Twitter - You guys are being out classed by GMI on Twitter

[Oracle of Delphi]

C&G needs to get in the Twitter game, you want new members? Then this is how to do it. GMI has made huge inroads with GM's Senior staff, just letting you know ...

Twitter Etiquette: A guide to getting unfollowed

Twitter is hot. If the internet were high school, Twitter would totally be the knock-out cheerleading prom queen. You can’t turn on the news without hearing requests to Twitter the station your thoughts. Stores offer Twitter only discount codes. There’s the CNN/Kutcher race to gain a million followers. There’s Hugh Jackman’s promise to donate 100k to one individual’s favorite non profit, provided the person convinces him of their worthiness in one tweet. There are over 8 million people twittering. Even my husband is contemplating creating an account, and he’s always the last on board.

It’s an interesting place, Twitterville. I was hesitant to join— it’s hard enough to find decent subject matter to write on my blog, never mind interesting 140 character updates. But I succumbed, and I can see why people like it. It’s a fantastic networking tool. It’s a great place to get instant opinions on any number of topics, and to spew out fleeting thoughts. I have a tendency to keep e-mail correspondences going for way too long, always wanting to have the final word even if it’s just an emoticon. With Twitter, I don’t feel the need to respond to everything and I don’t get offended when people don’t respond to me. It’s fast moving and fluid and a great way to meet new people. And one of the greatest things is the ability to unfollow those new people in an instant if they piss you off.

Last night, I received an aggressive e-mail from someone I recently unfollowed inquiring as to the reasons I unfollowed her. The fact that she bombarded me with that question solidified my decision, but for her (and you,) here goes… The people I’m sure to unfollow:

1. The Twitter Addicts: You know, the ones who post a constant stream of tweets, every minute or two throughout the day. The people whose icons totally monopolize my screen and prevent me from seeing anyone else. What do these people do? Do they have jobs? Lives? Apparently Jennifer Aniston dumped John Mayer for being addicted to Twitter and I can see why. It’s annoying as hell.

2. The Auto Message Senders: Please don’t thank me for my follow and tell me how much you look forward to getting to know me. It’s a surefire way to guarantee that you won’t because I unfollowed you the minute I got the message. Tweet me or send me a personalized message or just ignore me. Please.

3. The Sketch Balls: Folks who follow thousands and have no updates or followers themselves, but want access to the inner workings of my head? No thank you, they get blocked from my updates.

4. The Pimps: People who do nothing but promote their own cause. Sure, I post links to my blog when I have a new post, and I’m fine when other people do the same. But people who do nothing but pimp themselves? I don’t want to see that.

5. The Lazy Bones: If you haven’t updated in six months, I’ll probably unfollow you. Nothing personal, but what’s the point?

6. Annoying Famous People: Celebrities who send public kisses to each other all day long. As fascinating as I find celebs, I prefer to read about them in US Weekly. On Twitter, they are a bit too much like “us” and I find it irritating rather than endearing.

7. The “Follow you, Follow me” folks: Have you ever been followed by someone only to follow them back to be unfollowed? How rude is that? Two can play that game, so consider yourself dumped.

8. Social Media Experts: What qualifications do these people have? I have a blog, a Facebook account etc. Maybe I should start calling myself an expert? Would you all buy that? Exactly.

9. The Overshare-ers: Twitter is innately narcissistic. Are any of us really as interesting as we think we are? Probably not. But do you really think that people want to know about the zit on your forehead or the dump you just took? Maybe they do, but I don’t.

10. The Sunshine Spreaders: Maybe I’m too jaded, but having messages constantly pop up that tell me to smile and love life make me want to punch the computer screen. Perhaps that’s my problem though.

Edited to add the following, because this list would be incomplete without and I wish I’d thought of them at six o’clock this morning…

11. The Bible Quoters: {Inspired by Barefoot Foodie} You love Jesus. You know Bible passages. A lot of people do, but is Twitter really the place to profess that? All day long? Not for me.

12. The Number Seekers: {Inspired by Marinka} “I need 876 followers to reach 1,000!! Please re-tweet!!!” And… what’s the point of doing this for you? Tweet something of substance and your numbers will grow. Keep doing this and they won’t. Or at least they shouldn’t.

13. The Contest Whores: Bloggers often offer an extra entry for their contest for tweeting it. There are many people who do nothing but tweet about contests, all day long. I believe these people should disqualify from that extra entry because they rarely have followers and the whole point is to gain visibility. And also they’re really irritating. A new laptop might be worth entering, but a box of two dollar breakfast bars? Not so much.

I might be willing to let you slide if you only possess one of the above, especially if you offer me some value mixed in (or if you’re hot, Ashton.) But, two or more and you’re history. And I won’t miss you one bit. And thank you, annoying woman for inspiring a blog post– I was stumped on what to write about today. Now I’ll go and Twitter about it. And you won’t even know, because I blocked you. So there.

Link: http://www.scarymommy.com/twitter-etiquette/

Edited October 23, 2009 by Pontiac Custom-S

[Drew Dowdell]

Cheers and Gears is on Twitter as @CheersnGears

[Oracle of Delphi]

Cheers and Gears is on Twitter as @CheersnGears

Yes I know, but C&G needs to get more involved in following and friending GM staff, GMI is getting many perks bye doing this and you will get new members here ...

[Robert Hall]

Tweet

[Blake Noble]

I stopped with the personal social networking BS at Facebook.

However, social networking is great for promotional purposes and a way to offer a more personal connection with your target audience. I know that, as far as the new music industry goes, it has allowed a lot of bands/artists to advertise their music for free and they can connect with as many people as they can reach, which can seem to be limitless.

C&G needs to ramp up the social networking advertisement most definitely. It could be used as one method to bring the site back to where it was back in '05 and '06 (early '07 too, before things started sliding downhill).

And in response to number six, I don't understand why people put celebrities on a pedestal. They are human beings like the rest of us with their own bullshit, drama, and issues to deal with. What I find personally annoying is when someone is so shocked at discovering this.

Edited October 23, 2009 by whiteknight

[Paolino]

I signed up for a twitter account over the summer. My friend is addicted to it, and I just can't get into it. I admit, I got overwhelmed by the insane amount of tweets I get from Alyssa Milano (I think she's just awesome and one of the only 2 girls I'd sleep with), but she was fair and warned she tweets a lot.

It just basically boiled down to the point where I said to myself, I just don't care. If anyone wants to shoot 140 characters to me about something they need to say, they can text me.

[02ChevySS]

Twitter is for narcissists who feel the need to tell everyone how much better they are because of their present situation described in 140 characters or less....when you only have 140 characters, you tend to leave out the reality and create your own world.

No one cares about what you ate for lunch or when you evacuated your lunch.

Twitter is not the reason GMI has eclipsed CnG.

[Satty]

Twitter is not the reason GMI has eclipsed CnG.

[Robert Hall]

At least C&G hasn't ended up like Josh's site. GM Source is nothing but a spam site now.

[Croc]

Heh, I'm tweeting now. I got on it the weekend I went to San Francisco last spring to help one of my good friends get elected to a position in a statewide organization. In doing so, I had to pretend to be a Republican to infiltrate the organization and position myself as a delegate. She ended up winning by a ridiculous margin, but no one knew that in advance, and there were indications it may have come down to who played dirty.

But yes, I decided to start tweeting because I was flying over the cuckoo's nest that weekend.

[Intrepidation]

I'm still not into those social networking sites but to get exposure they are the way to go.

[cletus8269]

No one cares about what you ate for lunch or when you evacuated your lunch.

Twitter is not the reason GMI has eclipsed CnG.

its like youre inside my brain, get OUTTA MY HEAD!!

[Camino LS6]

Not a twit, so I don't "tweet".

[Drew Dowdell]

Well, I just went into CheersnGears twitter account and followed 80% of the follower and following that GMI does.

BTW, we outclass GMI on facebook.... so there.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Well, I just went into CheersnGears twitter account and followed 80% of the follower and following that GMI does.

BTW, we outclass GMI on facebook.... so there.

Follow NSAP from GMI on Twitter, copy what he does, he's making headway with GM's Senior Staff and management, along with the Marketing people. Holden likes him a lot.

I'm not on Facebook, so I wouldn't know, too busy being a Narcissists on Twitter with the rest of GM ...

OK, have to go, about to lose my Internet connection because I'm on a day trip out of Hobart, Tasmania ...

[Camino LS6]

Hmmmm....

[Drew Dowdell]

Well, on Facebook, I regularly get news onto GM's Facebook page (linking back to C&G of course) waaay before GM does..... and I'm talking GM press releases even.