Too many #hours in the day?

The phenomenon of local #hours on Twitter has increased steadily over the last couple of years. It's a great idea and I use appropriate geographical and subject themed #hours for my own business and for my clients.

There comes a point, however, where several #hours coincide or follow on from one another. At this point I'm seeing the same tweet from people 4 or 5 times in a couple of minutes - each with a different #hour on it. This is then repeated every 10 minutes until the #hour is over. This makes for very repetitive and boring content! It's also a wasted opportunity in my opinion.

I had a debate with a particularly enthusiastic #hour frequenter. Their response to their followers that were getting bored with all the "noise" they were generating was...

...use the mute feature.

Really!?!

Do you really want to be the account that encourages your followers to mute your output? Seems like an exercise in self defeat to me!

Using loads of scheduled tweets to cover multiple hours may seem like a cost effective solution, but you'll soon hit a brick wall. I think that a training company local to me summed it up nicely:

@followthethread That's true. It's a bit like not going to a networking event and sending a flyer instead! #staffordshirehour
— abv Training (@abvtraining) May 28, 2014

Well said...!

The other major issue with #hours is over zealous retweeting. You've probably come across the "retweet everything that moves to try and get new followers" gambit. It can create just as much noise as the sales tweets. If you want to curate good content for your followers to keep them engaged then you don't want them turning off your retweets on your profile page.


Here are 3 top tips to keep you involved with your #hour of choice without boring the rest of your followers:

1. Interact with people on your #hour of choice (i.e. start your tweet with an @)  You're still visible on the hashtag and it limits the #hour fatigue generated amongst the rest of your followers.

2. Retweet selectively. Target businesses that are good suppliers/clients or ones that you'd like to talk to. Or, of course, tweets that say something relevant to your followers' interests!

3. Looking desperate is not a good sales tactic. Concentrate your efforts on a couple of #hours and try actually talking to people instead of just broadcasting. You'll get better results.




TL;DR
Don't annoy the followers you've already got.

Avoiding the DM spam

With the current rash of compromised accounts it seems timely to remind people what sort of things to look for to avoid being phished. (not hacked - see previous post!)

Account harvesters rely on social engineering to get you to give them your ID and password. By making it seem that a contact is sending you the message it gives you a false sense of security. You're far more likely to sign in to a site your 'friend' has recommended.

When you get a random tweet in your public timeline with just a link on it, from someone you don't know, then it's easy to spot. When you receive a tweet or Direct message from someone you know it's less easy to spot. Here's a few things to think about:

• Is it 'out of character'?
• Would they normally use the public timeline and not Direct Message?
• Is the spelling OK?
• Have you seen any 'chatter' on Twitter about DM spam?

Sites such as Mashable often lead with stories of the latest phishing outbreaks (such as "is this you"). Take a look before you click.

If you've clicked on a link and are asked to 'sign in to twitter to see this page' (or similar) think carefully before you do. Check the web address: is it really an official twitter site? Chances are it's a disguised web address to try and fool you into parting with your log on details.

Sometimes, smartphones do take you to the twitter.com site rather than open the page in the app you're using - this is a rare occurrence and, in general, you're safer not logging in.

If you're in any doubt, tweet the person back and confirm whether or not it's really from them.


So, the worst happens and your account starts spewing spam, now what?

Change your password.

It's also a really good idea to go into the settings page on your Twitter account and revoke access as well.