In Germany there is a saying “Das schießt den Vogel ab”. Translated it means “That shoots the bird down” and you say it if something crossed the line and is completely wrong. I thought this little journey into my native culture might be a good introduction to this post. But who cares about introductions… or Germans, right? ; )
I just read a list over at PCMag. Thirteen Things you shouldn´t do on twitter. They actually call it the “Top 13 twitter Don’ts”, but I don’t like the the use of the word “Don’t” as a nomen, so we´ll stay with the first thing i said wrote. Soo, now we´ll check what I already did that I shouldn´t have done and why I am doing it the way I do it.
PCMAG.COM says
1. Don’t live-tweet TV shows. @CorinneIOZO warns that lots of people use DVRs or watch shows on Hulu these days, so spoiling big moments (“OMG, the smoke monster was actually from outer space! No way!”) is a major no-no. As an alternative, tweet an inside joke that the shows viewers will get, but that doesn’t give away any important details.
Am I doing this?
I´m doing this every time Bayern Munich or FC Nuremberg have a Soccer Game. Not the actual results, just when someone of my team scores. I understand that it´s annoying, but i can´t quit. I´m GUILTY
Why?
Because i feel joy. Really. I don´t think about it before I do it. I don´t even watch at my computer screen when I write it and still have my eyes on the TV, just something i want to share with the world.. It. Just. Happens.
PCMAG.COM says
2. Don’t say anything that could get you fired or prevent you from getting a job. @JoelSD points out that if your tweets are public, they really are open to everyone, as has been demonstrated time and time again.
Am I doing this?
I think i already tweeted many things that could have gotten me fired. But my Boss doesn´t understand a word of English, so this will probably never be an issue. Still GUILTY
Why?
Because sometimes i just feel like i have to share my anger with the world about things. Or funny stories from the office that my boss probably wouldn´t like to see on the web. What I do is that i don´t present the Name of the company i work for on the web, that things i do don´t get affiliated with them.
PCMAG.COM says
3. Don’t be boring. A simple rule that @kmonson follows is “Never tweet about food or the weather.” If your friends see one more “Good morning Twitterverse!” or “I had some awesome corn flakes for breakfast,” you’re getting un-followed.
Am I doing this?
I´m doing this. Every morning when i come to the office i´m tweeting the awesome quote from this video: “Siiittiiing in my chaaair nooooow” GUILTY
Why?
I see twitter not as marketing service or search engine. You can use it for that and sometimes I do it too. But basicly to me it´s lifestreaming and yeah, twitter is about “What are you doing?”. I´m just following their tagline :D
PCMAG.COM says
4. Don’t forget the Twitter lingo: RT is retweet, and @name is how you respond or give props to someone. Feel free to be generous with both your RTs and your @s.
Am I doing this?
RT is only the most common slang for retweet. there is also the > that destroytwitter uses and the (via @tekzt) that something else puts behind a retweet. But I´m also using RT and i´m always giving props. Finally I´m NOT GUILTY
Why?
Because Twhirl does it like that. If i´d use destroytwitter, which is also a great client btw, i´d use >, just because it adds it automaticly.
PCMAG.COM says
5. Don’t tweet more than ten times a day, or more than five times an hour, says @JasonCross00. It gets annoying and takes space and attention away from other Twitterers’ links and observations. If you have that much to say, maybe it belongs on a blog.
Am I doing this?
This apparently only applies to public tweets aimed at all your followers and not at replies. If you´re using twitter as an instant messenger, feel free to do so. I sometimes tweet 20 and sometimes only one or two times, but I´m GUILTY
Why?
Because i don´t count. I´ve missed my 500th tweet and I’ll probably miss my 1000th too if someone doesn’t accidentally take a screenshot of it.
PCMAG.COM says
6. Don’t reply to every single tweet. As @seanludwig points out, it gets old fast.
Am I doing this?
If you can reply to every single tweet.. hey you have to have strong typing skills. Even if I wanted: I couldn´t. And I just follow like 60 People. I´m NOT GUILTY
Why?
Why should I reply to something that isn´t interesting? It just doesn´t make any sense. But it really depends on how you´re using twitter. Some people use it as instant messenger and they might find it stupid that you don´t reply to every message. Seems like Sean Ludwig hasn´t thought about that.
PCMAG.COM says
7. Don’t tweet drunk, cautions @whitneyarner. Just like in real life, your followers might get a kick out of your drunk tweets, but you’ll probably regret them in the morning.
Am I doing this?
Dear Whitney Arner, no I have a rule for you: Don´t poke your tongue out at your followers on your twitter avatar :P I´ve actually broken this rule, i´ve broken it a few minutes ago and i´ll be breaking it again when i´ll tweet this blogpost to the masses ; ) GUILTY
Why?
No Reason umm.. i just haven´t thought about separating myself from my twitter account when i´m drinking. It doesn´t happen that often. But I think i never tweeted anything that i wouldn´t have tweeted if i wasn´t drunk. Except for the fact that i´m drunk of course.
PCMAG.COM says
8. Don’t tell us about something cool or life-changing without a link or picture (use a service like TwitPic for your photos, and a URL shortener like TinyURL or is.gd for your links).
Am I doing this?
I use those services but i´m not always providing a link. GUILTY
Why?
Because it’s just impossible. Everything I tweet about is either cool or life-changing. More documentation would mean less awesomeness.
PCMAG.COM says
9. Don’t retweet something and leave off the original Twitter poster. Always give credit to those who wrote it first.
Am I doing this?
You are funny. Sometimes it´s not possible to include the original twitter poster. GUILTY
Why?
because i have only 140 chars for something he/she/it had 140 chars. AND I have to add RT @tekzt before that. If possible of course, then I will always include the original poster, but if the message is too long, it´s the first thing that i take out. When i retweet something, I find it important that the info reaches my followers, not that they know who discovered that link. If he is the creator of the content they will see it when they click the link anyways.
PCMAG.COM says
10. Don’t ignore people who send you a direct message or a reply, says @LanceUlanoff. Part of the Twitter experience involves conversing with your followers when possible.
Am I doing this?
I reply to almost every @ i get, but direct messages have mostly been spam so I didn´t reply there. I still feel NOT GUILTY
Why?
Because i like People and conversation. I´m a People+Conversation Fanboy.
PCMAG.COM says
11. Don’t #hashtag every topic. After a while, your topics will be ignored.
Am I doing this?
I have given up on Hashtags. I almost completely stopped using them. NOT GUILTY
Why?
I thought they were useful, but i don´t feel like they really got somewhere. They would need to be somethign official and unique to topics, but often there are 3 or 4 topics using the same hashtag.
PCMAG.COM says
12. Don’t whine about people not following you, pleads @SaschaSegan. If you’re good at providing interesting stuff and you’re patient, you’ll get the followers you crave so badly.
Am I doing this?
It only bugs me that ONE person is not following me – yeah I mean you Mister Jeff Chandler ; ) No, srsly, I really don´t care that i don´t have high follower numbers. It´s not a numbers game to me. But since i just complained (and sometimes I whine inside that i can´t reach more people) I´m GUILTY
Why?
I really don´t want 1000000 followers. I don´t even want 1000. What i want is more people from the wordpress community following me because it´s actually hard to have or start open discussions on twitter when you reach just a few people. I also have a blog that could need some more comment love (you now, this one, hint hint) and of course twitter is a nice way to promote it, but it´s not a priority to push my follower numbers because having followers that don´t care is like having no followers. I still want to be able to use that thing as lifestream and not only as marketing tool and I´m not looking into having two accounts. But getting more in touch with some WordPress folks would be really nice.
PCMAG.COM says
13. Don’t tweet your bathroom habits. Seriously. Just don’t do it.
Am I doing this?
I´m not doing this, but I´m actually following a GIRL who does that and I find it ridiculously funny. She starts the day with “fuckityfuck, my armpits stink so bad” and says other things like “Fuckin freezin!Dunno where me clothes are!” and (here it is:) “need a shit too. Would u like a picture when I’ve done?”. I think she´s serious but i still have too laugh every time ; ) NOT GUILTY
Why?
Erm yeah, It´s just something I wouldn´t share with anybody. It´s very personal too take a crap, you know? I´ll only do that at rock im park festival ; )
GUILTY IN 8 OF 13
That probably makes me a bad twitter user. But hey, I still feel comfortable using twitter and here´s the ONE Thing I think you shouldn´t do on twitter:
Don´t care about your follower numbers. If someone unfollows you, it just means that he isn´t interested in your updates anymore. You shouldn´t care about him anyways then. It´s not a bad thing to get unfollowed by someone that doesn´t care and the reason shouldn´t matter to you. Sounds cheesy, but:
JUST BE YOURSELF
