One of the first questions most Twitter newbies ask is, “How will I get people to connect with me?” In general, the Twitter crowd tends to be a pretty sociable bunch. After all, they wouldn’t be using Twitter if they weren’t looking to connect with other users. If you share value-added content and make an honest attempt to build relationships, you can expect that other Twitter users will engage with you.
The more important issue to consider is how to avoid the pitfalls that will tarnish your online reputation. There are certain behaviors that are almost guaranteed to instantly destroy your Twitter cred.
Here is a list of common reasons why people won’t engage with you:
1. You have no @replies in your list of recent updates. Twitter is a two-way communication medium and is meant to be used as such. If you’re not making an attempt to connect with other users, you’re missing out on the community aspect of this online platform. If you don’t reach out to others, no one will reach out to you.
2. You mass follow other users and then unfollow them once they follow you back. Twitter is not a numbers game. Who cares if you’re only following 100 people but have 1,000 people following you? The real value of Twitter can only be realized when you use it to establish an ongoing dialogue with key audiences. If you exhibit a complete disregard for the relationship-building function of Twitter, you’re unlikely to find many new users who care to connect with you.
3. You abuse the use of hashtags. Hashtags are used to designate a tweet as belonging to a certain discussion topic. Use hashtags only when appropriate and don’t abuse them. A furniture company that tried to link a promotion to the Iran protests learned this lesson the hard way.
4. You have not uploaded a profile photo and filled out your bio. Skip this step in your Twitter registration and you’ve already lost credibility. If you refuse to invest the few seconds it takes to upload a photo, users will question how serious you are about using Twitter over the long term. Also, users want to know a little bit about you. Usually, the first thing I do when I consider following someone is look at the photo and read the bio. If that information is absent, I don’t even waste my time reading any of the user’s tweets.
5. You use a silly Twitter ID. A comical username might sound cool in your fantasy football league but won’t do much to boost your credibility on Twitter. If you want to be taken seriously, choose a professional username. Usually, your real name will work just fine. For example, my Twitter ID is @ScottJuba
6. You actually answer the question, “What are you doing?” I know posting tweets to this question is what Twitter asks you to do. Let’s be honest, though. People are going to care a lot more about users who share insight about topics of interest than they do about users who broadcast what they just ate for lunch. Don’t get me wrong. I agree that it’s important to share your personality and your interests. Just be selective about what details you share, and don’t go overboard.
7. You include promises in your bio such as, “I’ll help you make money online.” Nobody with any common sense is going to be enticed to follow someone who makes this type of claim. You’ll simply be ignored and come off sounding like a scam artist.
8. You post so many tweets that you become annoying. You want to remain involved and interactive on Twitter, but take that to the extreme, and users will avoid following you. This will be especially true for your followers who don’t use an external client, such as Tweetdeck, that allows them to segment the tweets they receive.
Avoid these pitfalls, and you’re already on your way to becoming a model Twitter citizen.
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