At least with me.

1. Having No Avatar

If you can’t be bothered to put some semblance of your essence up on Twitter, what do you have to offer me? Remember, Twitter is all about what you can do for those who follow you.

2. Having Sketchy or No Profile Info

This goes hand in hand with No. 1. It’s basically just laziness. Just like with LinkedIn, I’m very selective about whom I follow. They have to have something in common with me, share a common interest. And I’m not going to be able to figure that out if you have no profile info, now, am I?

3. Live Tweeting Sporting Events

I can’t get to that Block button fast enough when a bunch of Tweeps start twittering blow by blows of sporting events. My husband is a sports nut. If I want to know what’s going on, I’ll either watch the event on TV or ask him. Flooding my Twitter box every two seconds with this drivel turns me off faster than bad breath (no matter how great a kisser you might be).

4. Twegging (Begging) for Floats, Diggs and Other Tweet-Ho Behavior

It’s like telling someone how smart you are. If you’re really that smart, you don’t have to advertise it. If I read your post and deem it worthy of being dugg, floated, technoratied or otherwise promoted, I’ll promote it. This behavior practically ensures that not only will I NOT digg or float it, but I probably won’t even bother to read it. And to use another sex analogy, it’s like forcing my head down. I DON’T LIKE IT!

5. Thanking New Followers And Begging for Followers to Get You to Some Milestone Number

This isn’t Facebook, folks. And even on Facebook, I don’t “friend” every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes along. I’m selective about who I follow, and just because you follow me doesn’t mean I will follow you. In fact, if I don’t like what you are about (or, with regard to Items 1 and 2 above, can’t figure out what you are about), I may just block you. No hard feelings, just the way I roll.

A lively discussion on a design forum prompted me to make the following observation, which I felt deserved its own post, touting the power of Twitter. Here’s my story. So … tell me what drew you to Twitter?

I joined over a year ago and didn’t really see the point of it. I mean, do I really care that your two-year old just spit up her strained peas all over your Vera Wang silk scarf? But this past July I started using it as a tool to advise my web hosting clients about server issues. And the lightbulb moment, when I really understood how Twitter can galvanize a community was during Hurricane Ike. I live in Houston, Texas, which took a direct hit from Ike on September 13.

I was able to stay online via my Verizon cell phone while huddled in my hallway that night while a local TV station twittered what was going on around us. But it was during Ike’s aftermath that I had new respect for Twitter. That same TV station continued to twitter about useful pieces of information: Who has gasoline and how much it costs, who is handing out ice and bottled water, the status of electrical outages (they were citywide for days), which restaurants and grocery stores are open for business, etc. It was an invaluable resource for late-breaking very salient information. I’ve been hooked ever since!

Want to share what brought YOU to Twitter? Drop a comment below and don’t forget to leave me your Twitter ID!

I’ve lately jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and started trying to use it for marketing and publicity. At first I thought it was just so much “Today my 3 month old spit up her strained pears onto my best Vera Wang scarf” and not much else. Because I really couldn’t care less what I had for breakfast, much less what YOU had. :)

Since then, I’ve had an epiphany and see that quite a number of high profile folks are using Twitter to promote themselves, their services and their web sites. It’s perfect for a web design company to announce site launches, new free themes, design specials and promotions, and to update folks on what we’ve been doing.

With that in mind, I’ve listed below a few Twitter tools that I am checking out. If you think of others that should be on the list, feel free to drop a comment!