Are you guilty of committing a Twitter faux pas? From typos in bios to automated direct messages, these are the gruesome Twitter pet peeves that could irk your profile visitors—and cost you followers.
1. Automated Direct Messages
“Thanks for the follow. Let’s figure out how to work together!”
“Nice to meet you. I offer social media consulting services. Hit me up if you have any questions.”
I could go on and on about the annoying, automated direct messages I get every day (and I’m sure you could, too). If you have these set up, please turn them off. They are rude, irrelevant, and oh-so-obviously automated.
2. Typos in Twitter Bios
If you’re a type A personality like me, typos probably get under your skin. While I can forgive the occasional typo in a tweet, email, or text message (we all get incorrectly auto-corrected on our iPhones, right?), nothing’s worse than a permanent typo in a Twitter bio. All too often, I notice people misuse hyphens, overuse exclamation points, or worse—misspell words—in their Twitter bios. Please, if you only proofread one thing, proofread your Twitter bio. Copy and paste it into Microsoft Word. Have your coworker review it. Whatever you need to do, don’t let typos happen in your bio. It’s a pretty permanent piece of your online presence.
3. Sexy Auto Bots
Ah, yes. The sexy auto bot. Easily identifiable as a profile with a stock photo, bikini-clad young woman and thousands of auto-generated followers but only a few tweets. I cringe every time another young woman in a bikini starts following me.
4. Hacker Automated Direct Messages
Not to be confused with automated direct messages trying to sell me social media consulting services, the hacker auto DM is in a league of its own. No, I don’t want to see the video I was in or the blog where people were talking about me—thank you very much.
5. People Who Use Bots to Get More Followers
These guys are easy to identify. They usually have tweeted less than 50 times and are always promoting links to “systems” that will make you a “millionaire in 30 days.” But somehow, magically, they have over 10,000 followers (and are only on a few lists, too). They tend to identify themselves as “social media experts” with “proven systems for generating links and money” and claim they’re “living the dream.” Guys, give it up. You’re not fooling me—I know you’re full of it, and I’m not going to follow you back.
6. Anyone Who Calls Themselves a Social Media Expert
The people that call themselves “social media experts” are usually the ones that use bots to generate more followers and have auto direct messages set up. Enough said.
7. People Without Profile Pictures
Is your profile picture still the unhatched egg? If so, we all just assume you don’t exist or are too clueless to figure out how to upload a profile picture. Or both.
8. Automated Direct Messages That Sound Like Pick-Up Lines
Ann Handley forwarded me an automated direct message she received that said, “Lets Take This Beyond 140 Characters and Connect on Facebook as well … ” Creepy, much? Oh, yeah, notice the typo in the message, too. For the love of all things awesome on Twitter, please stop the automated direct message spam.
Now, it’s your turn. What’s YOUR biggest Twitter pet peeve?
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Tags: Social Media, Twitter
Oh man, that last one about creepy DMs cracked me up! I haven’t received one of those yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. Also, your quote, “I cringe every time another young woman in a bikini starts following me” makes me cringe too. I’ve had some that have moving pictures as their profile pic – I’ll spare you the details on that though. Great post and so timely with Halloween
The Facebook link he provided Ann was too creepy and weird to mention here. ; )
Megan, I am laughing at this and so thankful you posted this. As a relative newbie to Twitter, it’s hard to know whether to do the auto-reply but since I am all about building relationships, it just felt schmarmy (is that a word!) Loved your comments, great post and great info for anyone who wants to build relationships not numbers.
Thanks so much. Appreciate it. How are you enjoying Twitter?
I think my biggest pet peeve is people who start following you, then stop a few days later if you don’t automatically start following them back. Perhaps I don’t find this follower’s content relevant to my interests, and apparently they aren’t finding mine relevant either, other than as a means of building up a following. So why bother in the first place?
Oy. Good one. I think those folks are using some bot to grow their following, and it automatically unfollows people after a few days.
Great review, and I’m relieved to see I’m not doing any of those things!
The person I hate is the one who retweets others’ Follow Friday lists in hopes that the total strangers in that list will find it “sweet” that the retweeter has acknowledged them, and follow the retweeter back. And frankly, I’m not too fond of Follow Friday, either. Too many tweeters just share lists of people, presumably because they believe them to add value and be worthy of others’ attention, but often it’s really just giving a shout out to their friends. The problem with that is you will always leave someone out, and feelings get hurt. Plus, it makes it hard to tell who really is worth adding to your list and who isn’t.
Love that. Excellent point, Susan.
that is a good one… it is like reading strange characters and I feel like I need a decoder
Thanks for the post. Well said and clever title. It always amazes me that even some well-respected and popular social media and marketing gurus use automated direct messages.
Thanks for this post! As someone who actually does work in social media, the never ending stream of “experts” is annoying. Plus, gives me the difficult job of re-educating clients. Really, it does not matter how many “fans” or “followers” you have. What matters is whether or not those people care what you have to say.
People who still “RT @” instead of just using the “new” (not so much anymore) Retweet button.
I’m guilty of still using RT @—allows me to add some comments to the retweet.
I’m a fan of the “old” retweet format, and I think it’s often far more personal to actually add your two cents for YOUR community.
Also, Megan, I’d have to say that sometimes I’m very grateful that people tell me how much of an expert they are in their profiles. It’s not just the social media gurus, it’s all the renowned experts and world-recognized specialists. They’re doing me a favor by telling me exactly what I’ll get if I follow them — and I almost always choose not to do so.
Fun post!
Amen, Daria.
I see absolutely no positives in the “new” RT format.
The “new” RT doesn’t allow me to add any value by modifying the original, it’s much more like the Facebook “like”, which is a lot less useful.
Oh, and it puts strangers in my stream.
Personally, I never RT anything that’s an RT in the new format.
[...] [toread] Trick or Tweet: Top 8 Twitter Pet Peeves | MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog – [...]
When companies follow you, hoping you will follow them back.
I respectfully disagree with Bryan’s peeve (“When companies follow you, hoping you will follow them back.”). This is one of many channels for companies to find prospects, have a dialogue, and either determine “great, here’s someone I want to continue pursuing), or “no thanks, they are not our target customer.” If anything, it’s better than direct mail. Twitter at least sets up the opportunity for a two-way conversation.
Megan – I couldn’t agree more! I recently started using Twitter (about 2 months ago) for a class project. The direct messages/auto-replies are so impersonal and if I see one more bikini-clad follower … ugh. I was wondering what the purpose of those types of followers were, I figured it was some sort of spam. Is it really that those followers are just trying to get you to click on their “spammy” web site or what? And so some people attract more spam than others?
I’d like to know why they do that, too.
Loved them! I would add this pet peeve. When people that follow you and then a day so later stop following you just because you didn’t follow them back.
Top post, Megan. I’m in agreement with all points but number 3. Twitter is the only place I can get hundreds of bikini-clad young woman following me! My current pet hate is people who don’t thank you for the RT or mention you gave them. I’m not talking about a one off RT, for example, but a person who you regularly mention but has never bothered to engage or thank you. I’m English by the way so any typos in my post are down to the subtle differences between English & US English!
Great post Megan! I agree with all of them and would add one more . . . . tweets that are 100% identical to what was posted on Facebook and/or LinkedIn and/or Google+. If I’m connected to someone in more than one platform, I don’t need to see repeat messages. They’re different mediums, with different etiquette, different audiences, different purposes, different expectations . . . the messaging should be different most of the time. I wrote a recent blog post on this as it’s a pet peeve of mine (http://arthurcatalanello.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/3-reasons-why-you-should-not-auto-synchronize-social-media/)
That’s a major pet peeve for me as well, Arthur! Especially when you’re “friends” with them on fb and you see “RT @companyX Congrats!” as their latest update. Um, wrong social platform there buddy LOL
Andrew: I laughed out loud when I read your comment and shared it with the marketing team here. Too funny.
My biggest Twitter pet peeve is the echo chamber at conferences, when a speaker will say something and then a half-dozen people just immediately Tweet it without adding any original thought or content of their own. Drives me nuts.
Easy … 4Sq Updates … I’ve unfollowed many for that reason alone …
My pet peeve is when people make the same post multiple times a day. Most of the time they are usually within hours of each other.
My biggest Twitter pet peeve is when people abuse hashtags! I don’t mean using a couple relevant ones, I mean the people that use 9 or 10 and 8 of them are the trending topics. STOP IT. I’m using hashtags to find relevant content, arg! I actually wrote an entire blog post about hashtag abuse because I was so ticked!
YES! I’ve encountered every one of these. When I feel I’ve been auto-followed by a spammer, I pseudo-auto-DM them back.
This made me giggle “All too often, I notice people misuse hyphens, overuse exclamation points, or worse—misspell words… Have your coworker review it.”
Depends where you’re from. To ME ‘coworker’ looks like something to do with cows perhaps. What’s a cow orker? To a lot of English speakers you’ve missed out the hyphen in co-worker.
A matter of perspective?
Great article Megan. Mine is people who NEVER RETWEET. It’s like – really? You’re following 2,000 people, and not one of them ever posts anything interesting enough for you to retweet to your followers? Wow, you must be following some boring folks.
Of course, what it really means is these people are just broadcasters – they aren’t paying any attention to the people they are “following.” Why bother (unless it’s an actual news agency or publication) following them back?
When people have a Facebook business page and their tweets are ONLY from their Facebook posts…and, they don’t monitor Twitter at all, just use as a Facebook posting vehicle. Not too social…missed opportunity!
In the vein of the “Social Media Expert” title, you will instantly lose credibility if you refer to yourself as a “Ninja,” in any way, ,shape or form. Whether it’s a marketing ninja, sales ninja, html ninja, or sushi ninja, if you’re a ninja, I’m not taking you seriously.
@Jim: I refer to myself as Online Marketing Ninja because Manager is just boring. :’(
absolutely LOVE, Love, love this list!!! I nodded as I read each and every one.
Too funny!
Those bikini gals keep popping up with their X-rated name or link, forcing me to nonchalantly throw my pashmina over the screen on the train. And I got the “beyond 140″ not once, but twice. Hope it’s not contagious.
By the way, why do so many get “you’re” wrong, as in “your welcome”?
Not having a bio at all. Don’t follow me, or expect me to follow you back, if you have no bio (or photo) – because you’re, well, a nobody! Who want to follow a nobody?
This is a very funny and true article. It is very easy to tell if a social media profile/account is automated. It is even easier to spot with twitter than facebook, because of the privacy that FB has and the the DM with twitter. So if you are properly active with your social media accounts you will know who is a bot and who is the real person you should connect with and follow.
Nice post — got a few chuckles out of it as I’ve also had that bikini clad chick start following me and I cringed too. Ick!
My pet peeve however is profanity in tweets. Totally unprofessional, and as I tell my kids, those people who have to use profanity to name their article, post, seminar or book must lack the language skills to come up with something more witty.
I made the mistake of clicking on a “tweet this post” icon which was meant to RT an article from a very well respected social media marketing blog. The problem was, however, that I forgot to change the title of the article to something that didn’t use profanity for the “self title” in the RT. (And the article was, BTW from one of the top ‘thought leaders’ in social media, well respected in the industry who frankly knows better than to name his book, upcoming seminar and article using profanity.)
I’m a Christian, and don’t swear at all. Most people know this who follow me, “like me”, etc., so I was horrified when this profane article title (even though the content was outstanding) was sent out to my network of people — profanity in the title and all. I’ve certainly heard my fair share of 4 letter words in my life, but come on folks, surely there are better words to name your book, seminar, blog article, etc. especially when you want people to RT it!!!
Morale to that story — I’m much more careful about what I retweet — and if the title contains profanity, guess what…I don’t retweet it no matter how good it is. (Oh, and BTW — I don’t follow that “thought leader” anymore. I can live without the 4 letter “thoughts” in my mind.)
Great article Megan! The whole point of being a part of a social network is to be social, not automated. I’ll be retweeting this article to get the word out. Thanks for writing this list!
Some good observations Megan, obviously based on experience, not just research.
> “If you’re a type A personality like me, typos probably get under your skin.”
It haven’t seen or heard of people being categorised on having a type A or B personality for a long, long time. Is that theory still valid? I just looked it up on Wikipedia and while I have some characteristics of a type A, I’m mainly a type B.
By type A, are you referring to being an aggressive, controlling, deadline-driven multi tasker?