Twitiquette: How not to get unfollowed on Twitter

I like Twitter, it is one of the Social Networking sites that I can be seen on most days, but it never astounds me how many people mis-use it!

Quote from Lensmaster pkmcr (Paul):

Twitter is a way of connecting with other people who share your interests or who might be interested in what you have to say. Please do not view it simply as a source of traffic for your Squidoo Lenses, Blogs or other Websites

Well said Paul!

In the article that introduced this Squidlog series, I said:

“I love birds. I don’t mind being woken by the dawn chorus. But if the same bird sang the same song outside my bedroom window every day and that song consisted of just three notes, that were tweeted over and over and over again, then even this bird lover would probably end up reaching for a 12 bore!”

Yes, I have reached for the 12 bore on a few occasions on Twitter. There’s a difference between promoting a lens and obsessing about it so much that you Tweet the link every hour of your waking moment, for seven days – heck it may have been more than seven days, but I wouldn’t know, I just unfollowed that particular Tweeter. I blocked. I got the Spammer off my Twitter Home Page and out of my life. Sorted!

And that is all you have to do! You don’t have to Tweet messages on Twitter with an underlying meaning, hoping the person will get the hint, you just Unfollow!

And who taught me that?

Squidoo Lensmaster John Dilbeck. It was in answer to a general Tweet I posted about “over tweeting” and what to do about it. John’s excellent advice was:

unfollow

as that is the way the Twitter community moderates itself.

In his lens How to use Twitter Paul also says:

“Twitter is a fantastic way to get more traffic to your blog and build a relationship with your readership.”

“Build a relationship with your readership” – a point missed by many, many people on Twitter!

In his Factor Y Blog, fellow SquidLog Author and Lensmaster Drifter0658 asks the question: “Is promotion a natural act?” and we both agree it is, but Drifter makes the point so brilliantly when he says:

It is a natural act and sometimes the only way that anyone will know anything about what we have to offer, but too much tarnishes the horn we toot from.

But in the case of Twitter you can change “toot” to “tweet”!

How many one sided conversations do you spot every day on Twitter? You know the ones. The people who always Tweet their own links but who NEVER reply to other people’s Tweets and who certainly never promote anyone else. The people who are basically talking at you but who do not have the slightest interest in you or what you might have to say!

Is Twitter just a challenge to see who can get the most followers?

Not in my book! To date I have 405 followers and I follow 351. Do I feel guilty about not following the people who follow me? No, not really. I never asked them to follow me and if they unfollow me, I am not going to get worked up about it.

I regularly unfollow people. The people I have nothing in common with. The people who use profanities (my children are regularly in my den with me doing their homework); the people who Tweet links that make me feel uncomfortable – I am not a prude but don’t appreciate that kind of stuff from people who are actually strangers. Particularly inappropriate links from men who I do not know. Creepy!

So who DO I follow?
Put Squidoo in your Twitter Bio and I am likely to follow you. Add the words “anti-bullying”, “green”, “natural” or “environment” and I may just follow you whether or not “Squidoo” is there. Share interesting links and I will follow you. And if you are Stephen Fry, then of course I will follow you!

Why am I so picky?
Well I want to be able to build a relationship based on common interests not the outside chance that a new follower may just get me more followers, many of whom I don’t really want anyway.

And if you are like me and happy to lose Twitter followers (sometimes), here’s a hilarious blog telling you just how to do exactly that: 30 Surefire ways to lose followers and irritate friends on Twitter – I particularly like #14:

Post lot of useless tweets like, need to go to the restroom, driving on Sierra Nevada, how your cat loves 2 days old noodles, about your tulip plant that died last night or even about how drunk you are right now as you type this tweet.

How to use Twitter on Squidoo

Squidoo provides a tool that enables you to Tweet directly from your Lens. When you Publish, following an editing or updating session, you get this message: “Publish successful!” Some very nifty little links are provided to enable you to let the world know you have updated.

But WHOA!

See that Twitter link? Sorry Squidoo, I love the majority of tools you provide us with, but *gasp* that Twitter link probably results in more irritation on Twitter than any other Squidoo-related stuff!

One way to Tweet a Lens update on Squidoo

Click that Link and what happens? The lens is Tweeted with the very uninspiring message:

I just updated: http://www.squidoo.com/squid_etiquette

Boring! Boring!! BORING!!!

You cannot personalise the Tweet because you don’t even land on Twitter in order to hit the Update button. It is all done automatically.

So my advice is do NOT use that link!

What to do instead? View the lens and use the Twitter shortcut at the top of the page.

The BEST way to Tweet a Lens update on Squidoo

The advantages of using this icon to Tweet your updates are:

1) It takes you to Twitter and you can personalise the Tweet

2) It counts as a Clickthrough – which helps Lensrank

But please, please, please do NOT Tweet if all you did was correct some typos! People will feel they have been tricked into thinking you actually added something of interest.

Paul has some great tips on Twitiquette, so I won’t repeat them here, other than the one about the use of capital letters:

Don’t use all caps in your updates. This is one of those general online etiquette tips that applies to Twitter as well.

My view is to use Caps on just one word with caution. Even if you are doing it to emphasise a point, there is a danger that people won’t think you are Tweeting – they may think you are shouting or your tone of tweet is actually self righteous indignation!

(OK, so perhaps sometimes you might just want to shout…….)

Seth Godin has a brilliant blog post about Righteous Indignation which over recent weeks has helped change my attitude to quite a few things on Squidoo and on Twitter. Seth said:

What if, just like becoming a cannibal or painting your face green, you eliminated righteous indignation as an option in your list of responses to various situations, no matter how unfair? What if the people you work with weren’t permitted to indulge? Just think of how much more you’d get done and how much calmer everything would be.

These days I am opting for calm on Squidoo and Twitter, where I just calmly UNFOLLOW! Oops, did I just use caps then?

Next week I will be talking about Multiple Accounts on Squidoo.

Today, 12 October 2009 I am discussing all manner of Squidoo Etiquette and Netiquette with Kate and Joan on Giant Squid Open Mike at 4pm EST (9pm UK) – hope you will join us!

[ratings]