Twitter may be imploding just a little – and we’re not helping

Get it together, guys!

Sigh. Friends, we need to talk about Twitter. The company is currently battling challenges that include buzzwords like “IPO,” “profitability,” and “stock price,” as it bids adieu to supposedly beloved CEO Dick Costolo and welcomes back, if only temporarily, one of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey, as interim CEO. (You heard it here first: Jack is totally sticking around. Also, I love Jack Dorsey.)

In any case, it may or may not be kind of a mess over there, right? I tweet several times a day — how often do people RT or reply? Sometimes. Often. Seldom. Who cares? I always say Twitter is the platform you have to make work for you. I don’t know how many of my followers are really seeing what I put out there, but I keep trying. I do try my best to engage with others, and lists help, but it’s rough out there.

– PRO TIP! To better manager Twitter lists: TwitListManager –

In any case, while the company tries to sort themselves out and find a way to bring the community feel back (and they will!), I polled Social Media Club for their twitter pet peeves. I agree with every. single. one.

• “I will almost never follow-back an egg (no profile picture), a profile that is all hashtags, or anyone who’s fixated on asking for a follow-back before any other interaction.” -@Stevens1, Swimmer Media
• “Gurus, ninjas, disruptors and game-changers.” -@JeniferVides
• “When they start a tweet with @jessicagottlieb because that ensures like eight people will see it….” -@JessicaGottlieb
• “Blatant in-line hashtag overuse.” -@JessiSanfilippo, Shuggilippo

Hey. Don't be a hash-hole. http://t.co/BmUIhjGHb2

— Jessi Sanfilippo (@JessiSanfilippo) June 15, 2015

• “PR pitch via tweet. I’m finding this is happening a lot lately especially from mobile app companies. I can’t think of a less personal form of initial contact.” -@cbaccus
• “Accounts that only post from other platforms. i.e. Facebook.” -@busybeeblogger
• “Auto DM is the worst ever.” -@LTSurf, Fit & Awesome (Note: this was , far and away, the overwhelming, top, top complaint from people about Twitter. Pay attention, tweeple.)

• “Corporate/company do-nothing customer service departments. Pretty useless.” -@MrJonBurk
• “People who just tweet constantly – 100 or so times a day – just grabbing clips or what not and posting them. Just clogs my stream when I’m trying to get something good.” -@datatv
• And a great article shared by @jspepper: “U.S. Companies ignore 80% of Twitter questions from customers… Brands are tired of responding to dumb questions on Twitter.” [more]

I also really dislike “laddering.” Never heard that term? Imagine 500 bloggers in a Facebook group. One posts “put a link to your twitter account here and let’s all follow each other!” Does it make your follow count go up? Sure. Does it earn you the engaged followers that brands who work with bloggers and influencers want you to have? Absolutely not. Do a lot of those bloggers go back and unfollow you later? Absolutely yes. Should you use an application like Crowdfire to methodically add and subtract your follows? I beg you not to.

Which brings me to the case of the curiously desperate blogger. A blogger who follows and unfollows me weekly. I assumed it was a pursuit to get me to follow her back but I wouldn’t. Eventually realized it was an auto thing via Crowdfire. Really irritating to me.

Fun spin, though: I declared I’d donate $20 to a charity every time she followed me again — so far charities have netted $160 out of me. I get to stick it to her and feel really good about myself. 😉