Finally Joined Twitter? Please PLEASE Don’t Make These Mistakes

Posted on 18. Jan, 2012 by in Marketing

By: Hillel Fuld

This post is long overdue, firstly because I have neglected this site for way too long due to most of my content going here, here, here, and here. More importantly though, this post is overdue because as social media becomes more and more mainstream every day, with some help from Google, more people take the leap and join services like Twitter and Google+.

Every time another friend joins Twitter, I notice they all make the same basic mistakes and I end up spending extended periods of time explaining to them what they did wrong when they ask me why they are not getting millions of followers. I figured, why not get it in writing and send people the link from now on.

Well, if you are new to Twitter, I highly recommend you read this complete Twitter guide I have written on how to get started. It includes tips on what to do, what not to do, who to follow, as well as a comprehensive list of terms you need to know. Now back to our topic…

To be honest, I am well aware that I am going to get yelled at that there is no right way to tweet and that is fine. Everyone is more than welcome to use the platform as they see fit, I am just giving my opinion on how to succeed on Twitter and how to fail miserably. Take it or leave it.

I’m Begging you Not to Beg

I have been building up my Twitter network for close to four years now with close to 100,000 tweets, 21,786 followers, and have been placed on over 1,700 lists. That took me four years of blogging, tweeting, retweeting, and most importantly, replying. Let’s assume for a second that me following you is going to advance your goal of getting a lot of followers for a second, which it won’t, why is that something I should do?

You just joined Twitter, you have no content, and you offer no value to the people I have built a trusting relationship with for four years. Why should I tell them to follow you? Better yet, why should I follow you myself? How about you invest the time that others have invested, interact, engage, and contribute, which will help you build your network organically? Yes, it takes longer, but not only is it the right way of going about this, it will also benefit you in the end because those followers will be people who are truly interested in what you have to say and not people who just clicked the Follow button because someone asked them to.

Spamming Will Get you Nowhere

If you decided to join Twitter, chances are you heard that your favorite celebrity is tweeting day and night and you figured you could get them to interact with you. If that is the case and your Twitter strategy, close this post, then go disable your Twitter account. If you are still reading, chances are you realize why that is a ridiculous and childish way to approach this. You know what else is ridiculous? Using spammy tools to increase followers, sending Auto DMs thanking people for following you and directing them to your Facebook page, and sending the same pitch in 100 consecutive tweets to influencers who you think will drive traffic to your business.


Twitter takes time if you want to see real results. Repeat that sentence to yourself f?i?v?e? ten times. You are going to have to forget everything you heard about Ashton Kutcher and his 700 bazillion followers and do the leg work. That means follow relevant people, create a complete and interesting bio with a profile picture, and start tweeting interesting content. Then reply to people and once you’re done with that, reply some more.

Based on Twtrland, a service I would recommend using regularly, close to 80% of all my tweets are replies. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that for me not to respond to you, you have to say something extremely unintelligent or annoying. I respond to everyone, whether they have 10 followers or 500,000 followers. Is that scalable? Yes, I have been doing it for years and I get over 300 replies a day. You can handle it too.

Trolls Trump Spammers

Honestly, the only thing worse than spammers are trolls. In case you are a normal person and have no idea what an internet troll is, first of all, I am jealous of you, and second of all, let me explain. I cannot explain the psychology behind trolls because every atom in my body tells me never to behave that way, but unfortunately, I have seen way too much trolling lately, I just had to include it.

So what is a troll? A person who has the mistaken impression that if they comment on a blog post and call you a derogatory name or use profanity to express their utter disagreement with your content, that you will engage them and help them get exposure. I must admit, I have to learn from the big guys how not to let trolls get to me. I have yet to succeed. Of course, these trolls do not stick to blogs, they send you nasty comments on Twitter, hoping you will respond in an extreme manner, which will then generate curiosity among your followers, thereby increasing their audience.

Not only does this not work due to technical reasons, it will not in any way help you reach your ultimate goal of building a loyal and captured audience. At best, you will get a few followers that will unfollow you in a matter of days when they notice your pattern of trolling people across the Web. So to summarize in four words… Don’t be a troll!

Final Thoughts

For the sake of keeping this post short (oh, that’s another thing, keep things short and to the point on Twitter), I am going to stop here, but don’t think for a second that there are not other things you need to learn along the way, there are. Many. Try to bring value, offer your own unique content or at least your own take on other’s content. Don’t tweet the same format every single time “New Blog post:<Title>” for example.

But if you take away one thing from this post, remember this. Social media, and Twitter included, is nothing more than a platform to help you communicate. Communicate, not broadcast. What you would do in a real life conversation, you should do on Twitter and more importantly, what you would never do in a real life conversation, please, for the sake of your followers, the platform as a whole, and for yourself, don’t do on Twitter.

Tags: , , , ,

  • Meredith Allison

    You tell em Hilz! Honestly, I thank you for writing this post as I too will be using it to show those who just ‘don’t get it’. I can understand a twitter ‘newbie’ making many of these mistakes, especially the ‘broadcasting’, not that I think for a second that it’s not the most frustrating thing to see, but I will sometimes check back on those followers, weeks/months later, to see if they’ve gotten the hang of twitter. For some it just takes some time to realize their constant broadcasting is getting them nowhere and they do eventually engage (but sadly, more often than not, I’ll return to their page only to see nothing has changed). What amazes me the most is those auto DMs & replies of ‘thank you, let’s connect on Facebook’. What I still just do not get is the fact that I get these tweets from users that are not newbies but are in fact very twitter savvy. I would love to see some kind of data on the ‘success’ rate of those tweets/DMs (not because I ever plan on doing such a thing, but because, as I mentioned, I continue to see this from ‘influential’ users). Apologies for my lengthy comment, I could go on about each thing you’ve listed, as again, it’s a great post to have handy to share with those who ask!

  • mischeiviousgran

    I’ve been twittering for about 3 yrs. To me it’s like having People mag, Newspaper, jokebook, National Geographic, a few friends, favorite movie news, & a place to comment or joke myself. I can choose to follow or follow those I want. I limit myself to about an hour a day so I don’t get hooked. In other words, to me , it is just fun!

  • Joe

    Hmm thanks for the article, I found it really informative. I finally broke down and joined Twitter not long ago (FB and Linked In guy here). The entire dynamic is far different than either site.

    FB = “I had a cheese sandwich for lunch today lol” or LI = “Insert something super profound and industry related here.”

    I figured twitter was nothing more than subscribing to celebrities’ feeds to see what they’re trying to promote today or get one-sided blogger commentary on the day’s events. It’s good to know that I’m expected to engage, and shall do so and see what happens!

    Thanks for the tips.

  • http://21stcenturybusinessentrepreneur.com Patrick Clarke

    A very refreshing article. Thanks for posting it. As you say, social media is about communicating, not broadcasting!

  • http:www.candyspender.com.au Candy

    Thank you for this concise and useful article, I still haven’t figured out the ‘communicating versus broadcasting’ thing on twitter, but I guess I will at some time. I constantly retweet, or quote other’s tweets, with their links, but don’t get much reciprocated I have to say. I try to communicate things which I think will add value to people’s lives, and occasionally I’ll communicate about my latest creations on my fb page and website. I try to be consistent, but I am finding it hard work, I have now just reached the 500 followers, (after about two years) but I’m sure there’s something I could be doing better.
    I hang in because I love twitter, I learn so much! Its fabulous.

  • Anpumon

    -Remember this is open communications.

    You should be very well aware that when you tweet something, this will be sent onto a public and open forum. If you don’t want someone to see something, you shouldn’t post it. But on Twitter, you can hide behind an identity, so you can further keep yourself anonymous – some people prefer nicknames for this very reason.

    Among this, if you’re using your real name on Twitter, if you tweet your geolocation on something like Google Earth, you should not be surprised if someone is able to find where you are – Announcing your real name can be very risky, and announcing your geolocation is worse. If you announce your geolocation and you have a nickname, maybe you can luck out just a bit because they do not know you’re Jane Smith at this location, or John Doe in this state.

    Likewise, be aware that others can see your thoughts too if you’re announcing your thoughts – so if you say you think your boss is a clown, be aware if you use your real name, your boss can see that tweet. This is just like posting pictures of yourself drunk or stoned on FaceBook without considering that your parents can see it, or that people can learn information from you and already know this while talking to you face-to-face.

    Yes, there are hazards of stalkers amongst this, but an instance that happened around 2011 shows that tweeting a geolocation can be risky. One person was being held against his will by his parents last year, so his friends organized a “Rescue” mission, and their friends updated with geolocations not only of where the rescuers were taking their friend, but also where they were and what routes were taking. A few days later, his possessive parents found where he was – it didn’t take long simply because they knew about Twitter and found all the geolocations archived in users’ twitter feeds. While it thankfully does have a happy ending (The person in question has found a job and is away from his possessive parents.), this should send a message that you should not assume you’re the only person who uses Twitter.

    Long story short, be careful what you post, especially if you’re using your real name.

    -Don’t give TMI

    There have been plenty of people joking about how others use Twitter. Such as announcing that they’re using the bathroom, or saying just about everything. Really, we don’t need to hear your bathroom habits. Keep some things private – we’re not your doctors, we don’t need to know what kind of gross medical conditions you’ve developed.

  • http://Website(optional) icon arts

    It is interesting. You will not prompt to me, where I can find more information on this question?

    P.S. Please review Small Web Icons from Iconoman

  • http://www.facebook.com/cormacoc Cormac O Connor

    i have a great Mobile Company for traffic, transit And parking solutions. I will like to send You some information. You like tech!

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner