This is a guest post by Ashvin. If you wish to write one, kindly check out the guidelines to write a guest post.
Twitter simply cannot be ignored nowadays. Its rapid growth has made it the most popular microblogging platform available, and it is becoming an important tool both for individuals and businesses. This popularity is proven by the fact that Twitter is often unavailable during major events such as the World Cup 2010 Final. It has moreover played an important role in world-defining events such as the uprising in Egypt and the recent riots in London. Businesses are on the other hand using it to promote their products and services or as a reputation management tool (albeit one with a huge audience!).
However, for all its exceptional features and potential, Twitter is also a tool, which means that it will lose its effectiveness if not properly used. This article thus lists those annoying things you must avoid doing on Twitter.
1. Tweeting the same thing over and over again
Most blog owners and businesses have been guilty of this at one point. However, your followers will rapidly get annoyed and stop following you if you keep tweeting the exact same stuff all the time. Ideally, once you have published something on your Twitter profile, you should wait a few days before posting it again.
This also applies to situations where posting on one platform is also automatically updating your Twitter account. As an example, many users now link their Facebook and Twitter accounts. In these cases, when you are posting something on Facebook, you should ensure that you have not already tweeted the same thing. If that happens, it is a better idea to delete the offending post on Twitter.
2. Hashtag overload
Hashtag overload is another thing many people are guilty of doing, especially when they are new to Twitter. While it may be warranted in some cases, doing it for the sole purpose of showing up in more searches can be annoying. For example, a #travel #tourism #travelling #traveling #tourists hashtag is as weird here as it is on Twitter (sometimes even more!).
3. Posting links only
Posting only a link can be fine if you are doing it once a month but doing on a regular basis will not make people click on those unless you are some extremely popular guru. You always need to include some real content if you want people to pay attention, regardless of whether the link you are posting is description enough.
4. Asking people to follow you
If someone wants to follow you, they can easily find the button to do so. Posting a tweet simply to ask someone to follow you unsurprisingly does not make them actually follow you. It actually does the complete opposite.
5. Using direct messages to reply to a tweet
While there are some cases where you may actually need to direct message a Twitter user, you should always tweet back at other users who have tweeted at you. In those cases that you have no alternative but to direct message a user, take the time to tweet the latter to ask him to check his direct messages.
6. Leaving your profile empty
Just like you would want to read a summary before buying a book, an empty profile section leaves a poor impression. You should make sure that your profile information is always updated. People actually read those.
Ashvin writes on behalf of the Mauritius port agent Southern Marine, one of the leading shipping agents in the island and also a popular Madagascar shipping company.