We all know there are official Twitter rules (like only 1,000 tweets per day – can I just say that if you’re tweeting 1,000 times a day, you seriously need to get a life?) and unofficial Twitter rules (like no auto-DMing “buy my book” links to all new followers). Well, I’ve come up with my own list of Twitter rules.
- Do not send me an auto-DM asking me to read your book/ visit your blog/ like your Facebook page when I follow you. I’ve actually gotten more than one “I bet you’d love my book!” DMs about books I HAD ALREADY REVIEWED. Made me want to go delete the review.
- Do not follow me just to get me to follow you. I stopped doing the followback thing when I realized that a couple hundred people had unfollowed me after I followed them back. Follow me because you like what I post, because I assure you I won’t follow you if I don’t like what you post. More on that later.
- If you choose to disregard Rule #2, at least give me more than 24 hours to follow you back before you reveal your rudeness by unfollowing me. I usually only have time to follow up on follows and RTs over the weekend.
- In case you missed the point of Rules #2 and #3, I’ll spell it out. It’s RUDE to follow someone solely to get them to follow you so you can subsequently unfollow them.
- If you only post links to your book and/or blog, I will not follow you. I have no problem with a little self-promotion. I post links to my own blog posts. However, I also post links to other blogs, articles, and RT a lot., as well as tweeting random stuff every now and then. I try to interact with other tweeps, but it’s hard when 90% of what comes through my feed is advertising. Someday I’m going to have time to cull the people who only post that stuff. Meanwhile, I won’t follow any new tweeps who do that.
I think I’m done now and five is a nice place to quit. How about you? What are your personal Twitter rules?