Running Bad: The Top Mistakes Poker Players Make on Twitter

While I am far from having Joe Sebok’s astronomical number of twitter followers, I really enjoy twitter (@Katie_Dozier), primarily because of the many friends I’ve made from the social networking site. I’ve also enjoyed a steady uptick in followers and had fun researching how to best communicate in 140 characters.

Here are the top mistakes I see on twitter by poker players:

1.) Not Responding to Supporters:

Let’s face it; even the biggest names in poker have far fewer followers than the real kings of twitter do. When people tweet to a big name, they’re really hoping for one thing: a response. Trying to respond to every positive message or question (even if just with a quick “Ty :)”) is really worth the effort, as it will make your fans become even bigger supporters of you.

Also, choosing not to respond is a response in it of itself. It can turn supporters into haters. If someone wished you good luck while on the break of a big tournament, you would thank them, right? It really should be the same on twitter.

Of course, this is equally important (and a lot easier) for those of us with fewer followers. But I would suggest that people lucky enough to be burdened with too many nice comments look into hiring a social media assistant if the alternative is not having time to reply.

2.) Not Following Anyone Except Huge Names:

This goes hand-in-hand with the first mistake. Frankly, when I see someone with 100k followers that is following 7 people, I am very unlikely to follow them because the gap, to me, indicates arrogance and a refusal to interact with the twitter community. If someone looks like just a “taker,” I think people are much less inclined to give them a follow. If a person on twitter frequently compliments/retweets you, giving them a follow back is an easy way to thank them. And again, the same thing applies if you have 100 followers instead of 100k.

Someone that handles this well is Kevin Mathers (@KevMath). He generates great content and follows about 1.8k with over 10.5k followers.

3.) Not Focusing on Poker:

If you’re billed as a poker player in your profile bio, the people following you are looking for poker related content, not info about how you just checked in at Terrible’s. Just like the most popular blogs tend to be pretty focused on a topic, the same is generally true for twitter. Unless you only want your Mom to follow you, don’t tweet what you just had for breakfast (unless it was unusual, food is one of your central topics, and you add an interesting picture.)

A great example of a tweeter that handles a few different topics well is my friend, and fellow Grindette, Jennifer Shahade (@JenShahade). Her profile bio says, “Author, Entrepreneur, 2x US Women’s chess champ, poker player. I also edit uschess.org/clo @USChess & produce @XChessChamps and @PokerFairyTale vids.” She balances her tweets within those subjects, so that one person who only cares about chess doesn’t feel inundated with info about poker.

4.) Too Many Chip Updates:

While this is a more narrow issue than the first two, this is my number one pet peeve, and the mostly likely reason for me to unfollow someone. Many top pros have solved this problem like Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker): by creating another twitter account that gives more frequent chip count updates. Since obviously I have far fewer followers than him, it wouldn’t be the most +EV way for me to deal with it.

Instead, I limit myself to what I’m fairly confident others will find interesting. A bigger tournament, such as the WSOP main, usually merits a jazzed-up tweet that I’m playing, a dinner break tweet (with pic), and an end of the day tweet (hopefully). Also, it’s important to remember that your chip count means less without giving the blinds, and above all try to keep it interesting. An easy way to begin doing this is by including a picture of your stack. Adding a quick comment about the table, one of your opponents, or a hand also works.
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Twitter is a great way of connecting people, especially for poker players. It’s also a chance to make our industry a little kinder, and more intriguing to those looking to start playing cards. #seeyouontwitter