Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

By on February 21, 2011

How to be a Twitter Guru

44



I had a little “episode” over the weekend.

You see, I finally got sick of seeing the types of tweets that have very little substance, yet seem to be the staple of many so-called “gurus.” Instead of complaining, I decided to have some fun. :-)

In rapid succession, I tweeted what I consider to be the type of tweets that tend to get a lot of attention and elevate someone to guru status. I’m guilty of these now and then, and perhaps you are too, but hopefully you’ll recognize these from some of the people you follow:

Which ones did I miss?


Similar Stories in: Social | Forward: Email This Post

Similar posts you may like...

44 comments on “How to be a Twitter Guru”

  1. Mandy Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 9:13 am

    The douchebag daily is out!. Read it here, with stories by @socialmediajerk @overtweeter and @captainobvious ! Also irrelevant content by @selfpromote and @tweetbot! http://paper.li/douche

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 9:15 am

    LMAO! Nice one Mandy!

    Adam Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 9:45 am

    Here is a link to (anything) because I think its important and I think you should think that too!

    Frank Reed Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 9:15 am

    ROFL! Well struck!

    Keri Andino Reply:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    That is really funny Andy– I wish I would have thought of it.. You’re great at being Awesome! Keep up the great posts– Keri

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    Thanks Keri! :-)

  2. Ed Shahzade Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 9:39 am

    #1 Turn Off: Self-important voice

    #2 Useless, trite quotes

    #3 Hypocrisy

    #4 Cliques who do most of what you tweeted, then call others out for it.
    #4a See #3

  3. Adam Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 9:49 am

    And one for the protester in all of us:

    “Let’s protest about _______________. Pass it on!”

    (share) (retweet) (etc)

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 10:20 am

    You forgot: I’m changing the color of my avatar in protest! ;-)

  4. NG Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 9:57 am

    Best. Post. Ever.

  5. MrAndrewJ Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 10:07 am

    The circles I run in are also guilty of:

    #FF Follow Friday which are 3-7 rapid fire tweets, all filled with the same names as last week and daisy chained between the people I follow(ed).

    I tried to get them to focus their efforts on #SS Sycophant Saturday, but they weren’t having any of it. So I un-followed them.

    Hey, you could do #MM Marketer Monday! Think of it – 7 tweets with nothing but the names of fellow marketers. Your followers will hate you, guaranteed.

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 10:21 am

    The worst ones are those that RT the tweets that mention them in a #FF. Wow, we are all soooo impressed! ;-)

    Renee Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    LOL! Actually, #MM (marketer monday) would be kind of fun-but I’m also part of a bunch of online marketing groups and we’re also looking for more savvy marketing geeks to share marketing tips with :) Thanks for the suggestion. In the meantime, you also forgot “Message by random bot”

    MrAndrewJ Reply:
    February 23rd, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    In re-reading my original, I apparently forgot to mention they also do

    #SS #ShowbizSaturday
    #MM #MagicianMonday
    #MM #MusicianMonday

    And no doubt more. They’re all the same list as #followfriday. That meant that least 3 days a week became a daily excuse to daisy-chain spam for each other. Truly, this was marketing genius too advanced for me, as I unfollowed the whole lot of them. ;)

  6. Josh Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 10:24 am

    I’ll retweet something someone tweeted about me because you know to know how awesome other people think I am.

  7. Todd Mintz Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    I’m going to make a snide comment critical of Andy to show how really important I am in the Search Marketing industry… :.)

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Hah! Yeah, nothing shows how important you are than goading someone into a Twitter fight! ;-)

  8. Sheila Beal Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    Great post. It was very cathartic to read the post and the comments, too. I’m so glad I’m not the only one rolling my eyes at some of the twitter gurus.

    I’ll add another one — the people who pimp their posts on scheduled tweets, over and over, and sometimes for months after they originally came out. Shut up!!! Stop pimping your crapola over and over again! I probably didn’t even care the first time you pimped it. :-P

  9. Graham Jones Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    Great….!

    But the whole notion of a “Twitter guru”…..?

    Did we have “conversation gurus” in pre-twitter days?

    Or were there “conversation marketing consultants”

    Surely if someone is a “guru” of Twitter they know that there is no such thing…..ho hum.

  10. Dave Richardson Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 6:02 pm

    Very funny. There’s some good ideas there. But as on the linked account you’re only following 150 people it could be you’re just putting too much weight into broadcasting and not enough into following better quality people.

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 21st, 2011 at 9:55 pm

    I’d argue the opposite. If I followed too many people, then I’d see more of the above. I try to follow just those that are adding true value to my Twitter feed. :-)

    Pat Reply:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 9:22 am

    One of the benefits of Twitter for me is following a very broad range of people with different perspectives – especially people I don’t always agree with because I do a lot of political polling and consulting. Twitter keeps me in tune with the culture and more informed about current events than most people I know. Lists solve the dilemna of following too many people. I like to follow everyone that seems reasonable. Being annoyed occasionally is part of the experience. (But -the one that drives me nuts is people that have a daily Twitter orgasm over their Latte at Starbucks.) Great post Andy.

  11. Bobbi Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    and … 65 people so far RT’d this for You… hmmm. : )

  12. Marti Says:

    February 21st, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    Well I am definitely not a guru, but I sure would like to intelligently participate. I do tweet articles I find have something new or different to say and sometimes RT articles others tweeted first . Is there something wrong with that? Thanks!

  13. Shane Jones Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 4:04 am

    Hows about the

    I RT every #ff tactic…

    really annoys me that one.

  14. Racha Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 5:13 am

    with all due respect, twitter is an open sphere, free for everyone to use to their will.
    There are no rules, no guidelines, and nothing to complain about. you don;t like someone’s tweets, just unfollow.
    writing a post about it just proves that you don’t understand the concept of social media.

    Brad Hill Reply:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 10:53 am

    >> writing a post about it just proves that you don’t understand the concept of social media.

    Writing a post about it is a way of participating in social media.

    Fun post, Andy.

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    Thanks Brad!

  15. Gareth Howell Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 7:29 am

    I can see where you are going and of course you are exagerating to make the point; but I do question #3

    One of the big uses of Twitter is to engage with people and to let them know of items that might be interest to them. I do keep tabs on what’s happening in my industry and sometimes I come across something that deserves wider attention than it might otherwise get. Hence, I’ll link to it in a tweet.

    I also did so with this story.

    Also, Sheila deplores pimping of posts. Again, I agree to a certain extent but if my followers are anything like typical, they are located in many time zones. If I have created or found something that might interest them; I’ll tweet it several times according to which timezone they are in. What’s wrong with that?

    As Racha says, there are no rules. If you don’t like what somebody does, unfollow them

  16. Adriana Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 7:37 am

    :) ) Your tweet examples are so funny Andy! I really haven’t seen these kind of tweets on my twitter, that can only mean that I don’t have twitter gurus on my list :) )

  17. Rick Martin Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 9:48 am

    The mating call of the twitter douche:

    “Wheels down in [insert airport code]“

  18. Eoghan O'Neill Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 10:13 am

    I’m nominating @MyAlterEgo for a #Shorty Award, because they have so much credibility and will really help me get my message out

  19. Danny Starr Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    Great post.. one thing that bothers me is when “gurus” feel the need to tell people they are going to be away from Twitter to do work or something…

    Perhaps this comes from the fact that people expect them to be on it all the time but really, as I give a sh*t that somebody I follow and respect is going offline for a bit… please.

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Yeah, that bothers me to. “Oh, you’re going to get a bagel and will be offline? We’ll miss you….not!” ;-)

  20. Matt Reed Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    Oh @oprah you were so funny at dinner last night!!! LOL, LMAO, ROFLCOPTER #iknowrichpeople

    Yeah seriously, remember @oprah when you told that story about @justinbieber I couldn’t believe it either #ihaveconversationswithfamouspeople

    @justinbieber I know right biebs? It’s just hair don’t worry bro. Call you later about that mustache idea. #italktojustinbieberallthetimecauseimcoollikethat

  21. Kris Says:

    February 22nd, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    I remember seeing that tweet about “sharing a link” from you over the weekend and was scratching my head thinking, “that doesn’t sound like Andy”.

    Good to know the story behind it now.

    Andy Beal Reply:
    February 23rd, 2011 at 8:31 am

    LOL! Just some fun. ;-)

  22. Zohare Says:

    February 23rd, 2011 at 4:53 am

    Nicely done. You missed out the one-way tweets that clearly shout “I am an advertisement! DO NOT ENGAGE WITH ME! #hashtagtononsenseoffering”

    This is absolutely amazingly on the spot! I had a tweet-out with Guy Kawasaki once about how he aggregates so much content. Thank God for ghost writers. His tweets are still interesting, even though a little reserch will land me the same sources. Him finding the interesting news saves me the hassle.

    But then there are those “I’m so important and you need to follow me just because…” tweets that really grind my gears (copyright Peter Griffin, Family Guy).

    Quality people, not quantity! Tweeting is losing its purpose.

    On that note, follow me…i’m cool @jjbaybee :D

  23. USTommyMC Says:

    February 23rd, 2011 at 6:21 am

    Pure genius. Had to favorite every single one for future reference.

  24. Antoine Dupin Says:

    February 23rd, 2011 at 8:42 am

    I dont read the coms, but you forgot ” I am lunching or I am speaking with @referal-people to show you how I am important” :)

  25. Beth Miller Says:

    February 23rd, 2011 at 4:12 pm

    This was my giggle of the day. I’d love to retweet, but sure don’t want anyone to think I’m in the know and they aren’t. But I’m still laughing.

  26. Michael LaRocca Says:

    February 23rd, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    I make a big ole pile of money from home on the Internet and you can too. Just be gullible enough to click this link!

  27. Hastag mob Says:

    February 24th, 2011 at 6:11 am

    If you really want to have some fun follow @hashtagmob, we are rallying to correct all the # abuse

  28. riju Says:

    March 5th, 2011 at 11:40 am

    nice one… :)