You’re on your way to becoming a Twitter Ninja — you’ve finally got some of those “Big Name” Twitter guys and gals following you and you’re following and interacting with a significant number of people in your social network. It’s become crucial to manage your social media time efficiently. Seeing updates from the same person that are consistently un-useful can be annoying at best and will get that person unfollowed or blocked at worst. Here are five tips to help you avoid being “that guy:”

Bored – “I’m sooo bored. Anything fun going on tonight?” Wow … you’re bored, huh? I can’t imagine being bored. There are so many things to do and only so many hours in the day — if I have a free hour or two to kill, I consider myself lucky these days. For the busy, motivated social media marketer, seeing updates about how bored someone is seems like a counterproductive waste of valuable time.

Depressed - “Ugh. Why can’t people just be real. This job is killing me. So depressing.” We all get down sometimes. We all have problems. We don’t all have to share them with the Twitterverse. I’m not saying everything has to be roses. But I’m definitely not on Twitter to read about your problems. Again, there’s just not enough time in the day to spend any of it on reading about someone’s mood. If that person is a great friend of mine, fine. But that’s what a phone call or text message is for.

I - You know the type. “I, I, I” is mostly used by people who don’t get Twitter. They spend all their time on Twitter posting mundane, self-centered updates because that’s what they think Twitter is for. Most of the people I’ve spoken with who are all over Facebook but think Twitter is stupid tell me they see Twitter as just the status update section of Facebook, with none of the other features. They don’t get the “social” part of social media. It’s not about posting whatever pops into your head – it’s about engaging in relevant conversation. This is not to say you can’t post relevant updates about where you are, what you’re doing, etc., as long as what you’re posting is of importance to your followers. “I can’t wait for the new season of True Blood!” … “I love summer!” … “I’m getting my drink on tonight!” … I don’t care.

Help – “Please help my child win the cutest kid contest by voting here!!” … “Help me reach my goal of 1,000 followers!! Pls Retweet!!” Let me clarify: I’m not against someone asking for advice or seeking help from their network — that’s part of what they are there for. But the word “help” — especially accompanied by multiple exclamation points — can too easily sound desperate and fall victim to the “boy who cried wolf” syndrome. I might pay attention and even take action once, but if I see a similar request for “help” repeatedly, I’m going to glaze over pretty quick when I see your posts. Asking someone to vote in a trivial contest or to invest precious time and energy to help you reach a petty goal can get you ignored quickly.

Any word that makes the reader feel they’re being sold to - I know this isn’t one word, so it’s kind of cheating, but it’s important. People don’t want to see a sales pitch in their social media interactions. The reason they are there is to share and consume information, not be marketed to. Social media is about real-time sharing of information and fostering conversation. The engaged social media user wants to inform themselves and make a buying decision based on their own knowledge, not click on the first post they see that says “The BEST System For Making Money Online – Guaranteed!”

Do you agree or disagree with these? Would you add any annoying trends you see from people in your network?

picture credit: Sparkey Davis