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How Not to Suck on Twitter

Gus Wagner

I have one simple trick to share with you today that will help keep you (or your business, organization, or non-profit) from sucking at Twitter. My trick isn’t complicated or time-consuming, and it doesn’t require a “social media expert” to execute.

My simple trick for how not to suck at Twitter? Complete your profile. TWEET THIS

When you create a new Twitter profile, Twitter uses a default avatar as your personal profile picture. That default picture is of an un-hatched egg.  If you’re using the un-hatched Twitter egg as your profile picture, you’re sucking at Twitter.

Here’s why:

The un-hatched egg tells everyone else on Twitter that you’re either a newbie or a spammer. If they think you’re a newbie, you won’t have much credibility with more established Twitter accounts. If they think you’re a spammer, you could have bigger problems.

If other users report your account as spam, you’ll face some difficulties down the road. Even if your account is completely legitimate, spam reports can hurt you down the line, and that un-hatched egg profile picture will earn you a lot less followers than you’d get with a personalized image.

It takes 5 seconds to upload a friendly, smiling picture of yourself to Twitter or to upload your corporate logo. Anything is better than the un-hatched egg, so don’t suck: upload a better profile picture.

Now that your smiling face or your logo or some other image that represents you (or your company) is on Twitter as your avatar, you need to finish filling out your profile. Let’s use my Twitter bio as an example:

My bio is filled out completely. My name, description, and location are all there. For bonus points, I’ve hashtagged the key words that might help people find me. Those hashtags  are #SocialMedia, #Marketing, #Missouri, #JCMO, and #HootAmb.

My geographic location makes me searchable when other people look for influencers in Jefferson City, Missouri. My web address helps people learn more about what we do at The Rocket Group, and then, of course, you can see how long I’ve been on Twitter (I joined in May 2009).

It only took a few minutes for me to create my entire Twitter bio, including uploading my profile picture, and I didn’t need to be an expert to do it. Twitter doesn’t have to be hard — filling out your profile is an easy way to not suck at it.

To learn more about how to rock at Twitter, check out these posts:

How to Properly Format Your Tweets

What is Twitter?

Why Did I Favorite Your Tweet?

How to Succeed at Twitter

Do you have thoughts on how else not to suck on Twitter? Leave a comment!

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Gus Wagner

Gus Wagner is the President.Owner of The Rocket Group – an award-winning marketing and communications firm. The Rocket Group has specialized in building effective tools across traditional means and new media for clients in businesses, organizations, and nonprofits since 2001. Gus is also a five-time certified Social Media Strategist, a former Chief of Staff in the Missouri State Senate, a retired national champion amateur hockey coach, and a would like to be a singer/songwriter. His Welsh Corgi, Taffy, lets Gus and his wife, Farrah Fite, live with her in Jefferson City, Missouri.