Writer's Wednesday: Twitter To-Don't list or a rant.

Okay, so we’ve talked a bit about social media on here.  Not my post, I think it was Nikki’s. Anyway, last week on twitter, I went on a semi-rant about DMs and self-promotion and, to my surprise, there were a LOT of twitterers who felt the same way I did. One such person even said I should do a blog post.  Since it was a great idea, here it is.  :P 

This post is going to be a “to-don’t” list about twitter.  Some, heck maybe even most, of these are going to be my personal pet-peeves, but I figure if they annoy me, they’re probably going to annoy someone else.

1)   self-promotion: 

Yes, it’s a great idea to promote your book on Twitter, but please DON’T make every tweet about your book.  If someone follows me, I check their stream. If I see that most of it is self-promotion, then I don’t follow back.  Period.  Even if I LOVE the book and have already bought it, I’m not going to follow back.

           

            In that same vein, if I decide to follow you or follow back and you send me a DM that says something like, “Thanks for the follow. Please check out x, y, z for a list of my books, “ or whatever. I’m probably going to unfollow. If you want to say thanks for following, great. Do it. I do that, too.  But don’t follow that thanks with a link.  Chances are I’ve already followed all the links you’ve provided and have looked at your website, fansite, blog, whatever.  If I wanted to buy a book, I’ve added it to goodreads or went out and bought it.  Don’t make me feel like I’m at a used car lot.

Another thing, don’t fill your stream with stupid stuff, like so and so vs so and so, so it appears you are not constantly promoting your book.  Reach out to your followers.  Say Hi. Tell us about your crappy day at work, so we know you’re human and not just a bot.  Tell us you have a secret and can’t tell us what it is.  LOL. Social media is a conversation. People follow you, because they want to say they “know” you. 

2. Following people so they follow back.

            This happens a lot to me, probably others, and it really makes me angry.  Someone will follow me for whatever reason.  I look at their feed, their website, whatever they have listed, and decide for whatever reason, not to follow back ( I can’t follow everyone, as much as I’d like to.).  Then a few weeks later, they’ve unfollowed me.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out they unfollowed me because I didn’t follow back.  And honestly, it hurts my feelings a tiny bit.  Not that they unfollowed, but that they didn’t follow me because I was interesting or because they wanted to hear what I had to say, but that they just wanted me to follow them back. 

3. TMI

            Yes, peeps, there is a thing as too much information in Twitterverse.  I don’t want to hear you stink and need a shower, or about your underpants.  I don’t want to know about your sexlife, or how gassy you’ve been lately.

           

            Sure, I’d love to hear about your kids. In a non-personal sorta way (i.e. don’t use their names. We don’t want them hurt because you shared too much info. about them online.)

            On-line fights with other people.  Take that to personal email folks.  As entertaining as it might be, those things get ugly fast.  If you have a disagreement with another twitterer, keep in mind all this is public.  Everyone who follows both of you will see the whole thing and whatever you say could come back and haunt you or them.

As I’m writing this, I’ve realized this list can go on and on and on, so I’m going to stop here.  But basically, use common sense with all this stuff.  The Internet is one giant Big Brother.  They’re watching you all the time.  You’d better be on your best behavior.  :D