23 Reasons Why You Might Be Scaring People Away On Twitter

Building a targeted following on Twitter (the genuine work-hard-to-build-engagement way, not the buy-followers-from-a-shady-character way) doesn’t happen overnight. It can take years. Along with time, it also requires your attention, energy, and patience.

As difficult as building a following can be, it becomes even more difficult if your Twitter profile and tweets scare followers away.

As I browse my notifications regularly to view the profiles of people who have recently followed me, I always find a few that leave me wondering, “What were they thinking?”

Characteristics That Might Make People Less Likely To Follow You On Twitter

If your Twitter account exhibits any of the following traits, you might find it a wee bit more difficult to secure follows from the people you want to connect with.

1. Your bio is too #hashtag happy.
2. Your bio is salesy.
3. Your bio is too Kumbaya in nature.
4. You don’t have a bio.
5. Your profile or header photo is a puppy or a kitten or a guinea pig or some other furry, not-human creature.
6. Your profile photo is a cartoon.
7. Your profile photo looks like a for-real mugshot.
8. You don’t have a profile photo.
9. You have thousands of followers but only follow a select few Twitter accounts.
10. You follow thousands of accounts but in comparison have very few followers.
11. Your tweets are too #hashtag happy.
12. Your tweets are too salesy.
13. Your tweets are too Kumbaya in nature.
14. Ur tweets use 2 many text abbreviations.
15. Your tweets only share your own content.
16. All you do is retweet without sharing any commentary about why you’re doing so.
17. You don’t tweet enough about the things your target audience is interested in.
18. Your tweets are all work and no play.
19. You never say “thank you” when people retweet your tweets or mention you.
20. You curse like a sailor in your tweets. (No offense to sailors; it’s merely an idiom to illustrate a point.)
21. Your tweets go to extremes—about religion, politics, social issues, etc.
22. You hardly ever tweet.
23. You tweet non-stop, like every 15 minutes, 24/7.

Of course, what I deem “not follow worthy” might be perfectly acceptable to the next guy. And folks who do any of the above might have very good reasons for making them a part of their Twitter M.O. “To each his own,” right?

The point is, when people are reviewing your profile and tweets before deciding whether or not to follow you, how you present yourself and how you use Twitter matter. You can do whatever you want, but you need to pay attention to potential turn-offs if you’re genuinely trying to grow a following.

What Twitter account traits are turn-offs for you?