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By: Stefan Pinto, guest blogger
Do you ever come across those people who seriously make you angry on Twitter? People who are clueless about everything around them save themselves and really perpetrate everything “the media” and critics, alike, say is wrong with Twitter? If you know them, send them this…
1. Auto direct messaging new followers.
Incredibly annoying, not to mention disappointing. An auto direct message is equivalent to a 1980s answering machine message: “Hello? Are you there? Ha ha, you’ve reached my machine…” Dumb. Twitter auto direct messages are a waste of time and as they come in via a text message, this makes it super annoying.
Turn them off. Now.
*cough*unfollow*cough*
2. Tweeting someone you know nothing about simply because they used one of your “marketing” buzz keywords.
After I posted a TwitPic that my car arrived in LA, Allstate quickly tweeted me suggesting I contact them for auto insurance on my “new car.” Had Allstate read *any* of my other tweets, they would’ve realized that the car was not new, I despise Twitter spam and I loathe insurance companies. #rant.
FYI: Allstate even went so far with an(other) @ reply telling me that it is “marketing.” #fail
3. Continually tweeting “get more followers by…” “how to get more followers now…” “increase your followers instantly…”
Aaargh! We are following you presumably because you used to be interesting. This is useless rubbish. Besides, those that are unfortunate enough to fall for it, end up invariably becoming annoying themselves.
4. Never engaging in any “@” conversations.
Ever go to a cocktail party and just talk about yourself? Zzzzzzz. Twitter is about engagement. Recognize that other people have something to say: respond, comment, RT their posts.
That is why it is called “social networking.”
5. Not reading your DMs.
How aggravating is it when someone gives you their email address, only for them to later tell you, “oh, I never check email.”
DMs (direct messages) are personal and sent only to you — presumably for a (networking) reason. Use TweetDeck. Your DMs show up automatically. 
6. Complaining on Twitter, one tweet after another, after another.
Yes, times are tough and a lot of us are up the creek without a paddle, but frankly, this is why we don’t need to hear it. Imagine turning on TV and seeing people scream and yell about their problems? Wait, that is on TV.
7. Tweeting like the media wants you to.
Twitter really isn’t about people tweeting mundane, useless trivialities, “finally woke up,” or “ha, ha, yes to the party” or other bizarre messages that no one knows to whom you’re tweeting (if anyone *cough*Facebook status*cough*).
Be engaging, be informative, tweet something useful — preferably, riveting.
8. Tweeting only links, with no title, like “Wow, check this out – link” Um… no.
Google indexes your Twitter post and if you’ve never received a Google Alert with one of your Twitter posts, then chances are, your tweets are not searchable and quite possibly not useful to anyone. Remember, Twitter is networking.
Be useful.
9. Not Re-Tweeting, anything, ever.
Come on, play nice. Remember there is no “I” in “Team” and if you want to be considered — at all — on Twitter, you need to RT. Of course, it should be within your “niche” or somewhat interesting to your followers.
10. Following everyone, without a care in the world.
That is up to you, but be careful, as some of those followers are Bots, or worse, some silly girl wanting to show you something that isn’t work safe. The more people in your Twitterfeed, the harder it is to weed out the useful tweets from the not-so-useful.
Besides, you could catch a virus and we have enough Swine Flu drama in the world…
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Stefan Pinto is a freelance writer and adventure seeker. In 2000, he handed AT&T their laptop and said, “I quit.” He lives in Los Angeles. Find him @StefanPinto.
Copyright © 2009 SashaH. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.
