I first posted this as a series of Social Media and Web Service posts on my business blog but since I combined my websites all together a lot of the business posts got lost along the way so I’m re-posting my favourites.

Rather than focusing on what you should be doing on Twitter it is much simpler to get used to the things that lose you followers or make you unpopular and from that point most things are positive.
This list is split into two posts because it got a bit too long, I asked people for their dos and don’ts online and along with my own this became a rather extensive list. I’ve also added a few tips for good behaviour on Twitter at the end as well!

You can really very simply summarise what not to do on Twitter by saying; don’t be rude, pushy or cruel. However, this means lots of things to lots of people and there are many little things that some people may not even know are annoying their followers so here’s the list of things that I believe are the most annoying things to do on Twitter:

What Not To Do:
1. Re-tweeting one account too much.
2. Over-advertise yourself, it’s boring and you’ll lose followers.
3. Using lots of capitals letters, especially randomly throughout messages
4. Direct Messaging people with sales pitches, it’s almost never welcome and not very productive.
5. Using the ‘Egg’ picture that Twitter gives you before you add your own, you look like a spammer.
6. Cramming your tweets all into one period and then say nothing for a long time – splurge tweeting.
7. Follow-backs are the first thing most people complain about on twitter, don’t expect someone to follow you right back, they will if they want to and don’t follow people just for a follow back, that’s not the point of Twitter.
8. Having a blank profile. Be open in your profile, you don’t need to share lots of personal information but putting something down shows you are a real person/company not a spammer.
9. Thanking everyone who follows you, especially in the main timeline – it’s really tedious and often goes into splurge tweeting again.
10. Using text-speak and too many emoticons. Yeuch.
11. Re-tweeting part of a series of tweets so it makes no sense even if it is the best to RT if you’ve read all of them.
12. Follow and un-follow and re-follow and un-follow – it’s just plain rude.
13. Telling someone you sent them a DM or Email, if they are on Twitter they probably are capable of checking their emails and it seems pushy.
14. Over-integration of other social networks. Make sure you want to share on multiple networks, especially if your followers overlap between them.
15. Being mean. This sounds simple but everything seems much harsher when coming in 140-character bursts over the internet, it’s much easier to be hurtful than you might think. If in doubt just don’t say it.

And a few things that you should do…
1. Keep a balance of business and personal information
2. Share things that you think will be interesting
3. Join in conversations, that’s what Twitter should be about
4. Follow people you find interesting and want to hear more about
5. Use Twitter’s functions, such as lists to make the most of it

Part two of this list will be coming soon!

Vick