Twitter® Marketing For Dummies®

Chapter 16. Top Ten Don'ts on Twitter

In This Chapter

• Making the human connection on Twitter

• Keeping your Twitter life manageable

• Remembering your marketing strategy

• Using a Twitter app

This chapter lists the top ten pitfalls, mistakes, and practices to avoid when you're using Twitter to market yourself and your product(s). Take note! This is some of the most important content in the book!

Don't Auto-DM

I discuss the pros and cons of auto-DMs in Chapter 7, but it's important enough to mention the concept again. Never hard sell an individual on your product or services through automatic direct messaging.

No user in his or her right mind likes to receive an automatic and un-human message selling your product or service. You can send a simple auto-DM of "thank you for following," but I recommend you send all DMs personally, not automatically.

Don't Say It on Twitter When It's Better Said in Person

It's extremely important to avoid having simple or private conversations through the main Twitter feed. For example, if you want to ask a friend if he would like to attend a party, that question is best asked through DM (direct messaging). A conversation between two people should be made through the Twitter feed only if it adds value to the rest of the group. (If knowing that a person is attending a party with someone else provides value to you, you probably should find a hobby.)

Figure 16-1 shows an example of an exchange of a simple conversation between two people that's not giving any substance to ...