How NOT to use Twitter.

If your going to run a group whose purpose is to help business share opportunities and gain new leads and client then you probably want to demonstrate that you have a good understanding of how to use each medium and how to get your message across. What you dont want to do is open a new twitter account on behalf of your group and then automatically post tweets targeted at random twitter users encouraging them to come watch your cool video. There is only one other group on twitter whose use of twitter matches that pattern and they are promoting some pretty unsavoury and malicious sites.

Lets have a look at this twitter account activity. The group have quite appropriately completed their Biography and provided a link to their main website as well as included an Avatar for their account.  That is where all the good things that can say about the twitter account end.

Look at those tweets, “From API” is not such a bad thing  since it means they are using an unregistered program to send messages to twitter. In this case the program in question is gathering random twitter users and sending the rather repetitive message “Thank You for following, See our Hilarious video of the breakfast meeting on the moon at http://bit.ly/51Em61 “.

First of all many of those twitter accounts mentioned ( a mention is the use of the @ symbol followed by the twitter account name ) have not actively followed the account in question. Secondly the use of the mention thanks to Twitters broken implementation of twitter messages means your going to see the tweet in your Mentions list.

There is nothing in the use of this account that suggest that the owners or the video owners have a good understanding of online marketing and social media. Maybe there is an opening in their chapter ?

Like wise the use of the spamming account is not winning friends or influencing anyone in a positive fashion with many other twitter account users asking the group to stop spamming them or to stop using an automated system.

The lesson to be learnt here is the same lesson as always. Be Genuine, Be Real and Be Focussed, you will be forgiven a LOT if you are able to engage and interact with your social networks but you will be the focus of Blogs and Scathing comments if you choose to automate your interactions to the level of a computerised calling card service.

Thanks for Reading.

Update:

I had posted a comment on their YouTube and on their Blog those comments have since been removed. From experience denying, burying and otherwise avoiding a social media issue does not resolve the matter.

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3 Comments on “How NOT to use Twitter.

  1. Ah, push vs pull…

    When will organisations/businesses/personalities realise that social media is about communication, conversation and engagement?

    Simply paying lip service to such powerful channels of communication because everyone else seems to be isn’t big or clever. Frankly, it’s stupid. If you’re going to have a social media campaign you HAVE TO ENGAGE. If you can’t do that, I’m sorry but that just makes you a spammer.

    Get it right.

  2. I’d just report them as spam to Twitter
    or would not that make any difference?

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