No, I didn’t accidentally repeat “Guide”. This is a Guide to Twitter Guides. In other words: Another Twitter Guide Rant. I actually don’t agree with any Guides you read on other sites, because they all basically have the same flaw in their Logic: It has to be your target to get as many followers as possible. And i ask my self: Why is that?
Let’s take a look at the most common “Pro Tips” you get on other sites:
Always follow people back who follow you.
They don’t tell you why you should follow someone who you’re not interested in. Of course, it’s good to take a look at everybody’s profile when they start following you… but if you don’t feel like it’s interesting, there is really no need to follow them back. Many of the people who follow you just follow you because they want to be followed back, not because they are actually interested in your updates… they probably don’t even read them, so except for your follower number, it doesn’t make any difference. Big Achievement, right? I wonder how many spam bots or people who just want to be followed back are in the followerlists of people who have over 1000 followers. (Preparing for this post would have been the right time to check this, I know). Is it unkind to not autofollow back? If you are someone who uses Twitter exclusively for personal purposes it might be. But I’d find it even more unkind to follow someone without being interested in him. It’s shallow and I don’t think shallow things are worthwhile… even on the Internet.
Twitter is not an IM Client
If you want to use it that way, why not? If it’s a discussion between two people that has some useful info for others or someone is interested and wants to jump in ooor if it’s just something funny other people can laugh about, I say go for it. If you’re more comfortable with having conversations in a Séparée, you don’t have to use it that way, but I encourage people to do so, because your followers will get to know you better by seeing how you interact with others. Will make it more personal and >>I<< think that is a worthwhile goal. I am a fan of personalities, not only of information. Of course, if you don’t feel comfortable about it and you don’t want people on the internet to know you THAT well, stick to MSN/ICQ/E-Mail. If you just got started with twitter or you just think about signing up and didn’t really get what it is now, here’s a small explanation: Twitter is basically micro-blogging with real time updates, at least if you use a client. You can use it for Life-streaming Platform, as Search Engine, Marketing tool, Newsfeed or Instant Messenger. You don’t have to tweet to use twitter, It’s oke if you just want to get notifications from your favorite websites or celebrities or if you just want to get recent results for a keyword, not ranked like on other searchengines. It’s up to you.
Don’t curse on Twitter.
Yeah, it will fuckin drive all your shitty followers away and you’ll suck the fail whales tail in hell for it… But… What if you’re like me and you like curse words? What if it’s just the way you express yourself? Should you limit yourself to a replaceable shell of your personality on twitter just because some other people who wouldn’t like you in the real world anyways will stop following you? Hell No. Some Sites say “it’s all public, it might cost you a future job” or so. And yes, this could be true. But if you digg in the dirt long enough you probably find something bad about one on the Internet for everybody, and cursing isn’t exactly the worst thing one could find, because, let’s be honest, everybody does it. It’s like farting. Some think it’s funny, others are disgusted when others do it, but sometimes they still do it themselves. I’d rather have my future boss looking at me using foul language on twitter than that e-signature under that petition for legalizing marijuana i signed some years ago, which has been for years one of the first results google gave you when you looked for my name.
That’s it for now. Just stay true to yourself… and celebrate that.
