I have a pet peeve about Twitter. Actually no, it's not a peeve about Twitter, it's a peeve about some Twitter users.
Pardon me, If I sound a bit cranky, but here goes:
My peeve is with Twitter users who DM (direct message) me to thank me for following them and then try to sell me something in the same message. Geeze!
Have they stopped to think how low the barrier is to following others on Twitter? This is not something most of us consider too carefully, because the truth is, if you follow someone on Twitter who turns out to be a pain, it's soooo easy to UNfollow them.
So if somebody follows you, that's great, but it doesn't mean they are your fan - yet. If you manage to entertain, inform, assist, or somehow endear yourself to your followers, they might become fans, but give 'em a chance, puhleeze!
The truth is, these days, many folks are pinching pennies like never before, so the odds that we want to buy from you are pretty low, anyway. And the DM pitch is particularly annoying, because most cell phone packages charge per message, so I'm paying a whopping 10 cents for each of those little ads!
I got several of them just yesterday and I'm making a public declaration:
Any future twits who DM me with a sales pitch are going to get UNfollowed pronto!
Of course, most tweeple who make these sorts of faux pas are just clumsy newbies. They've probably heard that Twitter is a great marketing tool and have no clue how it works, so maybe I should be more forgiving.
As Twitter power user, Guy Kawasakie once tweeted:
@guykawasaki Nobody gets Twitter for the first 2 months.
So I won't hold a grudge, but I'm standing firm on my declaration.
If you're new to Twitter, I have advice: Spend the first two months listening to what others say and observing how they respond to you. Once you get it, then you can use it gracefully to build relationships and do some occasional marketing, without annoying your followers.
Oh, and for a less peevish post on this topic: How to Get Me to Follow You On Twitter (And keep my follow).
What's your pet Twitter peeve? Share it in the comments, below.
By the way, if you choose to follow me, I promise I won't DM you with ads. I'm at http://twitter.com/MasteryCoach.
