I’ll admit, I have a lot of personal pet peeves when it comes to twitter. I adore Twitter for lots of reasons, but basically because it gives me a chance to interact with people, find my ideal readers, and encourage and inspire others. That’s what we’re all here for, right?

Speaking of which, have you seen the EncourageEveryoneIn4Words hashtag that’s trending right now. Here’s my contribution:

Your past is past. #EncourageEveryoneIn4Words

— Cherie Burbach (@brrbach) March 3, 2015

Add yours and copy me (@brrbach) so I can retweet you. That’s a good one to keep going.

But back to my gripe about Tweeps and the lousy way they tweet. It’s just… you guys know what I’m going to say, right? How about this:

Don’t DM Me the Minute You Follow Me

Twitter is filled with open communication so direct messages are pointless, in my opinion. You want to have a conversation that no one else can read? Use text or email. I felt so strongly about this I even tweeted it out with my Working Writer handle and pinned it to my profile page for a month.

Don’t Ask Me to Follow You on Facebook or Instagram, or Through Your Webpage

When I follow someone on Twitter, I want to find out more about them. I’m probably already looking them up elsewhere because that’s what people do when they want to know more, but the fact that someone would “thank” me for following them by asking me to keep following them other places is a definite no.

Don’t Ask Me to Buy Your Book

I’d never dream to ask someone to buy my book right after they followed me on Twitter! In fact, I don’t ask that ever usually. I may tweet about it occasionally or use examples from it, but Twitter isn’t about sending out messages asking for sales. #SoTacky Also? Don’t tweet out endless messages to the general Twitterverse asking anyone and everyone to buy your book. #EvenMoreTacky

Stop With the Paper.Li Tweets

Aren’t these so 2010? Who reads these anymore? I get copied on a lot of them, and really…. It’s just a waste of time.

Don’t Tweet Out Endless Reviews of Your Book

Why do writers do this? It’s not marketing. It’s not being social. It’s trying to take a social media platform and turn it into a personal advertising campaign. But that doesn’t work.

Stop Latching Onto the #amwriting Hashtag With Things That Aren’t About Writing

Again, writers think #amwriting means talk about the book you wrote and want people to buy. But that hashtag should be about the process of writing, encouraging one another, and talking about things we’re working on.