Totally Lame Twitter Marketing Techniques

Lame

1. Constantly tweeting about your website and/or your Facebook page.

2. Marketing channels staffed by people 30+ years old trying to use net slang and abbreviations. In EVERY tweet. First, it's seriously juvenile, second, you're Doing It Wrong (and you don't even know it).

3. Tweeting every 5 minutes all day long.

4. Especially when those tweets are mostly automatic RTs or some obviously automatic crap set up through software or fed in via Twitterfeed.

5. Auto-Following someone who mentioned a topic one time. I mention SEO I get followed by spam accounts by SEO folks. Who should really know better.

Not Lame

1. Profanity. Social Media like Twitter is SUPPOSED to be personal, NOT 100% professional. Unless it's an official company channel, you shouldn't treat it like you're at work. You should still be judicious, of course, but if it's an individual, well, I'm an adult and I can handle the occasional potty word. Others are free to have their own tastes, obviously.

I wholly agree with the comments made about automatic replies, about the pages of messages all from the same person, and the hard-sell marketing by some twitterers. I'd like to add that it's lame to be using profanity (I unfollow those twitterers)or to be discussing really personal things like very specific health problems. I do appreciate a touch of humor, breaking news, and don't mind a reasonable amount of marketing.

@Chad: Good points. There's a much bigger picture to what Twitter offers and can become for everyone. And we've already started seeing it's power with; motrinmoms, how a recent earthquake was reported on Twitter way before it hit regular news sources, re-tweeting a daughter's need for a kidney transplant, and just today, how Pepsi quickly learned that print ads advocating suicide are in poor taste.

This is why I feel that it's important for users to learn and understand some twitter best practices -- it makes it more enjoyable to users on a personal level and helps strengthen the entire community.

OK Mine is a bit more nebulous, because it's more of a 'feeling' that I get behind the tweets, rather than content. but I can't stand people who use talk about using twitter or the internet in all of their tweets, and also talk about how to expand their social network. I think this is kind of what Michael was talking about with sounding 'robotic.' You know marketing. We get it. A lot of times, and this only makes it worse, they *pontificate* about it, as well. It's one of those things that just kind of pushes it over the edge from being annoying to obnoxious. ie. "*Wondering* how Twitter can be used to gain ROI" "*Learning* about 368 new ways to gain new followers."

This is more of a personal one, and other people probably have way more tolerance than I do, but I have had such an overwhelmingly positive experience with Twitter as a tool for community advancement, that I find using it explicitly, or talking about using it, to make money just doesn't rub me the right way. I guess I feel that people going into it looking to gain investment, or advancement, or whatever, have completely missed the boat in terms of its usefulness.

Not to be too negative, I like the tight-knit feel that I get from the design community. One of the things that I find the most bizarre about my feelings on Twitter, is that I actually think it's really nice to see a blog post retweeted a bunch of times by all of my twitter friends. This probably sounds really, really weird... But I thought that would drive me completely nuts, clogging up my feed with the same link, but instead it has this totally cool, positive infectious spread vibe to it.

Thanks for the info. It's helpful to know things like those listed here. Being kinda new to twitter, this should be required reading :-)

I will totally unfollow you if you are following 49 people and have 50 followers. Meaning the only one you're not following is me. Yeah, sorry, I take it personally, can't help it. :)

First off, Thank you Michael and Chad for putting this together.

Here's my short list to add:@reply@ev@al3x@biz
(It applies to lame marketing as well as lame tweeting in-general)
1) Its lame when I get consecutive tweets (seconds apart) that all I see on half of my status page is your avatar for the next 3 minutes.
2) Its lame when your tweets sounds robotic. I almost expect to see bias or opinion in every tweet- shows that there a real person with a personality behind it.
when its obvious that you haven't read my bio, my tweet history or even my last tweet before you sent it.
)

I'm guilty of the last one I think. But I'm honestly looking for user feedback rather than trying to sell something. That is, if I see someone is using an app of mine I will ask them what it's like and give them a follow so I can keep up with them and see if they ever happen to have trouble or find the product lacking in any way.

I have another lame marketing tactic that really bugs me. I am a "fangirl" of some of the things I buy & use, for example, CarMax (have purchased numerous cars from them) and FreshBooks (do my invoicing with them) and everytime I recommend them to other people, I get new followers from used car lots and invoicing software companies, obviously looking to snag my attention.

But if you read my tweets about these products & services, you'll see I am a loyal customer. (In other words, unfortunately I don't need or care about the stuff YOU are selling me.)

Finding people who need what you have, and selling it to them or at least making them aware of it, is not wholly bad. But these would be welcome followers, if marketing people did a little research. For example, if I complained in a few tweets I needed invoicing software, and you discover this in a search, then you can approach me and say something like "Hey, I saw you're having trouble. We sell software that addresses that problem, if you're interested." You can do this without even following them, by simply sending a message to @username. You don't have to include the link - they will check out your bio.

Believe me, if you have a cool product someone need, and you approach them casually and make it about them, you likely wont' offend, and if you do they will ignore it and don't have to deal with you following them and feeling like they will be spammed now.

ONLY follow people who interest you personally - if that's someone who needs your service, great, but know that when you do it right after they use a keyword of yours, it feels like a salesman coming to your door when you're in a nightgown... UNWANTED!

Would it make sense to have a twitter hashtag devoted to this topic? Just wondering. It may spread out the information and create two sources which won't help. But maybe this blog post becomes the aggregation, filtering and "at length" fireside chat on the topic.

Thanks for coming up with this idea.

People who don't follow after an @reply conversation. Sometimes I'll see a RT of someone and respond and even have a whole conversation, sometimes these are people I'm following who aren't following back ...

I dunno, guess it just seems kind of rude that after I've helped you out you don't even have the courtesy to follow.

Anyone else agree?

When I see someone is following 1000 people but only has 7 followers, I don't have to read any tweets to know it's spam.

Auto-response with a URL. (I don't mind the automated "Thanks for following," it seems polite to me)

SPELLING MISTAKES!!! You're not chatting to a friend, you're representing your company. GRR.

@simpsonsparadox

There is a terrific service, Twitterfeed.com to inject blog posts or podcast RSS into your tweets, but a few people use it poorly. One trap is the little preface it allows you to insert. Like a signature, these things wear out pretty fast. "Check this out! http://...." is a bad start IMO. These feeds need to be a small percentage of what you do, too or you might as well use "Spamstream:" as a header. I think if you set twitterfeed to limit posts to 1 every 2 hours, you'll find a good balance. YMMV

Here's a tip. Stop spamming twitter with a link to this page. Blocked @kristofcreative

I've been using Twitter since it rolled out two years ago. At first, I thought it was kinda cool, then I became addicted to it. I've since gained some control and just enjoy tweeting and stuff.

That said, I've seen the flow change over time and seen new stuff as it rolls out like @reply and #hash RT's and DM's. I've also sen the tweet flow devolve into what it is now and I guess I still dig it – it's still fun for me, and most of the things folks have mentioned don't really bother me, yet.

I don't have a whole lot of followers but I could see how folks would get peeved about a lot of the things mentioned above....

Sorry to jump in again...

@chadengle - One thing I love is the ability to shoot out a poll or question and get feedback. Great research tool and if done properly, everyone gets credit, and community outweighs competition.

That means everyone has to interact though. Give and Take, give and take baby.

There are many great things about twitter...I'll let others share.

Great site; most everyone hit on what I was thinking (especially Selene; double-kudos to skewed following to follower ratio!) What I like about Twitter, though, is that you have the ability to control the content you see. As many people already mentioned, I also quickly scan Twitter pages of those who follow me before I choose to follow them back. If the person is an obvious direct marketer, I don't follow. Bad direct marketers will simply float to the bottom in time.

-@AndreaNowack

I love all the posts above. One more that's an automatic "won't follow" is people who have nothing but "New Blog Post:..." for their Tweets. Look, I love making life simple, but Twitter is not JUST a place to rebroadcast your Blog.

I also want to encourage people to listing what they think is acceptable!! This is a HELP site as well! Please list your likes/dislikes.
Thanks,

I've not been on Twitter a week, but I've encountered one person who only retweets content. No @ replies, no original tweets. That is something that really annoyed me. I gave this person the benefit of the doubt (maybe busy, maybe these RT are cool), but it just got irritating! Does that count as "bad Twitter marketing"?

- Lauren, @creativecurio

The best piece of advice I can give, because it relates to so many others, is: "Give people a reason to give a shit."

You have 140 characters, use them wisely.

Truthfully, I haven't been on twitter very long at all. I just didn't have time but then had to make time in order to build my network.

So, why was I trying to build my network? That's the question - the motive. The motive provides clarity to the type of tweets you'll send out.

@mayhemstudios said it best: I really believe in giving and ask nothing in return. You will be rewarded. :)

There you go...that's a good motive.

My thoughts on the use of Twitter for building:

1. Connect with like minded people - check out profiles before following.

2. Learn from others - read their blog posts and links.

3. Share information you find valuable - without expecting something in return.

4. Don't worry about the #'s when you are just starting.

5. Be yourself, let your personality shine through.

6. Retweet - that shows you value others.

7. Help others by Floating or Digging their requests - don't expect them to do the same for you and you won't be disappointed.

8. Too many personal posts. It's great to know you are having lunch with the fam. But I don't care to know that you had Mexican food and now it's not agreeing with you. :) TMI!

9. Remember things about fellow tweets. i.e. I found a great purse article and sent it off to a friend @minjae who has a purse blog. If I didn't care about what she was up to, I wouldn't have been able to help her with new fodder.

10. Slow and Steady is the name of the game. A reputation isn't built overnight.

The only bad motive I can think of:

1. Don't pitch your product all the time. It's a give and take.

Don't be the telemarketer that calls someone on their mobile. That's just annoying :)

Use Twitter to build a network, not sell a few e-books.

Peace,

Arif Gangji@arifgan

P.S. I'm not an expert and I accidentally break the rules on occasion, it's a learning process - people are more patient than you think - unless you are blatantly disregarding the rules of engagement.

@Mike Dawson. I feel like that was a very good post about how you feel we should benefit as a twitter community. I think the design world is more of a tight knit group than the rest of twitter. I think that we the most can benefit by posting up designs to receive feedback and talk about pertinent design information.

Thank you all for all your posts!!! Keep them coming WOOO!!!!!@kristofcreative
I think we are on to something! *evil scowl*

@ImJustCreative: Thanks for mentioning Twitter Quitter. Need to add that on to the tool list. Thanks.

Many/most of the above are great points. I'll add a few personal peeves:

1. People that *only* use Twitter for what they term "marketing" in that they post links to their own blog posts and ask for floats/diggs/etc. I would prefer they instead just post the link. If I want to read it, I will. If I think the *CONTENT* is of good enough quality, then I will float/digg/etc. If the content, is of poor quality (in my opinion) then it's not worthy of a float/digg/etc. It's that simple. As we all know, content is king and no amount of posting links on Twitter is going to make content better. Hard work makes content better.

2. Individuals that have a "personal" Twitter account (personal being one in their name) and they NEVER answer the question "What are you doing?" They don't even have to answer that specific question. They could also tweet about what they are thinking about at that point in time. The best twitterers (again in my opinion) are the ones that combine personal tweets with business tweets. And lean more toward the personal. If I want to know what their company/business is up to, I will *subscribe* to the business website RSS feed. Make of it what you will, but Twitter was designed for social interaction via the web. Sure, we all post links to our blogs, posts and talk about business because it's part of our lives, but don't turn your Twitter feed into an abbreviated RSS feed. That's what RSS is for :)

3. If you are going to discuss only or mostly business via Twitter, get a business/company Twitter account. That way, when people follow you, they know what they are in for.

Woooh. Lots of lame things to look out, think pretty much all my pet peeves are accounted for in the above comments.

I do get irritated by the people who unfollow within a day or so if you have not followed back. I mean really, talk about lack of patience. But then the flip side is, do you really want to be following someone that really isn't in it to communicate.

Also people that follow you, don't say a word, then you follow them, then a few days later then unfollow you. Now it's tools like Twitter Quitter that helps me keep track of these slimy toe rag's, and I do unfollow back in these situations. Simply because they have given me absolutely no reason to keep following, not even a 'hello'.

I'm still learning some things, what not to do, so am guilty of some of the above, but like to think I am learning fast. So this site is actually really valuable to me. Especially now I really have to focus on a more professional but still fun aspect for ImJustCreative, and ofcourse with the new SoulTweet.

Great stuff guys,

Graham

This is a completely opinionated point of view, and may be contradicting the whole point of what twitter was intended for, but:

I find that some people I've added on Twitter seem to post useless and irrelevant design links on a minute by minute basis. Although all of your tweet's don't have to be a personal account of what you're doing (ie Taking a duece, etc.) I believe that to a point use Twitter for more than just raising your tweet count and gathering followers. It may be great that people find one or two of your links useful, but I see a majority of the tweets are bullshit filler and spam (for lack of a better term.)

People need to post USEFUL and concise information if they're going to use their Twitter account to further their profession. Do not take over my home page so that when I log in all I see are 20 posts by the same person within a 30 minute span. That is annoying and that is why I stopped using Twitter. Exchange ideas and convey messages that are the most relevant to you, not just what everyone else is posting and re-posting.

Once again, we need to make Twitter better in the sense that IF you are going to post something such as a link or a thought or something personal, MAKE IT COUNT. Quality over quantity people.

Ok, that's all.

Wow this is useful. I always send thanks for the follow dm's. I thought it was a nice thing to do. I won't do it anymore.

Here's a new and totally lame Twitter Marketing Technique I just saw this morning.

Using a script to auto-register Twitter accounts and auto-post the same spam with a # in hopes of manipulating the Trends from search.twitter.com

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=D%C3%BCsseldorf...

What a terrible idea. :-/

Highlighting the 'what NOT to do' Twitter tactics is a great idea, but before you even get to the marketing stage, the focus should be on building a quality network, and developing a relevant, like-minded community who will be pre-disposed to your marketing messages (AFTER you've taken the time to build substantive relationships, that is).

Here is a short list of DON'Ts to building a valuable Twitter network:

1. DON'T start following thousands of people: the greatest return comes from a smaller network where you can engage in one to one interactions. Start by doing a search on relevant keywords of interest to you or applicable to your business at search.twitter.com and connect with those people first.

2. DON'T blindly click the 'Follow' button: Read the person's bio, click on their website link, review a page or two of their posts and get a sense of the person as a PERSON-not just a number.

3. DON'T follow with the expectation of an auto follow or for someone to follow you back immediately: Instead, focus on offering quality information and sharing interesting links so that people will WANT to follow YOU. And, DO NOT unfollow someone simply because they don't return the follow right away. @ them, get in the conversation, and keep your focus on building relationships vs. racking up follower numbers.

4. DON'T worry about [or put undue emphasis on] how many followers you have: It doesn't matter. If you follow the steps above and begin culivating a close-knit community of kindred spirits, the sharing, relationships and opportunities that result will be far greater than following thousands of people with whom you never make a real connection or having a slew of followers that don't participate in the conversation or are just trying to forward their own agendas.

Once you've identified and connected with the right people, you can develop a community that will be open to -- and champion -- your marketing messaging, provided that you've spent the time to build credibility by showing a genuine interest in the INDIVIDUALS in your network first.

Some quick marketing DON'Ts:

1. DON'T promote more than you share: Relationships should always be your primary focus, and by building quality ones, you earn the right to insert a marketing message at times. You can also use your network for feedback to help guide your efforts. Keep it two-way, engaging your community vs. shouting at them with a megaphone.

2. DON'T re-post the same promo message ad nauseum: Once is sufficient. Let the viral elements of the medium work for you.

3. DON'T auto-DM with a canned message and link to your site: If you decide to reach out to someone via DM, ALWAYS personalize the message and show an interest in what THEY'RE doing. Remember, if it's your first connection, you still haven't earned the right to spam someone with your own self-promoting message.

4. DON'T be a social spectator: In other words, your tweetstream shouldn't be a laundry list of one-way posts, or worse, hardly any posts at all. Respond to tweets, make comments, get to know the people in your network. DON'T just watch from the sidelines.

The real value of Twitter is in the relationships you build, and allowing your network to grow organically in a meaningful way. The result will be a strong community of passionate people with a genuine desire to help you advance -- both professionally AND personally, and who will enrich your life. At the end of the day, it's PEOPLE who make up businesses, not marketing bots, so make sure you get to know the people behind the company/brand. If you do that, the rest will follow - figuratively AND literally.

Great idea - the so-called "internet marketers" should definitely take note!

Much of my pet peeves are already listed here, but anyway, here's my list:

1. Skewed following to follower ratio. If you're following well over 1k people, but only 30 are following you... I'm not going to follow back.

2. Nothing but one sided tweets (esp if they are all marketing tweets). I want to see that you interact with your followers with a combination of original tweets and @replies, etc. Again, no-follow.

3. The automatic reply or DM the second you follow them back, with a sales link. Kinda tacky. Sorry.

4. Alternatively if your page is nothing but @replies with "thanks for following..." or "I found you on ..." Nope.

5. No tweets, no followers and you're only following me or 1 or 2 others. Unless I already know you, and know that you're brand new to twitter.... Kinda creepy = Block!

I know there are more, but off the top of my head, these are the first signs that I notice.

Congrats on your venture - I hope this site helps improve the Twitter community!

@idesignstudios

Great idea guys! There is def. a "what not to do" that people really need to read :)

1. Auto DM's are the most annoying - canned responses FAIL
2. When your following 3 times as many people are following you, I won't follow them.
3. When companies follow you just to market themselves and if you don't follow them within a day - they just unfollow.

I know I have more but it's early so I will keep adding! Cheers!

@adellecharles

I believe there is almost universal agreement that the following tactics are considered lame for marketing yourself on Twitter:

1. Including a link to your website in almost every tweet.
2. Auto DM upon a follow with a plastic "hello. Thanks for the follow and check out my website."
3. And lastly, nothing says "spammer like mass following people to get them to follow back and then unfollowing them just as quickly.

It will be interesting to see some of the more unique "lame" tactics that others post as well.

Kimberly@jkvirtualoffice

For example: (What spawned this website)

@kristofcreative
"Don't you just love it when you follow someone and they DM U with pitch for their squeeze page? Hate the veiled hard sell. Instant unfollow."

@chadengle
"www.reallystupidlametwittertacticforpeople2use.com/lame/reallylame/ugh....../index.htm"

I love this site - great idea!

One of my biggest irritations has to do with auto-responses. I can appreciate that some people want to automatically follow everyone, while others ponder the new follower briefly, and still others perform a Google search the likes of which would rival an employment firm.

I am someone who checks people out briefly. When you send me an automated "thanks for following me" and especially if you pose a question in it, then my excitement dims. Let me explain why: often I get so enthused by someone, I hit the 'follow' button and send a message right away. But then in return (it appears) I get an inaccurate response, because it's your automated message. And then you usually turn around and send me another message that is personal, but I now perceive you differently, because I considered the automated message lame!

It's not a deal breaker, but I'd much rather NOT be thanked for following you... I get it, you're a nice person and appreciate my interest. But let me find that out when we converse personally, because that's how connections are made!