How to Not Be a Twidiot – 4 Twitter Personas to Avoid

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!