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Jul
22

9 Mistakes I committed on Twitter and could’ve avoided !

Let me share a little secret with you. You know, whenever things are going perfectly alright, I tend to get nervous. Very nervous, because I know things are going too fine and they are too good to be true. Just can’t be that way right ? I mean, we all make mistakes, in fact should make mistakes. If there aren’t any mistakes you can find, then its because you are either non-human or you’re hiding them.

Failures are the stepping stones to success right ? I strongly believe this. I believe in making mistakes and in fact, encourage my trainees to make lot of them. They are opportunities to me, every single mistake is. While explaining things to someone, if he doesn’t ask any question back, and get it all right in the first go, I tend to get jittery. Its a clear signal to me that he isn’t understanding anything.

So when I think of my first days on Twitter, am glad I made those mistakes. Because had I not fooled around and made those mistakes I would have made them today and they would’ve proved costly to me. So, let me share with you some of the most “memorable”, mistakes I made on Twitter. I hope they will also help you make judgements about what is good for you.

1. Trying to “bait” popular tweeps to reply to me

Man, that’s one of the biggest mistakes I ever did on Twitter. Agreed that twitter lets you reply to anyone and they are “supposed to” reply back to us. But that doesn’t mean that you can poke anyone and possibly get them reply to you. I still don’t know the rules for getting to befriend a popular guy on Twitter, the only thing I know is that being genuine helps a lot.

2. Not using a background profile image.

I have a nice background now, but during the early days I thought that the black grunge bg was like “awesome”. Clearly, I didn’t check many other profiles and was confined to my “friends circle” if I can call it. If only I saw those beautiful twitter backgrounds earlier :)

Today the twitter background is a great resource to tell more about you and your brand. If you aren’t using it properly, I’m of the opinion that you aren’t using your Twitter profile to its fullest potential.

3. Not using an avatar and writing a clear, descriptive bio.

This is not a mistake, actually I didn’t know about it. I was so focused on the blog that I thought I needn’t write anything there worth mentioning. Today most people know me from the twitter profile, so you know how important it is to have a nice bio and avatar.

4. Not engaging in conversations.

Don’t get me wrong here. When I mean conversations, I mean mutually worthwhile and productive conversations. I still am not a fan of “Thank you” and “Good night” messages on Twitter. I personally think that they are a major turn offs for your majority of followers. But I’m a great fan of group discussions and productive talk. This normally happens around events (through hashtags) and meetups. They are fun because even though they are conversational pieces, other tweeps can also join in, they aren’t dialogues. And one major mistake I did earlier was not to engage in conversations, rather stick to one way messages. Lesson learned.

5. Writing negative/tasteless comments about myself that no one would ever want to read.

Its probably because I didn’t have too many followers that time and was a self cantered low life that whenever Twitter asked me the question “what are you doing” I said things like “Boring life”.. “Doing project reports” ..”Stupid weather” etc. They aren’t bad like not offensive or anything but still, what’s the point in writing them right ? I could’ve written them in my diary. But for the world to see ? #fail !!

5. Promoting my own site throwing up links.

Obviously I thought someone would click it and give me some hits. But I wouldn’t have done it if tweetdeck didn’t have the URL column. So not entirely my fault !

6. Seeing it as a secondary communication tool.

I was wrong. In my opinion Twitter is the best primary communication tool available today. Your blog and everything else takes the back seat. Earlier, I saw Twitter as a tool to “push thoughts and ideas”. Only later did I realize that its a communication channel that attracts ideas and thoughts, not the other way round.

7. Not sharing interesting stories with others.

I was pretty much active on social media like SU and Digg, but never saw Twitter as a tool to share interesting stories and links with others

8. Follow very less people and limit myself to my thoughts.

Biggest mistake. I was such a fool not to realize the power of Twitter. You know, most of the times we are inhibited by our thoughts that we don’t open up to opportunities. And I did exactly that. I limited myself to following a few hundred people and thought – this is it. but it wasn’t. Only when I opened up and started to follow more people did I realize that this thing is enormous. I had all the few hundred I initially followed in my IM anyway ;)

9. Responding to automatic DMs.

Honestly, I thought those “thanks for following me” DM’s were genuine and replied to almost all of them. Now that you know, don’t laugh at me. :)

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Category: Social Media | Author: Mani Karthik
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  1. Jen RuhmanNo Gravatar

    Manny,
    Its been fun seeing your site grow. Your tweets are always valuable and fresh ;)

    Good information in this post. I appreciate your honesty.

    Reply

    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Hey Jen, that’s the first comment you ever made on the site lol I know you’ve been RTing all my stories. Ironic huh ? Thanks

    Reply

  2. Brian McDanielNo Gravatar

    Mani,

    I’ve never left a comment either but subscribe to your feed and tweet just about everything you post. You have great tools and insights and resources here. It is a regular daily stop of mine. Thanks for all you share. This was a great insight into who you are as well, which is what I like to see in blogs – getting to know people a little better.

    Keep up the great work!

    Reply

    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Thanks for stopping by Brian. I follow all the tweets from DSB like a hawk and have seen you tweet almost all the articles. That’s so kind of you. Thanks for all that you’re doing. Cheers !

    Reply

  3. ComputerNo Gravatar

    Ha, replying to “thanks for following me, that’s a joke right?”

    No i’m just kidding. I am pretty new to twitter, so these tips really help. Thanks

    Reply

    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Believe me, the first time I didn’t get it. And then I noticed that almost all the messages were strikingly similar. :)

    Reply

  4. James BrightNo Gravatar

    Very interesting. I think everyone makes such mistakes. I always follow back.

    Reply

  5. Mark of digiflipNo Gravatar

    Great post :) Although I’m unsure about the 2nd point 5. Is Tweeting a link to your own site always a bad thing to do or have I read it wrong?

    Reply

    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Hi Mark, I meant excessively doing it. Should’ve explained it better. :)

    Reply

  6. RaghuNo Gravatar

    Good Show :) !

    Reply

  7. RaghuNo Gravatar

    Good Show ! :)

    Reply

  8. surubhiNo Gravatar

    the day you tweeted about sex i blocked you.. maybe you can make your list as 10 na.. this must be the next mistake in your list. :|

    Reply

    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    I never recall having tweeted objectionable material (unless its some funny material). If there was something you didn’t quite like, I think you did the right decision. I would’ve done the same thing if I were in your position. Appreciate it.

    Reply

  9. Chrissy MorinNo Gravatar

    I too started out thinking.. welll I can only deal with a few people.. then well 200 limit… then.. well.. I guess if I figure out tweetdeck maybe 1000… I lost so much momentum back in the day because I think I’ve been on twitter for almost 9 months which makes me “an early adopter” almost!

    When I do DM’s when someone follows I always put there NAME in there Hey Mani.. love ur background pic. I went there last year on vaca…

    I also used to respond and really got my feelings hurt when I realized they sent me the “thanks for the follow” but didn’t follow back.. I really take that PERSONALLY!!! lol

    I do only follow those who follow back and who do “conversate”?? is that a word? If I can’t be in communication then what’s the point in following them. If their stuff is so great someone will RT it and I can talk to THEM about it. Have a great day!

    Reply

    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Chrissy, can’t agree with you more. I hate those auto DMs simply for the reason that most of the time the owner doesn’t mean it.

    So, its like lying. I think I’ll understand if some product profile sends an auto DM about their site/company link. But those that comes off as “friendly” while actually not meaning a word of it, is a major turn off.

    Reply

  10. Chrissy MorinNo Gravatar

    @RobMcNealy said his DM message is to connect with him on facebook… so I set one up now to ask them to connect further on Facebook and/or linkedin and I’ve had good success with that… It’s kind of like “qualifying the prospect” back in the old sales days… if they follow through with that, you have a better shot at actually networking with that person which I think is the huge potential that exists with Twitter.

    The DM’s that really make me laugh are the one’s that try to pump you up.. WOW you are so AWESOME! I know I have lots I can learn from you!!! TOO funny 4 words!

    Reply

  11. Marketing ROINo Gravatar

    It is important to have some common courtesy and ethics in any social network. But twitter is getting more attraction in the mainstream as a marketing tool more than what is really supposed to be.

    PS: you seem to get a lot of active twitter followers, but few of those are active on your blog :)

    Reply

  12. ErinNo Gravatar

    This blog post is really interesting and helpful! Here is another article that I found that may help with tweeting.

    Reply

  13. Media ContourNo Gravatar

    Hilarious! Not that I haven’t made some of the same mistakes, but I can’t help but laugh.

    On a more serious note, why follow more than a few hundred people? After you surpass that number, your homepage of tweets becomes unmanageable, making it difficult to find the specific content you are looking for. I would understand wanting a lot of followers, but for a business, it seems like following the most important thought leaders in your industry would be sufficient.

    Reply

    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Its like asking why should I open my doors for customers ? I can only handle a few of them.
    Not saying you are wrong though, it depends on what you want to achieve on Twitter. I see it as an incredibly easy tool for communication and reaching out to people. But there are also tweeps who keep private updates and even follow only their friends. I’m pretty sure they’re having a great time too.
    So essentially its about how you see Twitter, see it as a busines tool, a communication tool, or a publicity tool, you name it !

    Reply

  14. NiharNo Gravatar

    I am happy that i found this link. i am very new to twitter. the above points will help me.

    THanks for this post.

    Twitting it now!

    Reply

  15. raviNo Gravatar

    Very interesting. I think everyone makes such mistakes. I always follow back.

    Reply

  16. links for 2009-09-28 : The ChipCast || by Chip Mahaney

    [...] 9 Mistakes I committed on Twitter and could’ve avoided ! – Daily SEO blog (tags: twitter howto reference teaching) [...]

  17. hunterNo Gravatar

    Sadly I’ve never gotten into Twitter, so not only have I been oblivious to its seo potential, I’m also totally ignorant of how it operates. Always difficult to see where a new form of communication will lead people and how it can be properly utilized.

    Reply





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Mani Karthik Hi, I'm Mani Karthik, SEO, Blogging & Social Media Enthusiast. I primarily blog about SEO and Social Media on this blog, basically How-to articles and tutorials to help the SEO learner. Feel free to have a look around and drop comments. Hope you enjoy your stay.
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