For newer Twits, it may very well be. For those of us who were “early adopters”, we’ve got clearly different experiences. I remember Twitter before every television show and celebrity and news station had a Twitter account. Before every business went to crazy lengths to get followers. And before it became a place over-run with teenagers Tweeting about crazy sexual stuff. I remember when it was truly a networking place between colleagues, old and new. It was fun to go and see what some of the people I look up to in my field were reading or writing or talking about.

My personal feeling? There’s lots of clutter in Twitter these days. People who follow you in hopes of you following them back so they can increase their follower count, only to unfollow you if you don’t reciprocate, or once they’ve got you following them.

What do you think? Vote, and then discuss your answer in the comments!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Poll & Discussion: Is Twitter Still Awesome?

With Twitter implementing the new “report for spam” button that has been buzzing as a trending topic around the Twittersphere this article is right on time. Stalkers beware: Twitter isn’t therapy it will only increase the number of people you’re following.

After reading below you will understand that the first step to improving your Twitter behavior is to admit that you have a problem and slim down on the people you’re following.

Here’s 5 reasons why Twitter builds a healthy appetite for stalking:

1. It encourages you to follow people you are already clearly obsessed with. Early warning signs of a stalker to be.

2. It gets fans one step closer to celebrities & high profile internet entrepreneurs. Twitter has to be the only social network that celebrities actually use themselves… at least that what appears to be going on behind these famous Twitter handles.

3. Service is down just as much as it is available. It goes down (very often) without notice and forces you to find other ways to keep up with the people you stalk follow.

4. The fact that you have to constantly type in the person your @mentioning creates a recurring cycle in your brain of repetition of the person you’re stalking following on Twitter.

5. Last but not least. After so many @mentions and DM’s to the stalkee with no signs of them knowing you exist it forces the follower/stalker to find other means of getting the stalkee to acknowledge there 140 characters of Twitter love. That’s where the All NEW “report @insertstalkername for spam” will come in use.

Make sure you read over the above reasons and make sure you’re not at fault or showing early warning signs of becoming an e-stalker. If all else fails we know who to blame. Hint: Tweet-Tweet.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 Reasons Twitter Creates Stalkers

So you have a twitter account and you think it’s a better read than Dan Brown’s new novel ‘The Lost Symbol’ but unlike Dan Brown’s 100 million plus loyal followers you have 33 and want 666. What do you do?

Applying this simple Angels and Demons Guide to Good Twitter etiquette will help you get and keep those followers you deserve!

Angels:

• Write interesting tweets. People read The Da Vinci Code because it was a gripping yarn. Tell people how you took down the Illuminati. No one cares what you ate for breakfast or that the library had that book you wanted.
• Angels link to things that are useful. Dan Brown is always giving the reader the facts with a twist. Angels who link to useful information are sharing the love and make their halos bigger…
• Remind your readers who you are. Dan Brown refers to Robert Langdon’s Mickey Mouse wristwatch to remind the reader the way the character thinks. What makes you a special twitterer? What will people remember about your identity?
• If using Twitter to inform followers of new posts, use clear, meaningful tweets. When angels tweet a url like U2 Concert Set List from New Jersey, their followers are more likely to click that link over “this is my new blog post”. The more specific the tweet, the better chance your followers will bite.

Demons:

• Dan Brown is often demonised by the critiques for producing some really odd sentence structures. “The famous man looked at the red cup” arguments apply to tweets as well. Make your tweets reader friendly. Don’t be a demon by tweeting random gibberish. Your followers want easy to read tweet turners!
• Every Dan Brown story has a plot twist. So don’t be a Leigh Teabing and turn on your hero (followers!) by going trying to kill them with gross amounts of advertising, special offers and non-related info and spam. Stay on target with your message. Readers will follow your tweets for the tea and not the killer cognac.
• Dan Brown created the current puzzle solving mystery in a book band wagon. Don’t be a demon and bluff your way through tweeting other people’s plots. Don’t present another persons tweet as your own. Good etiquette demands you make an acknowledgement.
• In a similar vein, if a news event inspire you, don’t simply retweet it, share your short original view on it. Some twitterers attract terrific numbers of followers by simply providing wise commentary on the news events of the day. Are you up to it?

Employing the hints and tricks in this guide is a simple and effective way to getting and keeping followers. Got any more Angel or Demon like tips? Leave a note in the comments!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



The Angels and Demons Guide to Good Twitter Etiquette

As I’ve been following people on Twitter, I’ve noticed an interesting trend. More and more people are starting to use a validation service to create a gateway between themselves and new followers. On the surface, this looks like a great idea, but I’ve come to realize that it might not be – here’s why:

• It takes a lot of time to validate every single message you receive – Although I don’t mind filling out a captcha every now and then, filling them out by the dozens negates what could be a positive experience. I’ve grown accustomed to ignoring these messages and as a result, I never get to communicate with the people on the other side.
• It can be confusing – Some people, particularly those new to Twitter, might not understand what Twit validation is or why it exists. Placing barriers in the way of communication is essentially the same thing as locking your Tweets, which is another behavior that I find troubling. What is the point of joining a network if you don’t want to communicate?
• Rather than taking your time to filter your feed, you are placing the onus on those interested in following you. Sure, I can ignore the request for validation, but in the end I’ll end up talking to myself. Although there are a select few I follow without a follow back, I don’t like to make a habit of it. Not because I’m a jerk, but because it shows good faith. If you aren’t interested in what I have to say, then we are going to have a hard time communicating.

We can blame the spammers for this, but they don’t care if they ruin the experience. Still, why should we let them change the way that we communicate online? Eventually, Twitter will find a way to weed out messages in the same way that Gmail does, but in the meantime, consider removing the validation from your account and taking the time to filter on your own. If you don’t want to communicate with the masses, then maybe a valdiation service will work for you. However, if your business or brand relies on open communication, then you should think twice about placing roadblocks in between you and your customer.

If you are truly concerned about a cluttered or spam filled Twitterfeed, then consider using groups via TweetDeck or Seesmic. If there are only certain Tweeters that you pay attention to, you can also import their stream via RSS to be sure you don’t miss a thing. Lastly, it only takes 5 seconds to block or unfollow someone, but it takes nearly 20-30 for me to validate my profile for you. Multiply that by a dozen or two and you’ll see why most people don’t have the time to make it worthwhile.

The concept is noteworthy, but the execution leaves something to be desired for. One of the reasons that I love Twitter is that it opens the doors to communication. The problem with validation is that it closes them. What do you think?

[image: Unhindered by Talent]

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Validation – My Take

I can’t help it…sometimes my Twitter feed makes me want to scream. I’m reading through my DM’s and wondering what people are thinking when they send me this stuff. I don’t want to make 4,000 per month with Twitter (I do this fine on my own thank you), I don’t need 1,000 followers by the time I wake up, and I don’t need any gifts, free-reports, or webinars. Look, there is absolutely nothing wrong with pitching people on Twitter, but this DM madness has got to stop. While we are on the subject, let’s get specific about how not to pitch on Twitter:

• Only sending out affiliate links
• Attaching people’s names to your affiliate links (i.e. @nhangen @problogger http://myaffiliatelink.com Great Tips!)
• Using automated software to auto-tweet your links based on search in batches of more than a few per hour
• Auto-DM’s with an affiliate link, free-report, or anything else mentioned above

There’s a right way to pitch and a wrong way, but for some reason most of the people on Twitter take the most annoying and least effective route as possible. I don’t get it, but maybe this post will help.

The first thing you need to realize on Twitter, is not that it is like a party (is anyone else gettting sick of hearing that phrase?), but that there are accepted protocols. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of backlash about how there aren’t any rules on Twitter, which is also true. However, the protocols I mention here serve to help you sell better without being marked as a spammer. It goes like this:

• Don’t just sell – If every Tweet in your feed is a pitch, then you aren’t going to do very well. Mix it up a little bit by Tweeting blog posts, RT’ing other people’s stuff, and replying.
• When you do sell, be casual – Pitching someone at their kitchen table is different than pitching them at a bar. There is a right place  for the hard sell, but Twitter isn’t it. Mention your product as a proud creator, not as a telemarketer. Do this enough times and people will start to notice.
• Get your friends to help you out – Leverage your network to help you promote your product. Social proof in the form of other people pitching your stuff works much better than you trying to pitch it on your own.
• Link to testimonials, blog posts, and opt-in forms, but transparency is crucial – Tell people what you are linking to or they won’t click the link. When they do click, they don’t want to feel like they were tricked, so be honest and up front.

Don’t be afraid to send out an affiliate link from time to time, but be careful. If you trick someone once, they are likely to unfollow you or simply ignore future requests. Don’t use the 140 to pitch, let your web copy or blog post do that for you. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to sell good stuff on Twitter, but it does take some patience.

You can also use some of the cool Twitter video services, like Twiddeo and Twitcam to talk about your products. Just don’t forget that the key to marketing on Twitter is to sell yourself first. Once people like you, they are much more likely to buy your product, even if they don’t need it. People want to buy from people they connect with, not some random eBook avatar screaming out affiliate links. When it comes to pitching on Twitter, if you let discretion and transparency be your guide, I promise you’ll have success. People will buy your product, but 9 times out of 10 they’ll buy it because of the connection rather than the copy.

[image via freezelight]

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



The Proper Way to Pitch on Twitter

I remember the good old days back before Twitter had gone mainstream where it was a small and exclusive hangout for tech geeks and social networking addicts. There wasn’t a lot going on, and we didn’t have a lot of “celebrities” in the neighborhood, but we also didn’t have to worry about bots, spammers, and internet marketers. Sure, Twitter deserves to be set free for rapid consumption by all internet users, amateur and geek alike, but if we could only do something about these bots then Twitter could feel like home once more.

I don’t like getting my inbox hammered with spammy DM’s, and I certainly don’t like being tricked into following someone so that they can launch a full scale attack with a barrage of bit.ly affiliate links, but like so many others I didn’t really know what to do about it. Well, finally I had enough and I developed my own anti-bot strategy to keep my Twitter feed clean from Twitter spammers and other unruly scoundrels. It goes a little something like this: 1. Wait a few days before following new followers and manually vet those you do – One of the most commonly used tricks of automated Twitter spammers is to follow someone to see if they follow back. Normally, that isn’t a problem, but the difference between real people and software is that these bots will put you on a timer and unfollow you after a certain period of time so they can follow you again in order to send you another email. Still don’t follow back? No problem, the software will hammer you until you either follow back or block the user. If you wait a few days before you check out someone’s profile, it will give you a chance to see if the same name or ID shows up in your inbox more than once. If it does, then you can safely delete the notification without even taking a look at their profile…they are probably a spammer. If that doesn’t happen you can make the decision to check them out to see if they are someone you are interested in following. Thanks to Twitter’s upgraded notification emails, this is easier than it has ever been.

2. Keep an eye out for duplicate profile pictures – Spammers and bots like to use the same profile picture for hundreds of accounts and for some reason they think you won’t notice. Sometimes, they are even foolish enough to follow you with multiple accounts on the same day. I don’t know how this works, but it must considering it is a tactic that has gotten more prevalent over the past few months. The most commonly used pictures are cars, pictures of cash, dollar signs, and scantily clad women. Occasionally they’ll sneak in a normal looking profile picture just to try and fool you, but if you swear you’ve seen it before then you probably have.

3. Quote, Quote, Link – I admit, this is a smart strategy because at first glance it provides the look of an authentic Twitter profile. However, if you look a little bit closer you’ll see that this person tries to sneak in affiliate and sales page links in a manner as consistent as the 5 O’clock news. If you see a profile with an overabundance of quotes, take a deeper look. The chances are high that this person isn’t just sharing happy thoughts out of the kindness of their own heart. They are either a MLM’er or a bot trying to work you over. Nothing wrong with trying to sell, but nothing says scam like a sneaky link baiting strategy.

I don’t ever expect Twitter to stay free of sales links and marketing efforts, in fact that is one of the reasons that Twitter is such a useful tool, but I do expect people to use some sort of tact when exercising their marketing muscles. If your inbox is anything like mine, you’ve probably got more than enough spam, plenty of emails you don’t have time to read, and an overabundance of Twitter notifications that you don’t know what to do with. If you are looking for a quicker way to clean up, consider using these tactics to help you save time and the aggravation of a cluttered Twitter feed.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



3 Ways to Recognize Bots and Spammers on Twitter

Celebrity

Be it a movie star, musician, CEO of a failing company, a comedian or that dude that married Demi Moore. They follow literally a handful of people, but have thousands of females following. In the case of Kevin Rose, there seems to be thousands and thousands of males following. (Say man crush three times in a row really fast!)

They will most likely not reply to your comment, although eagerly you might wait, hitting the refresh button every other second, only to curl up in a ball and cry yourself to sleep that night. Though their tweets are as mundane as “Taking a nap,” their hardcore followers still manage to reply to it with great enthusiasm. Examples: “Naps are great,” “Good Job,” “I love you Stephen Colbert.” Okay the last one was mine. Thinking back, maybe that’s the reason Levar Burton didn’t reply to my tweet.

Bots

Typically has default avatar. Sometimes has a picture of a hot girl to trick you into clicking it, only to find shes has made $550 dollars in 3 days or is giving away free laptops. The bots follow thousands and are followed by only a few. The hotter the girl, the more the followers. I guess they are not convinced that the account is a bot, even after the same tweet four times in a row all linking back to a dubious site. Not that I have clicked on them. Ok, once. Like you haven’t clicked it. $550 in 3 days? Come on! That’s gold in this economy. Its quite sad really, so many hot girls are getting into this spam business to support their cocaine habit.

Funny Guy/Gal

They are not celebrities as in the truest sense, but they are on Twitter. Much like celebrities, they follow only a handful and are followed by thousands. They make mundane, albeit humorous observations, which make Favrd on a regular basis. Though at times snobby and unresponsive, because of their follower numbers, they are worth following, especially if you are looking for some humor on Twitter. Comes in especially handy when “Mind of Mencia” is on Comedy Central.

They are the ones that managed to turn the U.S. Airways Hudson river emergency landing into a Canada Geese Roast Festival. Although I am still sore they joked about it, when so many of my fellow geese died that day. In real life they are much like anyone else, have a job, children, nagging wife etc. etc. But do not be confused, they are much funnier than you and I pretend we are.

Dead People/Imaginary Entities

I suppose this started as a joke, making twitter accounts for dead people such as Sigmund Freud and George Washington. It has now turned into a own little cult. There’s even a website dedicated to historical quotes. Not even God is immune to these pranksters. Although I am confused whether the real god @god or @godfather. My tweets requesting information have gone unanswered.

Pets/Children/Plants

What a world we live in when our pets get their own twitter account! I have never had a pet, aside from my sister, nor am I planning on making a twitter account upon acquiring a four legged creature. Surprisingly these pets are great spellers and are able to keep their thoughts under 140 characters.

While having a twitter account for children isn’t as ludicrous as pets, it is still scary. Have you seen a 3 year old? All they do is eat, sleep and poop. Same could be said for me, but lets not go there.

Finally we arrive at Plants. I will no say no more on this subject. Plant owners with twitter accounts are a sensitive bunch.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Five Types Of Twitter Users You May Not Know Exist

Twitter is a great tool that can benefit you. But there are some mistakes that people make on twitter. To be a better twitter, it is best to avoid these mistakes, which is what I am going to share with you. Here is the list of the constant twitter mistakes.

1. Pride and Putting yourself First

What would you do if you got a direct message from someone you followed, and it says,

“Thanks for the follow! Be sure to check out my site, [site URL here] and see how cool I am!”?

You would probably feel like un-following that person, because of his ego and pride. So, be humble and think about other people first.

Spamming people with your links is putting yourself first. Would you like to follow that kind of person?

Think about what you would like to receive before sending a tweet or direct message on twitter. Pride comes before an un-follow.

2. Not Connecting With People

What do you feel if you talk to someone who doesn’t respond? Unnoticed. Come on, connect with people. One way of doing this is by asking questions. This shows that you want to connect with them. Be sure to appreciate the answers you have been given, or your answerers would feel quite ignored. For more information about this, click here.

Also, do not ask the same question repeatedly. Be patient. If you think he/she has forgotten about your question, send him/her a direct message. If you don’t get answered, let it be, or not it would be like harassing people. Pushing people is one of the reasons people un-follows you and blocks you. So, be patient and do not disturbingly push people. Also, when asking questions, be polite.

Another way of connecting with people is by answering questions. People will appreciate you and would probably answer your questions in the future.

Retweeting is also another way to connect with people on twitter. Retweeting simply means tweeting again what other people have tweeted. When retweeting, you must give credit to the original person who tweeted it. Only retweet information you find relevant or interesting.

The way you should retweet is “RT @(Original tweeter) (Original tweet)”

For more information on retweeting, click here.

3. Auto Responding

Seriously, get rid of those auto responders. Auto responders are impersonal.

Some auto responder services, such as tweetlater, offers to tweet a welcome message to your new followers for you; “Welcome: @follower, @anotherfollower, @another_follower, @Justanotherfollower” until all your followers are ‘welcomed’.

Do you actually feel ‘welcomed’ if you know that the welcome messages are automated? It is impersonal!

If you want to welcome a follower, be genuine and original. Send them a message they know is genuine.

4. Bringing no Value to your Followers

Although you don’t harass or offend our followers, do you think they still want to follow you if you don’t bring any value to them? Do you bring value to your followers? Do you think your followers would like to read your tweets? If you don’t bring any value to your followers, and do not do anything offending, you’re like just between good and bad.

Come on, be a value to your followers, do not just tweet what you are doing.

One way of doing this is to share links you find interesting. Ever came across a wonderful article? Share it! To make it easier to share articles and stuff, visit www.twitthat.com. They will provide you a button which you can drag to your browser. If you are on an article and you click the button, a window will pop up and will let you modify the tweet. Then, you click ‘Twit!’. And when the article is tweeted, the pop up window will automatically close.

You can also share inspiring quotes, answer your friends’ (the people whom you follow) questions, share a picture on twitpic, or even share a joke or two. You can also be funny in your tweets; “Going to sleep. Eyelids weighing 1 pound each! Good night/day everyone.”

Conclusion

To be a good twitter user, you should avoid all those 4 mistakes, think about what you would like to receive before tweeting. You could help your twitter friends to break a barrier. You could also answer their questions, or offer them suggestions or tips.

If you are a great benefit to your followers, your followers would be very happy and would probably return your kindness.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



4 Constant Twitter Mistakes You Should Avoid

So you want to join the Twitter. You think of a cool username, sign up and get excited at the thought that you have complete freedom (140 characters worth) to tweet about whatever you want. You seek out the most popular Twitterers and start following them along with hundreds of others. How simple, you think. Now, the time has come for your first tweet:

“Hey all! Check out my blog www.pleasereadmyblognow.com!”

Hmm, no responses and not many people following you back. Let’s try that again:

“Glad to finally be on Twitter all. Leave some love on my latest post!”

Ok, we get it – it’s about you. Unfortunately, other people aren’t as accepting to your philosophy and won’t listen to you. Why, you ask? It’s because you’ve become a broadcaster – someone who constantly tweets about themselves and their blog/site. You fail to get involved with the community and end up providing little to no value to your network.

Wait – don’t give up on Twitter already because no one is listening to the broadcaster in you. As with any network, group or forum, there are always basic cultural mores to understand that’ll help you become a better communicator. Twitter has a few of its own that will help your experience:

1. Do NOT link/friend Whore

Sending out tweets and DMs (direct messages) to tell people to check out your blog or sign up for your RSS feed (trust me, I’ve gotten this numerous times) is not proper Twitter etiquette and is considered spamming.

The same goes for mass following people. Clicking ‘follow’ on several hundred people at a time is not building your network. Profiles with skewed following to follower ratios (e.g. 2,000 following – 57 followers) will typically be looked at as spam.

Continually doing these activities will put a huge ding on your online reputation before it even takes off.

2. Two-way Street

Be human and actually talk to people and not at them. Follow those you find interesting but make sure you communicate and make it a two-way conversation. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing against about talking about something you worked on and getting other’s opinions on it, but maintain a proper balance of that. No one likes a friend who talks about themselves all the time. Keep the dialogue free and open for both sides.

3. It’s a Marathon

With any circle of friends, online or offline, time and effort are keys to building positive relationships. There’s no need to rush in and follow a thousand people to try to gain attention; instead, steadily increase your network while communicating and building relationships with your current Twitter friends. Show that you truly care and spend time getting to know them. Focusing on the amount of effort you put into these relationships will give you more credibility within the community and help grow your network.

Twitter is often mistaken as a broadcasting platform for people to spit out anything and everything. In the end, adhering to the Twitter culture and being respectful of the tips listed above will influence your experience on Twitter and whether you’re looked at as a conversation starter or a broadcaster.

Let’s get the conversation started and hear from you. What do you personally do to better communicate with your network? What other tips can we add to the list?

PS from Darren: Thanks for this post Sonny. It’s actually been a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for a while and one that I want to post a follow up post on tomorrow where I’ll ask – ‘when is it ok to ‘broadcast’ rather than ‘converse’?’ Subscribe to our RSS feed to make sure you get notified when this next post goes live.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Do you Converse or Broadcast? How to Build (or Kill) Relationships on Twitter