Andrew and Pete tell us what to avoid on Twitter

I’m pretty sure I’ve made every Twitter mistake in the book. Luckily I got most of them out of the way before I had too many followers. No one noticed, at least I hope they didn’t.

But it seems my Twitter mistakes may not be behind me after all.

I spoke to Andrew & Pete about some of the biggest Twitter faux pas and got some great tips on how you can get more from the network.

Twitter Mistakes That I Make (Apparently)

1. Tread carefully with Crowdfire

Crowdfire is a great tool for managing your Twitter followers. You can purge inactive accounts, find people to follow and more. But it’s the automation that puts people off.

It’s tempting when you find a tool like this to use the ‘auto DM’ function to send messages to new followers.

The problem is:

They’re annoying
Unless you pay to get rid of it, your DM will include ‘sent via Crowdfire’ at the end

As Andrew & Pete said:

“What’s worse than an un-personalised automated DM? An un-personalised automated DM with “sent via Crowdfire” at the end. You haven’t even bothered to pay for this app that’s going to send me this un-personalised DM.”

2. Don’t tell the world how unpopular you are

It’s easy to get obsessed with numbers. There are numerous tools out there that will tell you how many followers you’ve gained or lost in the last week.

You may not be aware of it but some of these apps could be sending sneaky automated DM’s into your newsfeed telling people just how unpopular you are.

This happened to me once, I was mortified.

Imagine if someone visits your profile, will they be encouraged to follow you if they see a tweet at the top of your timeline telling people how many unfollows and follows you’ve had?

Check your timeline, is there an app sneakily sending out these updates? If there is it’s time to ditch it.

3. Don’t get tag happy

I know you’ve spent hours on that blog post or video but resist! Don’t be tempted to upload a photo with your blog post and tag the world and its sister in the image.

Yes, you might get a couple of retweets but you’ll annoy everyone else.

Instead, use Andrew & Pete’s “Sneak & Tag Collab”. When you include an example in your blog post, video or content tag them when you share. But only them.

They’ll be chuffed you included them and will be more likely to share.

4. Do thank people but don’t automate

Genuinely thanking people, when you aren’t just doing it because there’s something in it for you is a good way to build relationships. But, don’t be tempted to automate this. Be creative with your thank you posts.

Pete suggests replying with a personalised Twitter message. This will make the recipient feel special.

Andrew & Pete have recently created a series of Gifs that they use to respond to tweets. Find out more and how to create your own Gif channel in their article for Social Media Examiner.

Andrew & Pete’s top tip for doing it right?

“Be proactive, reach out to people and form a relationship by asking questions.

A lot of our clients say they don’t have time for Twitter or social media so they use tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, Edgar, MissingLettr to automate.

Our point of view is that instead of automating, take the time you spend scheduling and just speak to people on Twitter for an hour a week. You’ll get far more from the one-to-one interaction than scheduling automated content.”