Archive for Twitter Etiquette
Have You Been Phished?
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Please be careful what you click on in Twitter (and all social networking sites)!
If you receive a DM on Twitter saying something like “haha is this you?” with a link or other strange DMs please do not click on the link.
If you do click on the link please do not give them your Twitter Log In info, even if it looks like a Twitter page (it’s probalbly not).
This is how people get in to your account and send out those icky DMs to all your followers. This is called phishing, the mean person or program on the other end tricked you in to thinking you are just relogging in to Twitter but really you are not, you are giving someone else your log in info.
This can happen on Twitter, Facebook, eBay, PayPal, you name it… always check the url at the top of your browser, if something feels suspicious it probably is. If you do click on a link and you are asked to log in to Twitter again… don’t. Close your browser, re-open it, and start all over entering Twitter.com.
Scott Stratten explains phishing much more eloquently. Please read here.
If you are going to participate in social networking, it is uber important that you know how to protect yourself and your followers.
If your account did get phished you can easily stop the problem by quickly changing your password.
Thank you!
3/1/10 Update: There is a new phishing scam going on today. If you receive a DM that says: “Some1 wrote something about u on his blog” IGNORE it or DELETE it but please do not click on the link.
Overwhelmed by Twitter
Posted by: | CommentsAre you feeling overwhelmed by Twitter? I hear comments like this all the time:
I don’t have time for Twitter.
I can’t keep up with Twitter.
I’m too busy for Twitter.
Are you amazed by the amount of updates in your Twitter stream? Did you know you do not have to read ALL of the updates of the people you follow?
Think of Twitter like the break room at a corporate office: when you enter the break room there are probably other people in the room having a conversation –> you walk in to the middle of the conversation –> participate while you are in there –> then go back to work even though there are probably still people carrying on a conversation in the break room after you’ve gone back to work.
Most likely you are not going to get a replay of all the conversations you missed (unless you work with one of those really gossipy types). And probably you are okay with that. So why do you feel the need to read every single tweet that comes through your stream?
Twitter is a lot like the break room – when you are signed in you participate in conversations, when you are gone life goes on without you and it is okay.
However, if you are a business like Starbucks and you want to know who is talking about you when you are not around you can always do a Twitter search.
Do you agree? Do you read every single update?
How do I know if someone is following me back on Twitter?
Posted by: | CommentsDo you ever wonder if the people you are following on Twitter are following you back?
Here is a quick way to find out who is not following you back on Twitter:
Go to FriendOrFollow.com, type in your Twitter user name and wait. After a few moments you will see a display of all the people you are following that are not following you back.
Now that you have this information you have a few choices:
- Ignore the info – who cares if they are following me back or not?
- Unfollow everyone who is not following you – this is SOCIAL networking right? (to paraphrase @pheadrick)
- Reach out to those Unfollowers and let them know you are there and you care about what they have to say. If you acknowledge them they might notice you. Generally, everyone likes to be acknowledged.
What do you do with all your unfollowers?
Remove Yourself from a Twitter List
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If you are active on Twitter you probably have noticed that you’ve been added to people’s “lists“. You might have also noticed people can call their lists whatever they want and you are suddenly associated with whatever that title is. For instance, I’m on a list titled I-follow-them-4-no-reason.
Being on this list got me to thinking. ..
What if someone puts you on a Twitter list you don’t want to be on? Can you just click “Remove From List”? No, not yet. Although I think a remove option would be a very nice idea for Twitter to add. Twitter is all about creating your own community and having control over what you put out there.
If you find yourself on a Twitter list that you do not want to be on, there is a way to remove yourself from a Twitter list!
Click on the list creators profile → block them → then unblock them → wahlah you are magically removed from their list.
It works, I just tried it! If you happen to be the person whose list I removed myself from please don’t take it personally, I was just testing the system.
I learned this nice little trick reading the Techie-Buzz blog.
PS. I’m still on the list titled I-follow-them-4-no-reason because I think it is funny and creative. 
PPS. Update the owner of the list changed the name I-follow-them-4-no-reason after reading my tweet about it. LOL New list I-forgot-why-I- was-following-this-person.
Something Good Came Out of the Dreamhost Outage (for me)
Posted by: | CommentsDreamhost is a hosting service for Websites and email. Many of us depend on Dreamhost to keep our Websites online, our emails flowing and our businesses running. Today, Dreamhost went down, not for long, maybe ½ an hour but enough to shake up many of their customers.
I understand things happen and something went wrong. I appreciate how fast they got it back up but I do think they missed the boat with client communication. There was practically a mass hysteria on Twitter about Dreamhost being down – because there was no communication coming from Dreamhost. Their site was down, their status update page was not updated, their Twitter account had not been updated for awhile. I’m guessing the Dreamhost staff was panicking and working as fast as they could to get our service back but if they would have at least tweeted an update from one employee’s cell phone saying “we know there is a problem, we are working on it” we might of all felt a little better during that stressful half an hour of outage time.
Anyway, one Twitter user @kingkool68 put things back in to perspective to me. He posted: I love Dreamhost for giving me time to go outside and play!
So, thanks to @kingkool68 instead of staring blankly at the Twitter search page for #Dreamhost I thought about what I could do to be productive while I waited for Dreamhost to get back up. I finished a client project that did not require email. I filed a pile of papers I’ve been procrastinating on filing for awhile and I made a new friend on Twitter. 
The Dreamhost outage was a great reminder to me to not sweat the small things. What did you do while Dreamhost was down?
Twitter – To Follow or Not
Posted by: | CommentsThere is much debate in the Twitter community whether to follow back everyone that is following you or not. I don’t think you need to follow EVERYone back but if you are having public conversations with me (ie. Using the @ sign in front of my name) it’s probably a good idea to follow me. I may want to send you a DM (a private message) and offer to promote your business but when I try to send you a DM and I can’t because you are not following me, I get frustrated. When I go to your page and see you have hundreds of followers and are only following 7 back, I get frustrated. This makes me feel unimportant and maybe not want to promote your business anymore because it makes me feel like maybe you don’t care about me. Twitter is all about feeling acknowledged. I think most people are on Twitter because they want to be heard and acknowledged. If someone sends me an @ (that is not spam) I will automatically follow them back, that person is trying to build a relationship. I want to acknowledge that.
Some argue that they can’t follow everyone because it just gets too crowded in their Twitter stream. I totally get this and that is why I use TweetDeck where I can separate who I am following in to columns. I have one column with everyone that I glance at throughout the day, I have another column with local tweeps and another with cool tweeps, these two columns are the ones I regularly watch and interact with the most. I still glance at the masses and occasionally interact with them but I don’t get overwhelmed. Of course, the @ column is the one I watch the most and always try to respond to. If someone has taken the time to mention me or talk to me directly I definitely want to acknowledge them and write back.
I’ve found some of the “big” Twitter users don’t respond to all their @ messages. I understand it can be challenging but I would hope they at least try to respond. One certain “big” Twitter user has never responded to any of my @ messages even though he talks a lot about building relationships. Other “big” Twitter users such as Mari Smith or Mack Collier respond to @ messages, they get it. I know how I feel when I’m ignored and it’s frustrating so I try my best to keep up with @ messages and follow most of my followers that interact with me. If you have tried to send me a DM and I’m not following you back, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to. Please @ me and tell me to follow you!
What does an @ message in Twitter mean?
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Twitter terminology:
The @ sign is used to have public conversations with your friends on Twitter. It’s kind of like a public instant message or text message conversation. If I want to get someone’s attention on Twitter I will put an @ sign in front of their user name before typing my tweet. They will then get a notification that I’m talking to them. The tweet will also include a hyperlink to their Twitter profile so all my friends on Twitter will see who I’m talking to (or about) and if they are curious who that person is they can click on the link and check out their page and follow them if they think that person looks interesting. It’s a great way to meet friends of friends.
For instance, just now as I’m writing this a Twitter friend @JustinRyan was talking to someone else about a past blog post I wrote. He was talking (tweeting) about me and used @Sally_K so I was able to see that he was talking (tweeting) about me and respond to him with the blog post link he was referring to.
Twitter Etiquette:
When someone sends you an @ message on Twitter. It is polite to respond. I know the big Twitter users such as @TheEllenShow or @Oprah may be overwhelmed by the amount of @ message they receive but Twitter is for building relationships not just broadcasting yourself so unless you are a superstar that doesn’t have time for the little people I recommend you start using @ messages and try to respond to any @ messages your receive.
