How to make a crappy first impression
I’ll warn you now, this is going to be a little bit of a rant as there are two things that have really been getting under my skin. Lately it seems like I’m getting more and more DMs from people I’m following on Twitter. So I thought would write this as a public service announcement on how not to suck at twitter or get Unfollowed by me.
Pet peeve #1 just because I follow you, it does not mean I “like” you, it just means I’m checking you out to see if we might hit it off on Twitter. I’m hopeful that I might learn something from you, and maybe offer you something in return.
If I just started following you on Twitter and you ask me to like your fan page on facebook I can’t help but wonder if you missed the fact that I choose to follow you on Twitter, not Facebook. If you can’t hold my attention on twitter, I am not going to expose myself to more from you. Sending a DM to someone who just followed you, promoting anything is just bad form, and an express ticket to being Unfollowed, because it shows me you don’t understand social media, although it does flag you as a potential lead for Head of Lettuce Media. If you work for a social media company and you are doing this, you look like a real dope offering me classes in social media, especially if you are demonstrating by your actions that you just don’t get it.
If you have a fan page or website that you want to share, be interesting enough to make me want to connect further with you, I will look at your Twitter bio to find out more about you, place your link there, but don’t cram it down my throat and don’t make it a condition of getting to know you. Even if you tweet a shameless plug once every 4-5 tweets, you will be less annoying.
Pet peeve #2 So-as-So uses TrueTwit validation service. To validate… I can not think of a more annoying thing to do to potential new followers then to make then jump through the stupid hoop of TrueTwit validation. I understand the basic goal behind TrueTwit and believe it has some merit, however the way it functions now is more annoying then a social virus. They give you the option to sign up so you don’t have to endure validating yourself again, however now according to Truetwit “If you are TrueTwit Basic user, a new follower who you aren’t already following and who is not already a TrueTwit user will get sent a validation request.” this means they will be bugging everyone who goes to follow you.
If there is a moral to this rant, it is this…social media is a communication platform of convenience, and making people jump through hoops before they even know if they really want to know you is not the way to make a first impression, in fact, if you use it, it is an express ticket to being unfollowed by me. #KillTheAutoDMs
