It can be argued that those of us who tweet links to content on the web are the most annoying of Twitter users. That is the “category” that I fit in, so it makes sense that I would exclude my personal type from this list.
Otherwise, there are probably dozens of other types that are just as annoying. This is, of course, a partial list, but we’ll be expanding the post once more annoying Twitter types come to light. In the meantime, here’s the first 14. Post any that we missed in the comments or tweet at us with your suggestions.
1. The FOREX Spammer
With as much money as people are apparently making on FOREX, it’s amazing that they have time to work their Twitter accounts.
2. The Linkjacker
When you post links to stories, you really should make sure that everyone can see what the story says rather than link to your own site and expect people to click through from your site to the source content. Just a thought.
3. The YELLLLLLERRRRRR
IF YOU TWEET, EMAIL, IM, OR DO ANY FORM OF COMMUNICATION IN ALL CAPS, IT MEANS THAT YOU’RE YELLING WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU’RE TRYING TO SAY!!!!!! MAKE SURE THAT WHAT YOU YELL IS WORTH YELLING!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!
4. The Twitter Gamer
Unlike many, I have nothing against the games on Twitter like SpyMaster, Mafia, Ninja, whatever. I actually play SpyMaster in the background. However, there’s more to Tweeting than posting your last gaming action. For those not in the game, it can get rather mundane if all you post is who you’ve assassinated, what weapons you’ve purchased, and how we can join your clan/family/ring/dojo.
5. The “Get 100 Followers a Day” Spammer
Have you ever noticed that most of the accounts that Tweet about being able to pick up hundreds of Twitter followers per day only have 84 followers?
6. The Celeb Who Has 2 million People Following their 3 Tweets Per Month
I know. Everyone loves Oprah. You can’t say anything bad about her because she is perfection boxed up into human form. Still, what are her 2 million followers doing? She doesn’t talk to any of them. She rarely tweets at all (going on a month of inactivity). It reminds me of the people who followed Forrest Gump on his runs across the country. They were there, waiting for him to say something magical, and it never came.
7. Porn Spammers
It’s the Internet. Porn is everywhere. Why would anyone go to Twitter to find it? Answer: they don’t.
8. The Repeater Tweeter
These are amongst my favorites. You see them in your stream – the people who have something so important to say that they have to say it over and over again in case you missed it 30 seconds before.
9. The Random Tweeter of the Utterly Mundane
I know Twitter in its purest form is supposed to be somewhat mundane, but some people take it way too far.
10. The MLM Spammer
Everyone has to make a living, and because Twitter is about networking it has become a natural fit for the MLM crowd. That doesn’t make it any less annoying.
11. The Quoter of Witty Wisdom
Some of the best quotes I’ve ever seen came from Twitter. I have been known to throw out some of my faves myself. Still, that shouldn’t be ALL that you tweet, should it?
12. The Super-Fan
Everyone idolizes someone whether they admit it or not. I feel bad and somewhat uncomfortable when I see those who are doing anything they can to get a reply from those they idolize. What will they do if they get a response?
13. The Account Named After A Twitter Action
That’s nice. What are you going to Tweet about? “Following @0boy back because he followed me!”, “Following @soshable back because he followed me, too!”, etc.
14. The Tweeter of the Same Link 500 Different Ways
They have one link they’re pushing. It’s the only thing they will ever tweet about, so if you’re really, really interesting in everything pertaining to that link, please follow these people. You won’t be disappointed.
15. The White Teether
I never knew about this one until @bobf_vstpgh pointed them out to me. Once I did a search, I discovered that there seems to be a growing number of people Tweeting about white teeth! Who would have known?
* * *
I know there are more of them out there. Let me know via comment here, @soshable or @0boy if you know of any other annoying Twitter user types.
* * *
Read more about Twitter on this Social Media Blog.
{ 14 trackbacks }
{ 180 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
This is why Twitter will be dead in the next 6 months to a year. It’s worthless, the spammers are all over the place, and the porn industry has even infested it. It’ll go the way of Myspace in 6 months to a year TOPS.
I find the most annoying ones, the constant weather updates:
It’s hot and sunny.
It’s coooold.
Yay! A thunderstorm.
…yet I still do it sometimes. I think the people who find it the most annoying are those who live in the same area as me, thus finding it pointing out the obvious. Those who live in other places may just be jealous of the weather I’m having.
There is one missing I think. The one that persistently tweets what they are eating… for literally each and every meal, not even culinary creations, but yoghurt, toast, you name it.
Oh, it gets worse, with pictures too! Stomach churning if you ask me.
If you wouldnt do it in real life, dont do it on social media I say!
Twitter gone in 6 months? No way.
Sure these guys are annoying, but I wouldn’t see a lot of them cause I don’t follow spammers. I have friends that can be annoying, but I don’t want to unfollow them cause they’re friends. But it got me to thinking about what I don’t like on Twitter….That’s when I wrote The 7 People you meet in Twitter Hell. http://joshfahey.squarespace.com/home/2009/7/14/the-7-people-you-meet-in-twitter-hell.html
And yes, Nicky I agree with the Food Tweeters. That may be number 8.
You could add pointless hashtagger
“I can’t believe #iranelection #Oprah #USOpen @Michael Jackson #Apple #SXSW! Check out my blog: http://www.blog3343.com“
Like the list, glad to see I don’t fall into any of those categories
The one thing I am aware of that people may find annoying is that I tweet a lot!
today however, I’ve tweeted the same tweet several times- because I lost my dog last night & I want as many people as possible to see her picture, just in case they see her & I’ll be able to find her.
It’s been amazing the support & help I’ve received from people- even as far away as Japan RTing my tweet
That’s the power of twitter- the community- the spirit on twitter where so many like to help others out.
If you join in that spirit, helping people, you’ll receive it back ten fold.
Gone in 6 months? hardly likely, it’s too valuable & I might add, lots of fun meeting new people & sharing humour.
I have some followers that uses most offensive language all the time. I just block them off.
I have several more:
ONE . . . the guy who hates people no one else has ever met:
“J Dub is a freaking douchebag!”
TWO . . . the rube above who just admitted to spamming Twitter with messages and photos about his lost dog. Maybe jackalopekid has seen him? What the HELL are you thinking?
THREE . . . the inane question Tweeter who is also channeling Mr. Rogers:
“I like pie. What kind of pie do you like?”
Great article. Very entertaining.
Twitter gone in 6 months, a year tops???
Next you’re going to tell me the internet is a fad? You kiddin’ me?! My guess is you’re not aware of how Twitter is being used to vertically target markets. BTW, this a great article… i love amazing nipples. Hilarious!
Yikes. I’m somehow a hybrid of TWO of these.
First step to recovery, I guess.
I agree that the constant inane question can be annoying. And it’s not only one person who is guilty of this. Many people do it. One good example is the question:
Is 140 cramping your style?
I don’t get why this question is constantly Tweeted? It certainly not cramping their style because it’s a lot less than 140 characters!
The most annoying thing I find on Twitter are people who use the same color for their links as the normal text on their Tweets. There is nothing more annoying.
It makes no sense whatsoever why people choose to do this. It is so STUPID!!! The links are there for a reason: TO LINK!!! And how can we ‘link’ when we don’t know where the link is?????
The most annoying thing on Twitter are Direct Messages. I’ve got tons of spam. And those stupid “thank you for following” auto DMs. And not to forget all those accounts which use Twitter as RSS. In my opionion Twitter is not a one-direction-communication tool for uninspired marketing people
Feel free to follow me @nickless and I’d be glad if you’d like to support my latest project A Million Tweets on http://amilliontweets.com
Thank you
Another inane question that is getting really annoying that so many people are mysteriously Tweeting for some unknown reason:
“How do you dial a phone with a straitjacket on?” …Talk Radio
ok, I KNOW this is not the thing to say … but seriously, I was using CAPS long before ‘web protocol’ came along … I STILL use them cuz, well, it’s the way I write. Ask ANYONE who knows me. I have a thing about ‘conforming’ just cuz everyone SAYS so, so it’s very unlikely that I will QUIT just cuz the web-centric crowd says so .
Also, twittering between two accounts to make it LOOK like there is ‘dialogue’ is sort of a ‘cheap look-at-me trick’ and ANNOYING … no?
4, 5 and I think it was 10 are the most annoying in my book.
I seem to be getting more game direct messages or @mrrichclark over the past couple of weeks. Stop wasting my time!
Great post, look forward to seeing it get to over 20 in a month or so
Absolutely correct, these spammers really suck. All the updates that you don’t want gets on your profile page again and again.
Great post. It’s a great slap on the face of the spammers.
I’ve noticed that the forex and “get 100 followers” spammers are everywhere these days. Even some of the most popular, active Twitter users have one or two of the worst spammers in their following list.
I blogged about 25 behaviours are sure to get you unfollowed on Twitter that adds a few more to your list. http://bit.ly/cTX71 Can’t believe how many white teethers and MLM spammers there are. I believe they will get bored eventually – Twitter has a lot of promise. Thanks for the post.
I’ve been reading all this stuff and jumping from link to link to see what all the hoopla is about. Don’t you all know this social media thing is truly here to stay, at least for awhile till the next big craze, but it’s no different than anything else in life. Make good choices and you will avoid the annoyances. And stay out of trouble. I had some porn gal want to follow me and of course I blocked her. People like that need to follow their own kind. So I guess that’s my twitter peeve. Don’t follow for the sake of the numbers. Follow because you are genuinely interested in what the other person has to offer, with ethics and integrity, so you can grow and learn from the experiences. Do it like God is watching.
LOL at Lindsay – either you’ve sorely misjudged how long the CAPS rule has been established (early to mid nineties if not earlier, when the general public began flooding the internet via newsgroups and AOL
) and think you have “dibs” on using caps without being judged, or your desire to not bend or conform is taken to extreme degrees. I think after fifteen years+ you have to accept that yes, when you type in caps it IS shouting. You aren’t a beautiful unique snowflake and the rules don’t change for you just because you want to assert your independent spirit.
Great post
I know Follow Friday is popular so I cringe to the unpolpular guy just to be that guy but here goes
if you’re posting every person who ever followed you or auto DMs you with no knowledge of who they are; then are you really participating in the comunity? I wanna know why this other person is cool to follow like at a party a nice intro like, Hi Joe this is Alex he’s a Dj. Alex Joe owns a radio station. Not so much a peeve just that people who go the extra mile have awesome Tweets with plenty of value. Check out @cragerinc he’s a great tweeter
I think you just covered all tweets I get! OK, all tweets I do.
Hey! Great information on your blog. I’m working with an amazing Landing Page company. Ad2Action.com can help you build, promote, and earn, using your own affiliate landing page. Keep up on the amazing work!
–www.Ad2Action.com
Very annoying twitter users! Nice post, Great work!
Good post. Yes, we are all annoyed by these spammers and it does seem to get worse. Even top Twitter users send the `teeth whitening`or `add to your followers`tweets periodically for the referral fees.
Despite the spammers, Twitter will continue to evolve. Any predictions of any early demise will be countered by the myriad of companies that have found ways to leverage Twitter tool for marketing, communications and even SEO.
I was unhappy when malware & bad apple infected my twitterfeed . Now, that is annoying and really spooky. Twitter fixed the problem, neatly & expeditiously. Much appreciated, thank you!
This is funny, but is it the death of Twitter? No way. Just like a big bar where there are all sorts of characters, you kind of stick with your own. Once you find your space on Twitter and work you tribe well, the annoying noise just becomes funny and laughable. My favorites here are #6 and #12. Nice post.
Liked the article. Loved the comments.
haha….wow, all of these i totally saw coming! But, how about the stalkers and creepers? The one’s that think they “know” all
Here’s a tip to avoid annoying people on Twitter: instead of complaining about them in an article, just don’t follow them!
People who’ve been tweeting/retweeting ‘Porn’, always will get immediately unfollowed. I do HATE it!
How about the user that uses Blip.fm and tweets 100+ blips a day? My sister does that. pretty damn annoying. I started using Brizzly just so I could mute her. Or the user that hashtags stupid things in an attempt to start a trend? “Nice to see CNN.com readership has #CharlieSheen domestic problems in almost a dead heat with tougher flight screenings – #PrioritiesAnyone?” Seriously unnecessary.
Love it! Great points and, in spite of the humor, you are spot on. And for the commenter who predicts Twitter will be gone in 6 months, perhaps he needs to do his homework a little better. In any forum, especially an online one, there are always morons who try and game the system to suit their own agendas. Fortunately, those of use who know that’s inappropriate mock, block and report them to spam on a regular basis. Great read!!
My pet peeve is celebrities and athletes who whine to their followers to help them get more followers. Particularly when they’ve only been on Twitter a short time and haven’t proven they have anything even remotely interesting to say. It’s like they’re all in a race to be as popular as Ashton and Shaq. Not going to happen unless they’re already insanely popular offline. I wish people who are obsessed with boosting their follower numbers would realize it isn’t about quantity and start appreciating the followers they do have.
You point out a great number of those that frustrate me; your examples and visuals are quite obvious of how not to Tweet. For me, it is all about engaging and balancing… adding personality while not stomping on too many toes. Hopefully, people will take heed and then act accordingly… unless they want to lose their core follower base!
I really agree with Tony who mentioned the users of excessive hashtags. Their tweets become unreadable kind of defeating the purpose.
My thoughts: most of us are not that trendy. Just tweet your stuff without trying to set trends. That way we can read it, and you never know–your content might set a trend BECAUSE we can read it.
Hm… surprised not to see Foursquare/Gowalla updates on this list. They’re SPAM as far as I’m concerned.
I really don’t care you’re the mayor of the pizza place down the street or that you’re currently getting your oil changed. If I wanted to know that, wouldn’t I just get on Foursquare/Gowalla & friend you on there? Why do folks have such a need to share this on Twitter? (I used BrightKite briefly, and made sure I turned OFF Twitter notifications.)
Amen. I try to avoid doing these things, and avoiding those who do. ANYWAY, I JUST ATE LUNCH (PB&J AND BLUE CHIPS), AND AM GETTING BACK TO WORK ON MY MLM BUSINESS, WHERE I WILL RAKE IN SIX FIGURES THIS YEAR WHILE ONLY WORKING TEN HOURS A WEEK. FOLLOW ME AND ME AND ALL MY FOLLOWERS WILL FOLLOW YOU. DID I MENTION YOU CAN MAKE SIX FIGURES?
you’ve forgotten all the priveleged mommy bloggers. who tweet constantly about the bumps, bruises and whining of their children and husbands. the nanny tweets are the Absolute WORST.
These are examples of the same type of spam that has come to our email inboxes for years. Thankfully we have to actively follow these people to get their spam as opposed to them pushing it down our throats (which means we can actively unfollow too).
I do disagree with #2. When I have something to say about a link that is more than 140 characters I post it on my Facebook Fan Page which then links to the twitter account. I had a follower (now ex-follower) accuse it of being spammy the first time he saw that. I think of it as linking my thoughts on my fan page to my twitter account. It is not the only thing that gets posted on the twitter account – I am active in many ways on Twitter. We have to be careful what we claim is spam and what is simply a way of connecting our conversations throughout the web.
Anyone named Lori Moreno, life coach etc who tweet inane comments about love especially, constantly “Never make someone a priority who treat you like an option.” Please take your midol.
I love this post. It shows all that I should not be doing. I would love to see examples of what one should be doing instead.
Good post, now I want to be positive, where is the post on the 15 good ways to tweet?
What about the moaster. Those moaning yet boasting. “That 6k run is killing me this morn.”
“Finally got my inbox to zero.”
I did not have high hopes when I clicked the link, but this will go on my list of all time favorite posts. You completely nailed it. I was fully laughing the entire way through! Thank you for taking the time to gather all their um…glory…into one place for us to enjoy!
Happy New Year!!
Actually the only annoying person is the one that writes up some dull article about something obvious and well known and makes a big thing out of it.
It’s not interesting. Everyone can see that. And they choose not to blog about it because… well.. it’s just useless and boring.
Congrats.
Twitter is simple. If you see something that you do not agree with or do not want to read a type of message. Block or unfollow. Life is simple, we choose to make it difficult.
Bottom line from reading all the replies: everyone likes to read only what they tweet, and couldn’t care less about most of what others are tweeting.
← Previous Comments