phishing

Top Ten Twitter Noob Mistakes

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
by Mark Carras

Ok, so I have touched on this subject before HERE and HERE. However, I have never posted about this from the approach of the regular user. Some of it has been mentioned on these pages before, but again those articles are not specifically directed at the regular user. So here are the top ten mistakes I see people make. These rules work for metalheads, bands, fans, labels, online magazines, and anyone else.

1. Begging for followers.
I see people making tons of posts asking for followers. Why should people follow you? Give them a reason! Post good content. This could mean things that make people laugh, great articles you come across, or anything else interesting. See an article you like? Post a link!

2. Not filling out the bio
Just like rule number one, give people a reason to follow you. Tell us the things you are into that might be interesting to others. You enjoy metal? Saying so in the bio will get you metal fans. Are you an obsessive gammer? List your favorite games and you will get followers that also like those games. As you can see this isn’t brain surgery.

3. Use the link in the bio wisely
I have seen people post a URL shortener link in the spot where you should put a link to your website. This makes it look like a total spam account. Use the real url. I have also seen people post the link to the same Twitter account. What is the purpose of that? Of course nothing looks worse than no link at all. Post a link. Post a real link. It can be your MySpace profile, Facebook profile, or a website all your own. Just be open and honest about it.

4. Change the avatar
Using the default avatar is the worst! Of course the best is to use a photo of what the account represents. If it is an online magazine make it the magazines logo, mascot, or editor. If it is a person make it a nice close up, a cartoon head of the person, or something else that represents that person. Slightly better than the default is a photo of a pet, your favorite band, or your favorite celebrity. Just please do not use the default!

5. Using a URL shortener at all
Now don’t get me wrong, I use a URL shortener from time to time. However I only use it if I absolutely have to. Many people will never trust a shortened link at all. If it comes from a trusted person they fear it is a hacked account. Hacked accounts are getting VERY common, so it’s a well informed paranoia. If I am looking at accounts on Tweet Chart for people to follow, I will be hesitant to follow an account flooded with Bit.ly links for this very reason. I will assume it is either a hacked account or just a spammer. So only use a shortener if you absolutely have to. It makes you look like a spammer.

6. Getting your account hacked
Now of course the way to avoid getting your account hacked is to be very careful about the links you click on Twitter. That is the number one way accounts get hacked. However there are ways to make sure your account hasn’t been hacked. The best way is to look at the sent tab in your direct messages. If your account has been hacked it will be sending out spam to your followers direct message boxes and pissing them off. Check that DM sent tab often!

7. Auto DM thank you messages are spammy
Sending out a thank you for someone following you ticks off more people than it doesn’t. So don’t do it. The path to being labeled a spammer is paved with good intentions. The worst is if you include a link.

8. Auto-Follow only if you have to
Are you a multi-platinum band selling out arenas? You don’t have time to sift through your followers to make sure you only follow back legit people. So you’re forgiven for using the auto-follow. Also, bands and webzines that have very limited staff. Obviously some bands are so small that they doon’t have room for a netbook with it’s own portable internet connection in the overly cramped tour van. I have to use auto-follow for the RockMyMonkey.com account. I’m lucky if I have time to sift through the followers of my personal account. There is no way I could do that for RMM too. But there is no excuse for doing the auto-follow on a personal account. That’s just spammy.

9. Letting your following and follower ratio get to far to one side
A spammer will almost always have way less followers than the amount you are following. Noobs to Twitter will come in like a lion and start following every account they can find in a lame attempt to get followers. This is a major mistake for many reasons. First it makes you look like a spammer. This will cause the highest quality people to not follow you back. The second reason would be of course that you end up with a ton of low quality people. So if it is just a numbers game to you and the only thing that matters is getting the number up go right ahead and do this. Your amount of followers will indeed go up. The problem is that it will be nothing but spammers, bots, and dead accounts with auto-follow turned on. This is also how you get hacked. You get a bunch of phishing scams in your feed tempting you to click links that take over your account! Don’t just blind follow to get followers, because you will only get the worst followers this way.

10. Never forget the social part of social networking
Twitter is a social networking site. So many forget the social part of that. It’s a community. Watch the people who use the #metal hash tag a lot. We are a small but passionate group of people. Sometimes we talk a lot of smack to each other, but we also support each other. It’s a very high quality group of people that follow back, re-tweet, and follow Friday like crazy. We talk back and forth too. We are very social. I spent a ton of time with a friend to create the Tweet Chart for a few hundred people. Why not do something more trendy like Twilight that would have got me ten times more followers? Because I don’t give a rats ass what Twilight fans have to say or care about. I would rather have way less followers if those are not only quality people, but also people I care about. We follow each other because we want to be social with each other. It’s all about the social!

There are new people coming into Twitter all the time. Send them this top ten list. There are tons of people that have been on Twitter for months and still make these mistakes. Send them this list too. Better habits make it a better place for all.

Top ten reasons people hate Digg.com

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
by Mark Carras

So I was on Tech Crunch yesterday and there was a story about Digg finally doing something about their horrid search. The Digg fanboys were out in force of course. Their only defense? “People only hate Digg because it’s popular!” So I felt it was obviously necessary to make it clear that it being popular has zero to do with most people’s hatred of it. So here is my…

Top Ten Reasons why Digg both sucks and blows!

10. Digg fanboys are so stupid that if you want any chance to get through to them you have to use some lame top ten list. A real article is too much for them to handle!

9. Kevin Rose has zero integrity. There are many successful people that still get respect. Why? Because they don’t go from the totally cool down to earth “Dark Tipper” to total arrogant douchbag. It’s when one let’s said success go to their head that people get pissy. It’s when they try to coast on a little bit of luck and treat their users like crap that people start to drink the Hatorade.

8. Speaking of which…The site seems to work very hard at catering to the juvenile crowd instead of the information addict.

7. The features they do come out with are either well after the competition or are more like flashy toys than something that helps the serious information addict.

6. The ads on Digg are getting about as “low rent” as it gets. It makes the site look like a phishing site.

5. Digg Townhall is full of more rhetoric and double speak than the RNC and DNC combined!

4. Getting any answers out of Digg for anything is like pulling teeth. Try asking a Mixx staff person and the answer will be faster and more informative.

3. Taking forever to do any development on the site

2. Putting sites on the Auto-Bury but still not admitting it exists

1. Banning people for using the official API

Yes, I know that Digg is the most popular social news site. However, some of us remember search engines like WebCrawler, infoseek, and Lycos. The first may be king for awhile, but in longtail that is time it is almost never for long. Especially when the current king acts like a a drunken frat boy instead of a serious businessman or journalist. Even if Kevin Rose pulls his head out of his ass and starts taking this seriously, there are some very serious reasons for the hate. So stop saying that it is only because of the success. Nothing could be further from the truth!