Remember the time when Twitter was just a buzzword ? Everyone was talking about it, not knowing what exactly it would do. It was a stupid idea to many while some really got the hang of it in the first try itself. I was among the unlucky few who didn’t get it in the first try, I stumbled, and made a lot of mistakes before I actually learned from them.

Let me try and share with you the top 25 mistakes I made, that you could possibly avoid in your Twitter life.

1. I made statements that nobody bothered to read

At first, it was very confusing as I didn’t know what exactly was the purpose of the tool. I thought it was a tool to pen down what I was doing/thinking right now (as they suggested) but little did I know that people had evolved from there in to more useful forms of communication. So I made stupid statements like “I’m wearing a red tee today”, which obviously no one bothered about.

2. I thought the moment I join Twitter, people will flock me

Yea, I also thought that the moment I’m on Twitter, people will start flocking me and nagging me. Well, I was wrong. I’m no Mr. Kutcher or President, so I learned the lesson the hard way.

3. I thought it was one big chat room

And then a few days later I saw people talking on Twitter and I thought its one big chat room. Well actually it was and still is for some people, but it wasn’t like an open chat room. I had to build relationship first before I even pinged someone back.

4. I thought I could barge in to that famous guy for a reply

Yeah..I thought that guy was supposed to answer me, not knowing that there are thousand questions like mine send every minute to him. I asked a few Q’s and later quit.

5. I thought people would follow me first

So I didn’t follow much people, I followed a selected few and waited – in vain. The moment I went out following others and communicating with them, it started a snow-ball effect.

6. I wasn’t updated but thought I was

Most of the times when I tweeted about something “news”, I found that there already were tweets on it, mostly from my own network and people had already discussed it. Its amazing how quick and update Twitter is, and to catch up with it, you got to be updated, and not tweet about something 14 hours after your friend did. That sucks.

7. I didn’t converse with genuine tweeps

Conversation is the key in Twitter. Its essentially a communication tool, so no matter how much ever resource links you share, there has to be communication. Unfortunately, I wasn’t game to the idea and I had to pay a price for it later.

8. I thought I should reply to each and every DM

Man, whenever I followed someone, there was this very “too good to be true” kinda DMs I received. Some offered free coupons while some offered a free thank you video. At first I thought its genuine but not so long did it take for me to realize that it was all automated and didn’t make any sense at all.

9. I thought I shouldn’t follow more than my follower number or it would mar my reputation

I think most of us had the same thoughts. That we need to have the follower number more than the ones you follow, or it doesn’t look good on you ? Well, I thought it was cool. It may be but the problem was that I couldn’t grow my network unless I started to follow more people.

10. I didn’t realize that my “good morning” was “good night” to my friend

This is something that embarrassed me the first time. I didn’t realize that most of my Twitter friends were on the other side of the globe and when I wish them good morning, they were actually leaving their offices. This is the reason why you don’t see me making such comments on Twitter.

So there you go. My top ten first time mistakes on Twitter. Hope they help you learn a lesson or two.

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