How to Not Be a Twidiot - 4 Twitter Personas to Avoid
July 7, 2010 by
Adam
Filed under
Business, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Social Media
Do you have a Twitter account for your business? If you said yes, good for you! Twitter is an outstanding tool to connect with customers, drive traffic to your site, meet colleagues and industry experts, and much more. In fact, when used properly, you can get more mileage out of Twitter than many paid marketing methods. It’s that “when used properly” part that too often trips people up. The only thing more surprising than the number of businesses not taking full advantage of this fantastic - FREE - tool, is the number of businesses doing it completely wrong. Some businesses just need a little tweaking to perfect their Twitter efforts and really make them pay off. And that makes sense. Twitter isn’t something we’re born knowing how to master, and there is somewhat of a science/art to really getting it right. On the other hand, some people are just Twidiots. And while we’re sure none of our readers fall into this category, below is a rundown of four Twitter personas to avoid if you want your Twitter account to do you any good at all.
The Unfocused Aggregator
There are people who have made a living by being aggregators. These are the accounts like @mashable and @Alltop who simply find articles, blog posts and interesting stuff out on the web and post it on their Twitter feed. There isn’t necessarily a common theme or focus, and there doesn’t have to be - it’s what we expect from them - it’s their job. On the other hand, there are Twitter users who claim to be consultants, bloggers, or “experts” in a particular area, and all they do is re-tweet other people’s stuff - with no particular focus. A tweet of an article on saving the whales will be followed by a link to a recipe for ice cream and another tweet about making money in affiliate programs. While it’s important to “mix it up” a bit and sometimes re-tweet relevant content, if you have a business, you ought to have something to say beyond just re-broadcasting other people’s stuff.
The Ghost
Perhaps the most perplexing persona out there is the ghost. What’s amazing is that some of these accounts with no bio and few or no tweets at all have thousands of followers. An argument against the auto-followback perhaps.
The Deadbeat
You’re busy. We know that. But if you’re going to have a Twitter account at all, you might want to tweet something out more often than every few months. Twitter works when you work it. The great thing is that with tools like HootSuite, Ping.fm, and CoTweet, you can automate a certain amount of the process, so you don’t get stuck for hours a day making it work. In fact, an hour or so per week is all it really has to take, so there really is no excuse for not capitalizing on Twitter’s potential.
The Self-Centered Seller
Want to appear obnoxious and really turn off your followers? Take on the persona of the self-centered seller. Like a cheesy, pushy salesman at a networking event, this Twitter amateur only talks about himself and is only interested in pushing whatever he has to sell on whoever happens to be listening. These people absolutely do not understand what Twitter is all about. With no interest in building relationships or adding substance to the conversation, their Twitter feeds are broken records of “Click my link and buy my stuff” over and over and over. It’s not only unprofessional and obnoxious, but it doesn’t work, so it’s pointless.
There are a few other personas that don’t work well on Twitter, but these are some of the most common. What really works is having the desire to connect and build relationships. If that’s in your mind while creating your Twitter persona, you can’t go wrong. What has worked - or not worked - for you? Share with everyone in the comments!
Here’s 2 more twidiots:
1. The nano-blogger: The business that has to blog about what they are doing every second of the day:
“Buying ink cartridges is a pain”
“Hoping our product will launch on time. Working on it right now”
“Almost done working on our next release. So much work”
2. The get rich overnight blogger
“Buy from me and I promise 100% that you will be rich by the end of the month”
“Make a $1000 dollars this week”
I can’t stand people who send dozens of tweets within a one minute window, crowding everybody else out of my timeline. I unfollow them.
Yes it is easy to hurt your reputation through twitter instead of helping it. If you are going to use it, you have to put the effort in to do it right.
Some great additions above! Very funny. The other one I love is the person offering a tool that promises to get you 5000 followers in 3 days, and they only have 200 followers themselves!
I don’t know if being a nano-blogger is a bad thing.. Isn’t that what Twitter was founded to do?
@Aaron - I know what you mean.. those affiliate marketers are really killing the Twitter scene.
In my opinion, the self-centered seller is the most annoying by far. You could just delete the ghost.
For me the most annoying is the self-centered too. But the ghost…..come on.
I still haven’t caught on to the whole Twitter universe, I use Facebook quite a bit these days, but am just unsure of the benefits of Twitter still….
Thks for your twitter lesson. I have met a lot of those self centered people on twitter and it really piss me on sometime.
I never really used Twitter that much but thanks for the tips on how to use Twitter correctly. Im sure if you are these personas its a turn off to your followers and you wont get much out of it.
This is 90% of all Twitter users you are talking about lol
@viral - sad to say Twitter has failed on this. They don’t care even with these problems.
Now that I think about it’s these exact personas that have kept me from getting into twitter. I just can’t be bothered to wade through the junk tweets.
Twitter isn’t for everyone. That’s not to say it can’t work for everyone, because it definitely can, if you want to take the time to do it right. One nice thing is that there’s really no reason any of these personas should affect you at all. You only see the tweets of the people you follow, so if you’re selective about who you follow, you only get the content you’re interested in seeing.
Also, Twitter has taken steps to reduce spam and has committed to continue to do that, so I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to say they don’t care.
Just my two cents. Thanks for all the comments!
I tweet for my specialty cake business and find myself becoming a little sales-oriented. If I remove this persona entirely, how could I market or gain orders? How else could I engage my followers and turn them into customers?
the get rich over night blogger is the most annoying to me. The promises they make are amazing and there is always another get rich quick scheme they have up their sleeves.
@Nannette: Great question. An effective Twitter strategy does include some self promotion. There’s nothing wrong with tweeting a link to your site or something about your business. You’ll read people advising anywhere from a 3:1 to a 12:1 ratio of other tweets to a self-promotion tweet. The truth is there is no perfect formula. I looked at your Twitter feed, and in my opinion you have a great mix of retweets, tweets about your business, and personal tweets. Social media is about being you, and it looks like you’re doing that really well. So don’t sweat it!
I always received requests from ghosts. Twitter should banned this accounts after some time.
A thought provoking article. I see a lot of # 4 way too often. The level of self absorption is incomprehensible to me.
I’m just starting to get serious about Twitter and this article was helpful.
Thanks
I have been really trying to get the Twitter thing going…
Still don’t get it…and there are so many teens on it that I found myself spending hours getting no where on Twitter….
I need to see the Light
I have tried twitter a lot and a lot means a lot. I did not work for me. Though these days I dont think so anything is working for me. Hard days!!
On every Social Networking sites you will find such people.They are really making a mock of these communities.They are not very different from spammers who are forcing their ad on social networking sites.They are desperate sellers looking to get some customers for their product.On Twitter thankfully,I have not met such people but I have faced these type of people on other Blogging communities.
Twitter can be very powerful, but as you lined out very well, there are some nasty errors everyone should avoid. I don’t think updating just a few times a month is bad, I hate it if people tweet like 15 times every hour, but the self centered seller is definitely the worsrt approach. It’s all about trust and tweets with some value for the follower.
Yeah I definitely think there are alot of marketers out there who are misusing Twitter alot. But at the same time, sometimes it can be good that they make that mistake, and if they are really smart/good they will catch on to their mistake and become better as a result. I’ve seen people who were “Twidiot’s” as you put, and have done a complete 360 with their twitter accounts!
Till then,
Jean
You are right about retweeting the same stuff. Many times we see the same tweet from different users and it looks annoying.
Is it ‘wrong’ or rude to be simply a follower? I like how my Twitter account acts like a news filter for things I want to focus on so I don’t have to wade through a bunch of the uninteresting noise found in most websites. My business does not need a marketing component.
@Chedderman: That’s a great question! In my opinion, it’s not wrong or rude. You won’t get a lot of followers if you’re not posting updates, but it sounds like that’s not important to you, so you’re golden. (I’ve never heard of a business that doesn’t need a marketing component. What do you do?)