visual clues are missing) – it will be.

10. Be you. Being genuine in all your Twitter dealings will, over time, set you apart from those who are these just to get an audience, just to sell something or just to be annoying.

Further reading:
10 Commandments for Social Media
Social Media disasters