When I started with Roundpeg in September, I had seven or eight tweets to my name. With encouragement of my friends at Roundpeg, I started tweeting more actively. However, as a novice user, it wasn’t long before I arrived in Twitter hell. Here are four of my biggest rookie mistakes from the dark side (and how to avoid them):

• Abusing hashtags: While Twitter is more fun because of this tool, #everyword #shouldnotbehashtagged. Use hashtags smartly and sparingly. Don’t force them into your message.
• Spamming Facebook with Tweets: Do not push your tweets to Facebook.  They are really different mediums, like magazines and post-it notes. Mentions do not translate on Facebook and your conversations with other Twitter users appear out of context. If you care about your social media presence, take the time to customize your messages for each  platform.
• Misusing Twitter clients: I use TweetDeck to keep up with several topics at once and to schedule Tweets. It helps me make the most of my time and keep an active profile, even on busy work days. However, it’s inappropriate to schedule 10 tweets to post seconds after each other. You’ll look like a robot and not in a cool way.
• Broadcasting instead of interacting: If all you do is post links from Mashable.com, you are not making an impact and you are not having fun. Try to do fun things, like talking to someone (maybe direct message Obama) or asking your followers questions. Again, if you want to talk to humans on Twitter, you should talk like a human and not like a robot. And if you do share a link, add your own thoughts as to why you are sharing it.

I’ve made it this far back to the light through helpful criticism from friends and lots of trial and error. There’s more I don’t know certainly, especially as more culture and expertise develops around Twitter. However, my experience suggests that social media can indeed be easy. You just need to learn how to use it.

Comments? Follow @pwolfgram and use #RPtweetsmart at the end of your tweet.