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There are too many boring articles on the internet about what to do on Twitter, and how to be “relevant” and “engaging”. I’ve been slowly working together a set of my own rules for the people who I follow over the last year, so today, we’re going to look at what NOT to do.
The Rules of Display Pictures
How could so many people manage to get something so simple, so wrong? If I’m following you and find that your picture breaks any one of these rules, there’s a good chance you’re gone.
- Don’t use the Twitter default picture – Survival odds: 10%
How lazy can you get? Your Twitter profile picture is used for absolutely everything, so upload one! There are two types of accounts that don’t bother with display pictures: spammers, and robots. I’m not interested in either. - Don’t use a cheesy smiling picture of yourself in a suit – Survival odds: 30%
There are a few exceptions to this, but for the most part if you’re wearing a suit in your display picture then you’re an “affiliate marketer” or “social media expert” – neither of whom I want to follow. - Don’t use a logo – Survival odds: 50%
I use Twitter because I want to talk to people. Typically people with faces, but I do sometimes make exceptions. What a logo for a profile picture says to me is “I’m a dormant company account, not a real person.”
The Rules of Usernames
- Don’t use underscores – Survival odds: 50%
Do you know how annoying it is to fumble around with the shift and hyphen keys? Seriously. - Don’t use numbers – Survival odds: 30%-70%
The variation in survival rates depends on just how many numbers you use, the fewer the better. Don’t expect me to be replying to you much if I have to try and remember to type @username25356 every time. - Don’t use the fail words – Survival odds: 3%
Allow me to introduce you to the fail words: SEO, PPC, Affiliate, Guru, Feed, Bot, Jobs, Trump, LOL, and of course: Jesus. I’ve yet to meet anyone with any of these in their username who isn’t a worthless spammer.
The Rules of Tweeting
- Don’t tweet the fail words/phrases - Survival odds: 2%
A slightly more extensive list when it comes to tweeting: work at home moms, affiliate marketing, SEO, PPC, Bing, guru, Trump Network, SpyMaster, Twibe, recession, credit crunch, Mafia Family, make money, passive income, Jesus, law of attraction, job opportunity, more followers, social media expert. I don’t think that I really need to explain any of these. - Don’t tweet 5 (or more) times in 1 minute - Survival odds: 5%
I know you think your tweets are important, but when you clog up my entire Tweetdeck and all I can see is your picture repeated everywhere – it means you’re effectively stopping from interacting with anyone BUT you. Nine times out of ten you’re just spamming links anyway. - Don’t tweet all caps, or text-speak – Survival odds: 10%
I’ll forgive you for doing it now and again, but if the overwhelming majority of your tweets are “IM GOIN 2 BUY SUM MILK FRM D SHOP YO!” then it’s game-over. - Don’t use multiple tweets to send an extra-long message – Survival odds: 50%
There’s a 140 character limit for a reason. Once in a while, it’s just not enough, and that’s fine. But as soon as you post 7 tweets in a row trying to tell me something, you start breaking Tweeting Rule number 2. If you have so much to say, write a blog post. - Don’t endlessly promote stuff – Survival odds: 40%
Sure, I like a good link every now and again, but if I wanted nothing but links then I’d use my RSS reader. Try doing a little more talking and replying.
What Did I Miss?
Is there anything I forgot to mention that makes you instantly unfollow someone? Let me know in the comments below!
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That’s pretty solid advice there, John.
I use numbers in my twitter username (@minute44) but that is simply because it’s an integral part of my online identity and the name of my blog for the past three years, not some arbitrary sequence of numbers I appended because my first choice of username was taken.
The text speak and multiple tweet messages points could not be more true. Both of thise things wind me up no end. If you haven’t seen it, my post about rules for good online communication relates, in many ways to this.
Dan
I echo Dan here, it’s a solid article. Not sure about the avatar one though. I use a logo for mine, and because I’m an active user of Twitter people still pay attention to me and I get a regular flow of users.
Have you posted an article similar to this before?
Solid. It is important to note, though, that different people are seeing much different Twitter feeds according to how many folks they follow. Someone who is following 20,000 people can tweet WAY more than 5 times a minute and their tweets will be lost in a sea of others in their feed… whereas if I follow them (I am currently following less than 500) their tweets will dominate my feed.
I was annoyed the first time I followed someone who then tweeted so much that they blocked out the rest of my friends, but now I realize that I had just followed someone on a different tier of interaction. I often tweet once every 10 minutes or so and I’m sure there are some folks for whom that amount of tweeting clogs their feed, and others for whom I’m lucky if one of them shows up at all.
Just a thought.
Nice one, John. Predominantly great advice :)
A list that newbies should be introduced to, for sure. A lot of quick ways to hurt your first Twitter experiences listed there.
You missed an integral one from “The Rules of Display Pictures”, I know you’re a bloke but surely you don’t fall for the “babes in bikini’s”? I’m quite certain 100% of people with babe in a bikini avatars are 50yr old Affiliate marketers, social media experts and SEO professionals.
Great point Eris! There do seem to be more and more of them around lately too.
Thanks for giving these tips. The advice is good to follow. It’s good to market in twitter especially when you don’t look like you’re marketing.
Might add: Hero, Ninja, Rockstar.. to the fail words list :)
Haha, good point!
Excellent piece of advice regarding underscores in usernames! :-)
I had karl_bowers as my username, and I have just noticed an old tweet by a business contact where she had put “karl-bowers” instead of “karl_bowers”, so I never received the message etc.
I have now changed to karlosb72 (as karlbowers, karlosb etc are already taken!).
Many thanks for this John! :-)
thanks for sharing, really important one. and site saving notes.
one doubt – iam using logo in my twitter for my blog,, i have seen many ppl using logos in their profile image, so tell me what to do, i have another account for me, in which i uploaded my photo.
Wow, so the fail words include Jesus but no other religious figures like Buddha, Mohammed, etc. Nice. Way to have prejudice against a specific people group.
Hi Alessandra,
As soon as any Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindis try to force their religion down my throat I will undoubtedly add them to the list too, but in my whole life they’ve never tried that, and Christians always have. On that basis I wouldn’t call it “prejudice” but rather “the truth”.
It’s a shame that a few morons get the whole group a bad name. I’m sure there are annoying and obnoxious people in all religions.
Pretty sure I’ve never tried to Bible-bash you, so there are some Christians about who can just behave like “normal” people ;)
I only use an avatar because I don’t want to put people off their food. Actually, I started using it before I learn’t about personal branding and have been thinking about changing it, but also know it can be hard to re-brand.
Ive always been against using numbers in “handles” or “usernames” it just comes across lazy.
I try and keep my tweets fairly short, especially if im retweeting a valuable post with a link. And, if I tweet my own blog post so people can retweet it easy.
That’s what I sent a few minutes ago to BitRebels … and thanks for your valueable tips
“A while ago I read Diana’s interview with John O’Nolan and went on to read his Twitter Rules
http://bit.ly/27I8JI. It was interesting to compare your experience, Misty, and his. In “The Rules of Tweeting” #5 he writes: “Don’t endlessly promote stuff – Survival odds: 40%
Sure, I like a good link every now and again, but if I wanted nothing but links then I’d use my RSS reader. Try doing a little more talking and replying.” This is what I’d like to address to Richard, whom I like & follow cause he follows me ;-) How about doing a little more talking … :-) “
You forgot the “Twitter after dark” pics, usually featuring either obese nude women in what are supposed to be seductive poses OR unattractive women revealing their untrimmed pubic areas and what not. The pics are usually RT’d to no end. Prompt unfollow for that one!