Social Media Sonar Blog» twitter

When to Tweet?

Sean Nelson — Mon, 30 May 2011 20:38:05 +0000

Every day it seems like there is a new social media related application released. While I tend to try out a number of the applications that I encounter, the reality is that few of them do enough or specifically what it is that I am looking for.

I look for apps that:

Simplify Workflows
Save Time
Expand Functionality
Better Clarify Information or Data

Some of the tools I encounter are one trick ponies, others have more than one of these features. Either way the the apps I choose to use have to make sense from a business perspective.

A recent tool that I discovered is When to Tweet, created by Niklas Agevik and Stefan Alund. Whentotweet analyzes when your followers are active and gives you a personalized recommendation on what the best time of day for you to tweet is. Its a simple but powerful concept …Your tweets are most likely to be seen and responded to when your followers are most active.

It only addresses one of the four criteria listed above but better understanding when to tweet can help drive more traffic, engagement, conversions, etc.

I ran a report on @seanenelson, my Twitter account, and it showed the following graph:

The times listed are in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) so you will need to adjust the data to your time zone. You can do so at http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com. Here in Georgia I subtract 4 hours while in Daylight Savings Time and when we switch to Standard Time in October I would subtract 5 hours.

Looking at the chart right now I see that the best time for me to tweet is around 12:30 PM (adjusted from GMT to EST), but I also see that I have a window from 10 AM to 2:30 PM.

The current Free tool analyzes your first 500 followers and 200 tweets of each follower to determine the best times for you to tweet.

A Pro version, not yet available, is expected to analyze up to 1,000 tweets from up to 1 million followers. The current projected cost for a Pro report is set at $20. Not a bad one time or even annual cost to determine when you should be tweeting. My only request is that the Pro report return times based on the time zone the recipient lives.

You can sign up at the site to receive an email when the Pro Version is available.

My Verdict: A interesting tool worth checking out.

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1. The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3. Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4. Resource Center. If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients. Contact Us if we can help you.

Twitter Infographic

Sean Nelson — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:39:20 +0000

Infographics seem to be a hot trend among internet and online marketers. An infographic is simply a graphic representation of information, date, knowledge, processes, etc. And while they may seem to be a new tool to communicate, they have been around since the first caveman decided to practice graffiti on the walls of his cave.

Since 1980′s USA Today has used mini infographics to present data in quick, easy to digest manner. With the emergence of social media they seem to have hit a resurgence, moving from the simple USA Today model to more complex, visual representations of data.

If a picture is worth a thousand words than an infographic may be worth a million or more.

Yesterday as I was writing a new blog post about a new Twitter tool I discovered I decided that it would be cool to maybe add a Twitter infographic to the post. Eight hours of work later I decided that the infographic was strong enough to stand on its own and better the focus of its own post. I’ll post next week on the tool that I found that analyzes your followers to show you the best times for you to tweet, but for now I offer my Twitter infographic.

If you like the infographic please retweet it. (thanks)

I Suck and I’m Not Worth Following

Sean Nelson — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:14:45 +0000

A Quick Twitter Rant

Would you ever tweet that message on your Twitter account. I wouldn’t, yet every day I see people doing it.

Of course they are not doing it on purpose. In fact I think many feel they are actually to some degree shaming those that un-followed them. They just don’t realize that the jokes on them.

You can recognize these “I Suck” posts easily, they look like this: @ayz_abc @123_456 @some_person @yougetthepoint un-followed me today … checked by http:/any-number-of-twitter-followers-sites.com

So if you are someone who tweets the names of people who un-follow you, what’s the purpose? What do you hope to get out of the tweet. Do you actually think that someone that un-followed you is suddenly going to say “Sorry about that, please let me re-follow you”.

Do you actually take an un-follow so personal that you have to comment on it. I don’t get it.

When I see these tweets my first thought isn’t what a mean person to un-follow another human being. MY thoughts are how bad must this person’s tweets be for someone to un-follow them.

Am I missing something here?

How’s Your Social Media Swing?

Sean Nelson — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:59:49 +0000

I’ve heard it all. Social media is the greatest evolution in marketing to its the biggest waste of time and money. I agree with both. Its not the tool itself but how it is used.

If I had Tiger Woods’ golf clubs I would still suffer the same severe handicap. I do have a Ken Griffey Jr. autographed Louisville Slugger but I’m not likely to do more than stir air if I faced even your average major league pitcher. Its not about the bat or the club; its about the swing.

Hitters in baseball have batting coaches and even Tiger has a swing coach. Today we’re going to take a look at some basics to craft your social media swing.

Club Selection
Each hole that a golfer plays consists of weighing different factors to determine which club gives him the most likely chance to succeed. On a par 5 the Driver is likely to come out of the bag first. On shorter holes its maybe a Wood or an Iron.

In social media your club selection includes things such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, Flickr, Blogs, Websites, Landing Pages, Digg, Stumble Upon, 4 Square, PR Web, and the list goes on and on. You just need to choose the right club that will help you best put the ball in the cup.

Unless a golfer hits a hole in one each hole is likely to involve multiple club selections. The same is true for social media. When you craft your strategy you should be able to determine which of your social media clubs can help you achieve your goals.

The Right Swing
I normally hit my pitching wedge about 120 yards with a full swing. If I’m only 90 yards out I’m going to go a little easier on the swing. If I need to quickly get over a tree I’m going to play the ball towards the back of my stance. I vary my social media content in the same way, dependent upon the shot or response I’m looking to craft.

You really have a tremendous number of opportunities to craft content. Some of your options include Tweets, Wall Posts, Notes, Events, News Articles, Discussion Posts, Blog Posts, Video, Podcasts, Photos, Press Releases, Apps, and more. In golf the swing is the most important piece and in social media its understanding your communication options and crafting content that allows you to share value.

Ratings and Attendance
Professional athletes earn a lot of money for the skills they have mastered because fans buy tickets or the products they endorse. Look at the attendance differences at PGA events over the last 10 years when Tiger woods entered a tournament verses when he didn’t play in an event. There was a definite difference in perceived value.

In social media people will engage with you or your brand if they perceive value. Your job is to understand the value that your prospects are looking for. It could be white papers, applications, tools, or information presented in articles or blog posts. It also might be discounts, coupons, or special offers to those who follow, friend, or connect with you.

Fail to understand and deliver the value your social networks are looking for and you’ll spend a lot of time with little to show in return.

Be the Ball
If you want to use social media successfully then you need to have a plan. Too often companies simply start tweeting or connecting without a defined purpose. Its easy to be a hacker; being a professional takes a lot more time and effort.

Social media can make a difference or it can be a huge waste of time. Its how you use the tool that will determine if you break par.

Tags: advertise in alpharetta, advertise in atlanta, advertise in georgia, advertise in marietta, atlanta linkedin, atlanta social media, atlanta social media agency, atlanta social media marketing, atlanta social media marketing plan, atlanta social media strategy, atlanta Twitter, birmingham, blogs, charlotte, cheesecake, facebook blog, how to market with social media, how to use social media, jacksonville, linkedin blog, memphis, miami, nashville, orlando, sean nelson, Social Media, social media blog, social media for businesses, social media statistics, social networking, sonarconnects, tampa, twitter blog, You Tube, YouTube

Top Moments in Social Media

Sean Nelson — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:50:14 +0000

I was doing some research the other day and decided to see if I could find the definitive moments in social media. I was able to find numerous yearly top 10 reviews but didn’t have much success finding a list from the early 2000′s to today. So even though I didn’t find ”the” top moments, I did find some moments that I think would at least be on the list for consideration.

iPhone is Launched
Prior to the iPhone launch cell phones could access the internet ..the iPhone just did it phenomenally better. From the touch screen, to the emergence of apps, to actually being able to read a website on a smart phone, the iPhone took mobile by the hair and dragged it from cool to useful.

It didn’t take me long to pass my Blackberry on to my wife so that I could sport an iPhone.
Iran Election Protests
There have been revolutions and protests in closed nations before. Twitter though gave a face to the Iranian elections protests, allowing previous restricted content, photos, and stories to make it past the media monitors and filter to the masses.

Lack of a free press is no longer a hindrance to the truth being told or shown.
1st You Tube Video
America’s Funniest Home Videos, still running after 21 years, proved that people would engage in home made content. You Tube took it to another level allowing your average Joe to record a video from his cell phone and share it potentially with the world. What was once a site focused on entertaining video content has now become the number two search engine in the world. If you want to know how to do something, what better way to learn then to watch a video of the process.

It all started with a 18 second video talking about why elephants are cool …because they have really long trunks.
2008 Presidential Elections
In the 2004 presidential elections Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and LinkedIn were just getting started or had not even launched. What a difference four years made. Love him or hate him you can’t deny that Barack Obama and his campaign truly leveraged the new tools available to them. After the 2008 election, election politics have entered a new era.

I can’t wait until 2012.
Facebook Allows Non-college members
Facebook was successful as a social network for college and high school students, but at some point it was destined to hit a growth wall. Opening up membership removed any restrictions and from August of 2008 to August of 2009 Facebook added 200 million members. Facebook’s fastest growing segment is currently females age 45 to age 65, likely joining Facebook to keep up with children and grand children. Businesses and professionals have also jumped in head first, and its proving its value to drive bottom line results.

Now we just need to come up with a better solution for businesses other that fan pages or community pages.
2007 SXSW Launches Twitter Over the Tipping Point
In a stroke of genius the folks at Twitter placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages. Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant tweets, panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance spread the word. During the event tweets per day went from 20,000 per day to over 60,000 per day. The conference and buzz generated from it gave the service the traction it needed to grow.

Three years later over 4 billion tweets were sent in the 1st quarter of 2010.
TGIF Fan Woody Promotion
In September 2009 TGIF launched their Fan Woody promotion promising a free hamburger to every new fan if they reached 500,000 total fans by September 30. They quickly passed that goal and added over 1 million new people. In the process they generated a ton of exposure from the press, bloggers, and individuals passing the promotion on to friends and family.

TGIF showed its possible to quickly build a mass following with a great offer. The next step is to show that they can continue to engage and sustain their new fans.
LinkedIn Adds Functionality to Groups
LinkedIn groups have been around for a while but initially they were little more than places for members to join. There really wasn’t much functionality to the groups. In November of 2008 that changed. They added the ability to post discussion questions and news articles. Another key addition was that they finally added the ability to search for groups, making it easier for people to find relevant groups to join.

With these changes groups became a valuable way to connect on LinkedIn and to extend your reach. If you belong to the top fifty groups on LinkedIn you would be able to reach out and communicate with 4.7 million people.
Naked Pizza Drives 20% of their Business Using Twitter
A pizza restaurant with a Twitter account isn’t that exciting, but when you add that they credit Twitter with driving 20% ($200,000) of their revenue it makes you pay attention. Naked Pizza started tweeting in April of 2009 and within a few months had built up a significant local following. A one day Twitter promotion drove 69% of that days sales.

The key to their success is that they have focused on building their local following, communicating engaging messages sprinkled with promotional offers, and tracking every sale to determine which resulted from tweets. It doesn’t hurt that they created a all-natural, reduced-calorie, multi-grain, probiotic pizza that is not only healthy, but tastes good.
Broken Guitar Leads to 10 Million Bad Impressions
Dave Carroll’s guitar was damaged by baggage handlers with United airlines. When the airline refused to replace or pay to repair the guitar he took his case to court …the You Tube court. Dave wrote three songs about the experience and made videos for each which he put on You Tube. Those videos have now been viewed by 10 million people.

Hmmm, $3,500 to replace a guitar or 10 million bad impressions. Its getting harder for companies to hide from bad service.

If I had enough time I could easily list another 10 or twenty moments, but I do have a real job. If I had to choose my favorite it would either be Naked Pizza or David Carroll’s videos. I work with small businesses so the Naked Pizza story resonates. Plus being from New Orleans its nice to see more good news coming out of the city.

As a consumer I love that Dave was able to take a situation that was out of his control and take back control. In true lemons to lemonade fashion his simple protest became the differentiator that has broke his career into a new level.

What are some moments that you think could be added to the list? (be sure to include a link if available)

Social Media, Cheesecake, and Paying Attention: $5.99 to Create a Fanatic

Sean Nelson — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:12:43 +0000

What’s a customer worth to you? How many times will they buy? What’s their average purchase in terms of dollars? What’s the value if they go from a customer to a fanatic and generate ongoing word of mouth with everyone they know?

I recently posted a question to a LinkedIn group “Is Twitter Noise or an effective Business Tool?” The responses are mixed, though more see it as an effective business tool. But many say they just don’t get it. I think those that don’t get it just haven’t taken the time to think creatively and strategically about how to put to use the ability to communicate and engage with potentially hundreds or thousands of potential prospects, customers, and fanatics.

So let’s look at a success story.

Over the last year and a half we’ve managed Social Media for the group that owns the Copeland’s New Orleans Style Restaurants in Atlanta. Yesterday I noticed a tweet from one of their followers:

@ShaaMomanger
1:57pm, Apr 28 from UberTwitter

Happy Birthday To Me. I’m At My Favorite Restaurant @CopelandsATL In BuckHead. Think We Should Of Left @KingLilEnvazion At Home. LOL!!

I immediately called the store manager to alert him that there was a person in his store who just tweeted about eating at their favorite restaurant for their birthday. He was in the process of leaving for a meeting but said he would look to see if the person was in the restaurant.

While he was doing that we sent two tweets to @ShaaMomanger:

@CopelandsATL
2:07pm, Apr 28 from HootSuite

@ShaaMomanger If you are still at Copeland’s the manager, Glen, is looking for you.

and;

@CopelandsATL
2:09pm, Apr 28 from HootSuite

@ShaaMomanger Happy B’day to U. Happy B’day to you. Happy B’day dear @shaamomanger. Happy B’day to you!

When is the last time someone tweeted you Happy Birthday? Unfortunately Glen could not find her before he had to leave for his meeting.

ShaaMomanger
2:49pm, Apr 28 from UberTwitter

RT @CopelandsATL: @ShaaMomanger If you are still at Copeland’s the manager, Glen, is looking for you <-At The Door. Glen Come Back. WaitN

No problem. Glen called me to see if I could help track her down. I made a quick call to the hostess, who actually knew who I was looking for. “She comes here for lunch all the time. I’ll take care of her”, she said.

@CopelandsATL
2:53pm, Apr 28 from HootSuite

@ShaaMomanger Glen left but we have you taken care of. The hostess knows you and should be with you shortly.

One piece of cheesecake later…

@ShaaMomanger
3:14pm, Apr 28 from UberTwitter

No Need For Anyone Else To Buy Me A Birthday Cake. My Friends Sue, Glen @CopelandsATL Took Care Of Dat. http://tweetphoto.com/20271942

How many people do you think she will tell about her experience? For nothing more than paying attention and $5.99 Copeland’s Atlanta just created a fanatic. Twitter is just another tool for you to use. You have to open you mind to discover how it can benefit your business or it will be “just noise”.

Tags: advertise in alpharetta, advertise in atlanta, advertise in georgia, advertise in marietta, atlanta linkedin, atlanta social media, atlanta social media agency, atlanta social media marketing, atlanta social media marketing plan, atlanta social media strategy, atlanta Twitter, birmingham, blogs, charlotte, cheesecake, Copelands, copelands atlanta, facebook blog, how to market with social media, how to use social media, jacksonville, linkedin blog, memphis, miami, nashville, orlando, sean nelson, Social Media, social media blog, social media for businesses, social media statistics, social networking, tampa, twitter blog, You Tube, YouTube

4 Twitter Statistics to Encourage Tweeting

Sean Nelson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:54:07 +0000

I was doing some research this week reading various blogs and news articles and decide to write down some of the statistics that caught my eye. A set of these statistics focused on Twitter and how people are using the service to take action.

43% Follow Brands on Twitter Looking for Deals and Offers
One of the first things we do with a new client is ask them the following question, “If I follow you on Twitter, what’s in it for me?”

Now we know that some people will follow a business back to help build their own network. But, what about others. Are you providing value to them? What will capture their attention?

Coupons, discounts, special offers are a great way to engage customers and prospects. We recently ran a promotion with Copeland’s Atlanta where they gave away $50 gift cards to the first 5 people that walked into a location and said “Best Brunch in Atlanta”.

The promotions was publicized using Twitter, which then fed into their Facebook account. “It was a great way to generate buzz about our restaurant, while also providing value to those who choose to connect and engage with us online.”, stated Bill Goudey, one of the managing partners.

“One of my favorite experiences was with a customer that ordered one of our Deep Fried Cajun Turkeys for Thanksgiving. She tweeted that she just ordered her turkey and that next time she hoped to have the money to also order one of our cheesecakes. When she came in to pick up her turkey I was waiting and gave her a cheesecake. She broke down crying. That moment happened because she chose to follow us and we paid attention to our followers. It’s powerful”, relayed Glen Helmstetter, a fellow managing partner.

Are you providing value to those who choose to follow your business?

23% Find the Content Interesting
This statistic definitely struck home. One of the ways I love to use Twitter is to search for tweets on a topic. In the past I might have used Google, but Twitter has become my primary first source for content.

Twitter searches per month (19 billion) outnumber Yahoo (8.4 billion) and Bing(4 billion) monthly searches combined. Google the King of Search currently has 88 billion per month.

If you’re looking for a website Google is still likely your best option. But if you’re looking for specific content Twitter is a viable alternative.

Its also a great way for me to share new posts that I write with those following me. Plus when a number of people retweet the message new people are introduce to my blog and I gain a number of new followers.

Are you using Twitter to search for and share great content?

24% are current customers
Your customers want to engage with you. They want to know that their voices can be heard. Many companies send out newsletters to stay in touch with their customers. You can create an online newsletter and use Twitter notify your existing customers of the latest newsletter, and also reach potential prospects.

In addition your customers are a great source of retweets, which introduce your messages to their network. Any customer communication you send out using email or mail can be tweeted. You provide an alternative way for your customers to interact with you, plus Google is indexing the content.

Are you leveraging your existing content to share on Twitter?

4% are Seeking Service Support
Before social media if you had an issue or a complaint you were left to call a 1-800 number, fire off a email, send a letter, or post a comment in an online forum. The first three of these kept the conversation between you and the company. The forum was at least a way of sharing your discontent.

Companies are starting to pay attention and use Twitter to resolve issues. Comcast has done a great job with their @comcastcares twitter account, actively searching out tweets from customers with complaints. They then try to resolve the issue online.

The fact that someone complains or makes a negative post isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In the past if a customer was unhappy you might never know, and lose a customer. With Twitter if they complain you at least now have an option to resolve the issue.

Over time I expect that the % of people using Twitter for service support will grow. Are you paying attention to your own buzz, positive and negative?

Wrap Up
Statistics can help you understand how people are using the available social media tools. Using the above statistics can help you plan you Twitter strategy so that you are focusing your efforts.

The world is listening, people are responding, and Google is indexing. All you have to do is tweet and retweet.

Is Twitter Noise or a Valid Business Tool?

Sean Nelson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:04:54 +0000

I’ve talked about the tools we use with our clients in the past, segmenting them as social networking tools (sharing conversations) or social media (sharing content). The reality is that on social networks you can share content and with the social media tools you can have conversations. The one that splits the difference is Twitter. Its the one that many business people don’t get.

LinkedIn is easy. Its a business professional social network that in simple terms is online networking. Facebook is more of a social interaction tool but with over 350 million people there are consumers and business people on it. And its easy to interact.

Twitter though is just noise right? The misconception is that its a bunch of people tweeting about their latest coffee conquest. The reality is… that happens, and a lot of people are ready to tell you the latest money making scheme. But there is also a lot of great information being shared by individuals and companies. And its a valid business tool.

Here are some thoughts on the business use of Twitter.

You Need a Plan
Like anything in life if you want to mazimize your results you need a plan. (Thats a Social Media plan and a plan for Twitter’s role) You ned to understand what you will tweet about. How often will you tweet. When will you tweet. Will your tweets seek to brand you, drive traffic, or both.

Most business people I know have the same problem …not enough hours in the day. If you don’t have specific times set to tweet you’ll likely find that after a week you missed some days. I use a Tweet schedule to lay out the tweets for our clients. I schedule two tweets a day for every day of the month.

My schedule is simply a spreadsheet with 6 sheets. On the first four I layout seven days broken into two hour increments. On the fifth I have 3 days for the 29th, 30th, and 31st. The last sheet is where I put the 62 tweets I write. I then add the tweets I’ve written into the schedule.

Over the month I will release a minimum of two tweets each day. If something else is wortth tweeting I’ll send it as well.

Target the Right People
There are over 25 million people on Twitter and numerous tools to target users by location, industry, tweet words, words in bio, etc. I use these tools to build a list of followers that fits each client.

You have to get your message in front of the right people to have a chance.

Keep in mind that if you want to add followers you’re going to have to initiate contact. On average for every 100 people I follow, 35 to 40 will follow back. You also need to make sure that your ratio of followers to following stays somewhat in balance.

If you’re following 1,000 people and 800 are following you thats fine. Keep in mind that as you follow more people you’re going to have to remove those that do not follow you back to keep your ratio balanced.

A good ratio break-point is 1.5 Follow significantly more people than follow you and people will wonder why others are not following you back. If you’re following is significantly lower than the number following you and you may be seen as self-interested.

Here’s a good timeline to follow: Add followers and give them three to five days to follow you back. After three to five days remove those non-followers, reciprocate with those who followed you, and follow more people.

Communication
Twitter can be the hub of your social media communication efforts. You can feed your tweets into the LinkedIn status feature, post your tweets to your Facebook account, and even to your Facebook Fan page.

On LinkedIn you can control which tweets update your status through the us of a LinkedIn hashtag. For our clients we only send tweets that are going to be relevant whether on twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook. If you using Twitter for business purposes then you should be able to do the same.

I’ve seen lists of the different types of tweets but for me I classify tweets as a branding tweets, traffic tweets, or informational.

A branding tweet communicates a message without a link. It might be a quote that I like, or it might be simply asking a question.

A traffic tweet is one that includes a link and the purpose is to drive someone to click on the link. This works great for sharing blog posts, articles, or driving someone to a landing page.

Informational tweets allow me to share information with others that was created by someone else. It might be a interesting article I found, a cool application, a great social media tool. etc.

The majority of your tweets should share value.

Slow Your Tweets Down
Tweets on Twitter have a short shelf life. How fast tweets move depends upon the number of followers a person has. A tweet to someone with a couple of thousand followers may only be on that persons first page for 15 seconds.

Two ways you can slow your tweets done is by filtering them into LinkedIn and Facebook. On LinkedIn your tweet will show in your status update until your next tweet. On Facebook that tweet is visible on your wall for three or four days if you’re tweeting twice per day.

When I review the click from tweets I often find that Facebook and LinkedIn produce more responses than retweets.

Wrap Up
Twitter is a great way to communicate to large numbers of people. There is a lot of noise, but if you listen close you’ll hear a lot of great information being shared. One thing I do is periodically use the search function to find tweets about a topic. This allows me to stay on top of what others are saying about social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, and a number of topics that interest me.

If you’re trying to figure out how to use social media to drive busines, Twitter is a tool that should be in your toolbox. It may take some time to get used to it but you’ll find that its a great resource to communicat, to share, and to learn.

7 Top Twitter Mistakes

Sean Nelson — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:48:50 +0000

The greatest tweet in the world is worthless if no one reads it. An OK tweet to a network of thousands is likely to produce more results than a great tweet to hundreds. Its a numbers game and you should be playing to win.

When new people to LinkedIn tell me they don’t know how LinkedIn will help them I tell them to “start building your network now so that when you do figure it out you’ll be ahead of the game”. The same goes for Twitter…if you don’t know why you Tweet, don’t worry. Start building your followers.

Here are seven mistakes to avoid if you want to grow a significant following:

Still Displaying the Brown Photo
For many this is an automatic “no follow” mistake. Its just assumed that if you have not taken the time to update your photo then you must not be serious or active on Twitter. If you’re not active, what’s the point of following you. Post a picture of your dog and you’ll have a better response to people following you.
Display a picture of your child
Your child may be cute but if that’s your Twitter profile I’m probably not going to follow you. I love children…have thre young ones now…but I don’t follow children on Twitter if I can help it. And I don’t take the time to click on the link to verify who and what you are.
Have a picture with your shirt off (guys…and girls I guess too)
I’m glad that you’re proud of the work you’ve put in at the gym but it doesn’t really come across well online. Buy a domain and post all of the skin photos you want.
Have offensive words in your posts
When I’m looking at who’s following me if I see some F-bombs, etc. I’m going to block you. Not that the words shock me or that I’ve never dropped one myself, but I don’t do it in what I consider a business setting. Along the same lines is use of other offensive or inappropriate words. Common sense is a good guide top follow.
Little or Infrequent Tweeting
If I notice that you’ve been on Twitter for 22 months and you have 12 posts I’m probably not going to follow you. What’s the point if I have to wait two months for the next words of wisdom. If you want more followers you need to be more active. Don’t go crazy and post 24 times a day, but at least try to post once every day or so.
Have a significantly larger number of people following you than you are following
If I look at your stats and see that 1,000 people are following you and you’re only following 100 I’m not going to follow you. You’re only in it for yourself so what’s the point. The exception is that if you information is so valuable that I don’t care about the discrepancy. If Mike the Tiger (LSU fans know what I’m talking about) doesn’t follow me back I don’t care.
Be following a significantly larger number of people than are following you
If I see that you’re following 1,000 people and only 100 are following you I’m going to think there is something wrong. Either you’re boring or offensive. Either way I’m taking a pass. Try to keep your following vs. followers in balance. Never let the discrepancy get to be more than a couple of hundred.

These seven mistakes were developed as I was going through hundred and hundreds of people to build my network. Avoid these seven mistakes and you should be able to start building your followers. Twitter is a great place to add as many people as possible to your network since the conversations tend to move extremely fast. Don’t stack the odds against yourself.

What are some that I missed?