Don’t get me wrong. I think Twitter can be extremely effective as a business social networking tool. Tweets that raise a thought-provoking question, point to useful information, rally for a cause or introduce a new idea or issue are all good! And it’s fine when people share interesting or funny things that happen to them throughout the day.
BUT…in the spirit of honesty, here are some tweeting practices that just drive me crazy.
1. Cold calling. True, everyone is selling something. But it’s awful when you start following someone who looks legit, but suddenly starts tweeting you incessantly to go to their site and buy whatever they are selling? Do not pass Go, go directly to Remove.
2. Shameless self-promotion. What is up with the self-important people that tweet 15 or 20 times a day to drop names about the companies that they had meetings with and tell you how busy they are. This just doesn’t impress me.
3. Four letter words and X-rated tweets. Why would anyone that uses Twitter as a business professional (unless they are in the porn industry) do this? I would love to know what drives them to this seemingly self-destructive behavior.
4. Following a gazillion people. Can a mere mortal really follow thousands of people in any meaningful way? Even with TweetDeck? I don’t think so, and probably no one else does either. It’s just a numbers game at this point.
5. Hyper tweeting. I really worry about the people that send out 20 or 30 tweets a day (except if you are an analyst being held hostage at a vendor event). Get out and run, walk the dog, go for a bike ride, play tennis, watch the birds!
Interestingly enough, these behaviors would also be aggravating in the physical world. So why would people that would never engage in them in “real life” behave this way on Twitter?
I’m sure that there are other aggravating Twitter practices that haven’t popped into my mind. Let me know what you think–what drives you crazy about the way some people use Twitter in the poll below.
[polldaddy poll=1460955]