5 Common Twitter Traps

Thousands of people continue to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. It is a great place to meet people, and can be a good marketing tool if used properly. There are common traps that a lot of n00bs and would be internet marketers fall into though.

Infrequent or dull tweets:

There is no need to spend your whole day tweeting, but at the same time if you are going to join you might as well be there. At the same time have something worthwhile to say. No one really wants to know how often you go to the restroom, or that you are about to leave for work. You may find a few friends who are interested in what you should wear to work for the day or someone who will point you to their website with the latest designer trends but ….Yawn. To put a slight twist on the old saying “If you have nothing to tweet, don’t tweet at all”.

Spamming:

Fortunately, most people are becoming aware that this is just not on, but there are still more spammers around than needed. Many people don’t even realize they are spamming, they are just so keen to ‘make money online the easy way’ and following some inept magic formula that doesn’t work. Rather than following any spammer’s links, report them to Twitter.

Focusing on gathering followers:

Sure everyone likes to have lots of followers, but are they real ones? Many people use auto follow, or similar Twitter tools to follow almost anyone (usually related to a search term). I know one person who joined Twitter and only ever made one tweet. 6 months later he is still gathering followers! You have to wonder who, if anyone is benefiting from this kind of ‘following’.

Time:

Either spending too much or too little time on Twitter is often a trap for new would-be marketers. Twitter is a great place but it is easy to become distracted and wander off following links or twittering for hours on end. At the other end of the scale are those who try to automate every aspect of their Twitter account. Full automation is very recognizable and won’t get the marketer anywhere on Twitter.

Getting hooked into make money scams:

With Twitter becoming more and more popular so ‘get rich quick with Twitter’ schemes are also popping up in abundance. This is not to say they are all scams or won’t work, but be very cautious following up on these.

Twitter is a great place for making new friends and extending your knowledge. You can make money on Twitter, but be sure you go about it the right way. If you are new to Twitter and/or marketing you need to decide whether to dip a toe in and test the waters or jump straight in at the deep end. For the person who wants to socialize jumping straight in is fine. If you are planning to use Twitter as a marketing tool, it might be better to be a little more cautious.

4 Responses to “5 Common Twitter Traps”

1. Tweets that mention 5 Common Twitter Traps -- Topsy.com says:

   October 14, 2009 at 3:14 pm

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by .::Michael Duvall::., Togrul Guliyev. Togrul Guliyev said: RT @michael_duvall 5 Common Twitter Traps http://bit.ly/1coOeZ [...]

   Reply
2. Jacob says:

   October 16, 2009 at 10:20 am

   I agree with you on many points it seems like there are so many twitter scams out there and they all just want your money, nice article

   Cheers,
   Jacob Landy

   Reply
3. TimTop says:

   October 27, 2009 at 11:48 am

   Wow, I had no idea, I love your site .. you have so many great article on twitter.

   Reply
4. twitter says:

   November 4, 2009 at 2:29 pm

   I think id like to review this tool, you should contact me on my site.

   Reply