The 10 capital mistakes in Twitter profiles

by Roberto Mazzoni | June 16th, 2009

What would be your first impression in meeting with someone who conceals his face or wears a mask and tries to sell something to you from the get go without even introducing himself? Disgust, rejection, annoyance and maybe also a bit of fear.

So how do you believe people react to you when they first meet you on Twitter and try to find out who you are? The information you put in your biography, the picture you publish in your profile and the name you record in your settings can make all the difference in the world and can prevent you from being banned! Read carefully the following instructions!

Your Twitter profile is very important for your success in social media and there are some major mistakes that can prevent you from gaining credibility or followers:

  1. A suspect username
    Your Twitter username will always be present in any contact or communication you will do. Some people use their own first and last name, some use a “brand” name that communicates what activity they want to perform, others use the name of their company or site, and finally some chose just a fantasy name. These are all fine choices, but make sure you don’t get mistaken for a spammer: they usually use a girl name followed by numbers or a gibberish combination of letters and numbers, like “jhyudh265”. These are all fake accounts that get shut down and that people avoid.

  2. Omitted or altered real name
    Whatever the username you chose, make sure you also add your real first and last name in the profile, and that they are SEPARATED from one another (there is a space between the first and last name). People will search for you on Google and will find your Twitter profile(s) only if they contain your real name, spelled as in real life.

  3. No image
    People will decide whether to connect with you in a few seconds. If you have no photo of yourself or no image whatsoever, the vast majority will stay away from you. This is true of every social network, not only Twitter.

  4. Missing site
    You will lost most of the benefit of connecting with people if you don’t have a site, blog or simple page where they can find more about you and if it doesn’t come up in the profile.

  5. Photo of an object
    You are on Twitter in order to connect with other people, true people. They don’t want to talk to an object and you’ll appear as somebody trying to spam them about a product. Exceptions: it is fine to use objects when you are providing some kind of service which is best described by the object, like the many “bird” picture that coemn up on Twitter related services. Again, be careful as you will be more easily tagged as spammer.

  6. False location or identity
    The fastest way to get banned from Twitter and lose your followers and credibility is to pretend to be somebody else and to live somewhere else than where you actually live.

  7. Pretty girls
    Spammers know very well that people respond better when they see a picture of a nice girl, even better if she is half naked. So they use this trick continually and people have come to recognize it. If you do happen to be a beautiful lady or girl, make sure you have a picture that looks personal and natural.

  8. Somebody else’s photo
    It is usually a bad idea to show somebody else’s picture, like a very well known character or popular figure. If you really don’t want to show your face, you can use a picture that of you at a distance or you can use the picture of a kid, pet or family. Kids and pet create strong relationships and can be also used for the background of your Twitter page.

  9. Sad and bad quality pictures
    Would you put a low quality photo on your resume? So why use it on your Twitter profile? A smile can go a long way. Get a professionally done photo.

  10. Crowded or bad picture
    You have a very limited space, so avoid using pictures that contain too many elements that make it impossible to recognize you. This includes group photos, holding your face in your hands, objects that are in the background and so on.

Avoid these mistakes and you will have much better results and, most importantly, you’ll avoid being banned from Twitter.

Roberto Mazzoni

Please read more of my blog posts on my new blog that has been created to host all of my content and that will be kept updated regularly from now on. Commodoreblack.com was my first blog ever and I owe it my beginning in this beautiful blogging world, but with experience I learned that it was better for me ton create a blog that carried my own name. And I advise you to do the same if you ever plan to start a blog.

http://robertomazzoni.com

Please read more of my blog posts on my new blog that has been created to host all of my content and that will be kept updated regularly from now on. Commodoreblack.com was my first blog ever and I owe it my beginning in this beautiful blogging world, but with experience I learned that it was better for me ton create a blog that carried my own name. And I advise you to do the same if you ever plan to start a blog.

http://robertomazzoni.com

Internet Marketing ,

How to get people to your blog with Twitter

by Roberto Mazzoni | June 15th, 2009

Twitter is a microblogging platform: it allows you to publish short messages called tweets. The tweets are 140 characters long at the outside, only text. They can contain information, a call to action and possibly a link (URL). The tweeples, which is the name by which you designate the people who are on Twitter, are used to click on the link when they find an interesting tweet. Here are 3 rules you can follow in using this powerful tool to direct people to your blog.

  1. Take short meaningful sentences from your blog post and format them into tweets that people can digest and understand immediately and add a link to that specific post.

  2. Use an URL shortener to keep the link size to a minimum so that you leave as many of 140 characters available for your message. I personally use budurl because it is free, it does an excellent job at shortening any kind og URL and, if you register on the site, you can keep track of any link, looking at how many people clicked on it.

  3. Avoid putting more than one link in a single tweet. You could do it, but it is somewhat confusing and you might look like a spammer.

Twitter is a very powerful environment and it can bring lots of traffic to your blog throughout the day if you manage to engage the people who are online and who are following you.

I suggest to make at least 5 tweets during the day pointing to your blog post, using different words and concepts, although some repetition is allowed. Scatter the tweets evenly during the working hours and you’ll get the best results.

Roberto Mazzoni

P.S. Go to www.budurl.com and create an account, you can use it to shorten any type of link and it is very convenient also for e-mails and newsletters.

Please read more of my blog posts on my new blog that has been created to host all of my content and that will be kept updated regularly from now on. Commodoreblack.com was my first blog ever and I owe it my beginning in this beautiful blogging world, but with experience I learned that it was better for me ton create a blog that carried my own name. And I advise you to do the same if you ever plan to start a blog.

http://robertomazzoni.com

Please read more of my blog posts on my new blog that has been created to host all of my content and that will be kept updated regularly from now on. Commodoreblack.com was my first blog ever and I owe it my beginning in this beautiful blogging world, but with experience I learned that it was better for me ton create a blog that carried my own name. And I advise you to do the same if you ever plan to start a blog.

http://robertomazzoni.com

Internet Marketing ,

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