We've all seen them, known them, unfollowed them, maybe even are them. This is by no means a comprehensive list (and by all means a rant), but here are some of the top Twitter characters who I will certainly not follow.

1. The one who sends Auto DMs

Unfortunately, this is one of the most common ones. To me, Twitter is one of the best ways to humanize your online presence, whether you are a brand or a person. If I follow you and then immediately get a Direct Message letting me know that I can check out your website or Facebook page, that's an automatic unfollow. If you want to engage with me, send me a tweet. Twitter is for conversing, not spamming your followers with other self promotional links via DM.

2. The hashtag freak

First off, if your bio looks like this, I will not follow you: 

#seo #socialmedia #curation #pr #marketing #blogger 
#mommy #foodie #loves #sushi #fitness #yoga

This tells me nothing about you and/or your personality other than the fact that you love the "pound key" and are probably just looking for new followers to build your numbers anyway.

The second subcategory of this one is that guy who tweets #more #hashtags #than #words in every single tweet. No, turning every other word of your sentence into a hashtag is not going to help you in any way, unless your idea of success is looking spammy and like you don't know the first thing about hashtags.

3. The one who feeds their timeline with links/articles without any commentary or conversation
The only thing this tells me about you is that you know how to click a "Tweet This" button and perhaps how to use Buffer or Hootsuite. I follow people on Twitter to cut through the noise of the Internet, not to have a timeline filled with random articles shared with no insight, value or conversation.

4. The one who spends way more time than necessary clarifying that his tweets are his opinions and they are his
Yes, I understand that the things you're tweeting under the handle @yourname and the profile that says Your Name at the top are things coming from your brain. 

I do, however, approve of facetious claims like "RT's mean I'm flirting with you." or "all views are in fact the views of my employer."

5. The one who pays way too much attention to his "ratio"
I once had a "Twitter friend" who, after he had racked up a couple thousand followers, decided to unfollow all but 20 of them. Great, you have tons of follows that aren't follow-backs, but what does that say about you? You probably don't engage much, and are thinking way too much about looking cool on the Internet, which, let's face it, we're all nerds here...

6. The "Negative Nancy"
Sometimes, I have a bad day. I have an awful experience at a restaurant, forget things at home, hate a product I just bought. We all do. That said, there's enough negativity in this world to last every citizen of Earth for the rest of his/her life, we don't need your constant tweets reminding us how horrible everything is.

7. The one without an avatar
Why don't you have an avatar? There's nothing less personal/engaging than seeing an egg come up in my feed. Also, I don't trust people with animated avatars. I don't know why. I just don't.

8. The one with a "profound" quote as his bio
A bio explains who you are, what you do, and a little about your personality. As much as you love that Ghandi quote, save it for your blog and instead let me know who I'm connecting with.

9. The one who asks for follows
As a community manager, I'm a firm advocate of the philosophy that follows mean nothing if you don't have engagement. I could have 30,000 followers, but if I tweet a question and get one response, that is not engagement. Like I mentioned before, Twitter is for interacting. I will follow you because of the value you bring to me via content, conversation, etc. Plus, once you reach your "mission to a million followers" and don't have to ask anymore, what will you even tweet about?

10. The one who doesn't engage
Yes, this is kind of a repeat. That's beacuse it's the most important. The purpose of Twitter is not solely to broadcast. Yes, it is valuable for sharing information that you find relevant, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't engage with your Twitter community. This goes for both brands and people. It's not hard to find content around the web these days, and having it fed to me without any context or conversation in a place where that's expected is not appealing. Converse, engage, and interact! Who knows who you might meet...


What are your Twitter pet peeves?
1/25/2013 03:59:20 pm

Great list! If I had to write such a list it would probably have been almost identical. Here are my adds:
1. If you're going to Auto DM me with a question, at least write back if I actually reply. Duh.
2. Don't ask questions in Tweets if you aren't interested in engaging with replies (I know it sounds like #1, but it's a tad different.
3. Tweeting 7x in a row. Please, no. Please, go.
4. Tweeting out links to articles you've never read and aren't then prepared to talk about.
5. Only automatons. Let's mix some organic tweets with those automated ones.
6. Now this one may be controversial, but I don't believe in thanking each and every account that follows you.
So, there's my pick 6. Thanks for the stimulating post!

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1/26/2013 01:47:51 am

Thanks Michael!
I completely agree with your add-ons, especially #3! I also agree with the last one, I've never been one to do that. I suppose if you want to engage someone immediately, then it's a cool thing to do to make them feel welcomed and noticed, but it definitely isn't necessary for everyone.
Thanks again for reading!

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