Top Ten Twitter Turn Offs

I've blogged about Twitter before. But as it seems to change almost weekly, and as I'm closer to10k followers now (brag brag) I thought I'd do an update. But rather than tell you how to tweet, I'll tell you what turns me off a tweeter (and I'm not alone - I checked)

RTing too much. 
Everyone loves a RT and it's good to share other people's tweets and links. Bloggers especially adore it if you share their tweets with links to their blogs. But RTing the same person, all at once in a huge RT dump is lazy and annoying, after a RT I might take a peek and follow that person, if I'm not bothered I won't . If I follow them you don't need to RT 10 tweets of theirs, I'll see them anyway. And if don't follow them chances are it's because I don't want to see their tweets - a string of them is going to be a turn off. I might even turn off your RTs from my timeline, thus never seeing a single RT you tweet ever again, even the important ones. Do a single RT and suggest people follow the tweeter if you really think their stuff is that good.

RTing competitions. 
Everyone loves a RT comp. I know I do, I've even won a few but try to space your RTing of them out a bit, otherwise you'll clog up people's timelines with tweet after tweet of "RT to Win", and quite frankly that's boring. As above you might find people switch off RTs from your account, but worse, people that don't know how to do that - or those of a tetchy nature, might just mute you or unfollow.

Auto DMs.
On twitter there is the ability to send a private message or 'DM' (direct message) Some apps allow these to be automated and they can be used as a greeting. Some bloggers swear by them for increasing interaction on other social media but in my experience, and the experience of many other people, it's a huge and annoying turn off. If I get a DM I expect it to be necessary and important - if you just want to say hello or thank me for following, you can do that in a public reply. Thanks. Personally I reply automatically to auto DMs with the following:
You are welcome to use this approach too.

Auto tweets. 
Horoscopes are high on this list. Why do I care about your horoscope? But also telling me how many followers you have gained and lost on a daily basis (I don't mind occasionally being told you are having a clear out btw, that's amusing and we all like a good purge, it's the automated tweets that are so tedious). Or game auto tweets, I don't care your grew a new fish, killed an extra ninja, gained a new star etc. Why not take a wee look through the applications that have access to tweet on your behalf once a month and remove the ones that you don't need. The saddest accounts are the ones where a tweeter has left twitter and for the last 3 months all there is on the timeline is a stream of horoscopes....

Huge reply 'chains'. 
Recently twitter introduced a fabulous new feature which sounded cool until you actually used it. The Twitter names of people in @replies no longer count toward the over all character limit. Handy if a couple of people are in a conversation, but less so as more and more people join. In fact for reasons no one understands, Twitter allow up to 50 people in a single tweet. If you are chatting in a chain of people this large and each person replies to each tweet (often with an inane 'LOL me too' ) you mentions column on twitter goes crazy. Luckily you can mute conversations, but of course you might miss something, it's a risk I take though. Once there are more than 5 people in a tweet, I bail out. It doesn't help that Twitter hides the list of people so it can be hard to spot that you've joined a huge chain.

Unsolicited advice. 
This can range from the best place to buy a dress to medical advice, most of the time if people want advice they will ask. If you know someone really well of course it's like any friendship and you can chat away, but if you have just followed someone, or worse, still don't follow them but spotted a random tweet about diabetes, telling them you have a cure is definitely a twitter turn off! People often chat about things and ask for help, if you like helping there are plenty of tweeters out there for you to @reply to, just try and confine it to those that ask. No one moaning about "another night up with my colicky baby" wants to hear that they are doing it wrong and you are the guru, if they want advice they'll ask, otherwise, assume they tried your idea already.

Constant link drops.
If you are a blogger or even if you read the news a lot it can be tempting to add lots of links to interesting articles (I do it myself) but try and chat as well. On mobile phones many people won't click through to read now and will forget about it later. Add a few links by all means but keep up the chat - a tweet stream that is all links is broadcast media, not social media, to be social we start debate, and we reply. Give it a go.

Never replying to anyone. 
Following on from the link drops, those tweet streams that are just post after post with no interaction at all, annoy me. If you never reply to anyone else it shows a lack of social-ness in your social media. Don't be the person that is all 'me, me, me' . Reply to people that send you @ messages but also reply to tweets people send. You liked a cute cat picture? Tell the person that posted it. You laughed when they dropped their ice cream in their lap? why not tell them about when you sneezed on your dentist to make them feel better, have a chat, it's nice.(Thanks for reading this far by the way, have you done something new with your hair? it looks nice)

Tagging someone in a conversation that's about them!
Unless it's something nice. If person A is slagging off person B do not tag person B in the tweets. The same for companies, if the original tweeter wanted them to know they could tag them themselves. If you think it's worth tagging, for example a brand has let someone down, send a DM to ask them if they know that 'company B' is on twitter, tell them the @name and let them tag if they want to. Of course if someone is saying how absolutely fabulous and amazing I am, then do by all means tag me, somethings should be shared....

Being mean. 
You'd think this would be obvious but starting a fake account, lying, trolling (*deliberately saying provocative things you don't mean, just to get a rise out of someone), and being unpleasant for your own entertainment is the biggest Twitter turn off of all. At best you'll be blocked and ignored, you may be reported to twitter. At worst case scenario you can be reported to the police. Play nice or don't play. You have 140 characters, try and spread joy, we really have enough pain in the world without your 2ps worth.

Big thanks to the other bloggers and tweeters who shared my pain.

What the Redhead Said
A Cornish Mum
The DADventurer
Tattooed Tealady
Counting to Ten
Over 40 and Mum to One
Amy Treasure
Scrapbook blog
Illustrated Teacup

What are your top twitter turn  offs? (oh and do we follow each other there? @Tattooed_Mummy )