Annoying Things You Must Never Do on Twitter

never do on twitter

As thrilling and useful as Twitter is, it can nevertheless be a double-edged sword. Twitter is only a tool and while it is an exceptional one with hard to overlook features, it is very easy to misuse it. Obviously, misuse can be applied to any tool, including Facebook and Linkedin, but the fact remains that the negative results can have a huge and often impossible to fix impact on Twitter. In the case of Twitter, there are several things that many people do but that should never be done. This article looks at the most annoying things that you can do on Twitter and that will eventually damage your reputation if you do not stop doing them.

Asking for retweets and followers

Begging for retweets is easily the single worst thing you can do on Twitter and many people keep doing so in spite of people being reluctant to actually listen to them. Simply put, you should never ask for retweets. People will spread on your wise words if your tweets are interesting, and asking them to retweet them will never actually convince someone to do so.

Similarly, you will rapidly lose your existing followers if you spend most of your tweets asking other people to follow you. A simple “Follow me for social media news” in your profile will do the trick as long as you are actually worth following. If you want retweets and followers on Twitter, the safest strategy remains to post interesting things that will lead people to do both.

Posting links only

There are tons of Twitter accounts that regularly post only links, usually through automated means. However, there are also users who use Twitter only to post links. These may be links to different websites which are in no way related to that user, but the fact is that it still comes across as deceitful and thus spammy. People do need to know what a link leads to before even considering clicking on it. While many links can be self-explanatory due to their URLs, many Twitter users will still never bother reading a tweet that contains only a URL.

Addressing three or more people in a single tweet

Although Twitter does gives users the opportunity to address other users in a Tweet using the @ prefix, this does not mean that you should start using it to address everybody and everything. It is completely logical to address one or two persons, but anything more is just asking for trouble. Keep in mind that the number of characters you can include on a Tweet is limited and you will understand the need to keep it simply. In any case, if you do need to address a number of people, it is better to stick to private messages.

Not personalizing your Twitter profile

Just like you would want a website that matches your industry or your corporate image (if any), you want your Twitter profile to be something unique. As such, start personalizing your profile as soon as it is activated and before you get your first follower. Editing your profile involves adding a keyword-rich description, adding your location, changing your profile picture, and having a great background. Changing your background can be more difficult since you do need to be creative and be familiar with image editing software but the simpler route is to hire someone to do it. It does not cost much and is absolutely necessary if you are using Twitter to support a website.

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