Twitter seems so simple. You have a great piece of information to highlight or a witty comment to share, and you type it up with a quick handful of words then post it for all the world to see.
The actual process happens in a blink of an eye and can seem fairly effortless. Perhaps that’s why it’s so surprising that Twitter is actually a complex platform possessing a variety of unwritten rules that determine if you sink or swim. So, how sure are you that you aren’t making a misstep?
Think Before You Tweet
While there is no “one way” to conduct yourself on social media, there are specific pitfalls that your company should attempt to avoid.
In the Small Business Trends article “10 Twitter Blunders Businesses Should Avoid,” Ilana Bercovitz highlights some key mistakes. We’ve summarized and generalized them for you below.
Blunder #1 – Tooting your own horn: Everyone knows that you are a business. Everyone knows that you have something to sell. The key to Twitter is not hammering these points home in the tweets you publish. Twitter is a great conversation tool, and it’s all about the give and take between you and your customer. For example, would you go out to dinner with a friend and only talk about how great you are? Hopefully not! Instead, it’s about offering something of value to the other person, whether it’s important information or some entertaining tidbits. By remaining neutral in content publishing, you prove that you are a great resource without having to spell it out through shameless self-promotion.
Blunder #2 – Repeating yourself: With ever-refreshing newsfeeds, there is a good chance that your fans won’t see your original tweet. That is OK because that’s Twitter. Re-posting the same tweet in rapid-fire succession is not only pointless, it’s also obnoxious. The only end game for this strategy will be increasing the number of un-follows you receive.
Blunder #3 – Re-tweeting yourself: You don’t ‘like’ your own Facebook posts, right? In the same way, that’s why you don’t re-tweet yourself! If you want to take a new approach or add commentary to content you’ve already posted, do it in a fresh and innovative way without re-tweeting yourself.
Blunder #4 – Re-tweeting mentions of yourself: Are you seeing a common theme here? While it’s exciting to be liked, followed, and mentioned, it’s important to stay humble. While many brands re-tweet a brand mention, it’s better to send a quick thank you OR if the content is very important, re-tweet it with a thank you to the user.
Blunder #5 – Cluttering the message with too many hashtags: If people are focusing on your massive stream of hashtags, they may not even look at the original message. It looks like spam, it’s distracting, and it’s completely ineffective since it will be ignored. If you have some great and relevant keywords (be selective!), or a brand-identifying hashtag, use it at the end of your tweet.
Blunder #6 – Asking generic questions: Imagine asking, “what’s up?” to your audience. Not only is this a head-scratching tweet, what really will you get out of this? If you don’t have a point or a purpose with a tweet, don’t post it. However, there are plenty of important and engaging questions to pose to get the conversation rolling. Be specific and smart about how you craft them to get the most usable answers.
Blunder #7 – Acting sporadic: Don’t only show up to the party when you have something important to say and then be a ghost the majority of the time. Even if you don’t have something exciting in the works (such as a new product), be present on Twitter and have great conversations. Include posting important industry information or sharing content from experts.
Blunder #8 – Behaving like a robot: Tweet schedulers can be very helpful here and there, but do not rely on them too often. If you look like a robot, people will flee. Customers want real people and authentic voices.
Blunder #9 – Tweeting with the appropriate tweet length: Isn’t the whole point of Twitter to use a small amount of characters to create a great message?! Consider this: if you use every part of it, it makes it hard for people to re-tweet you with a comment of their own. Think bigger picture visibility.
Blunder #10 – Including misleading link descriptions: Do not, we repeat, do not bait and switch content. We all want great engagement numbers but don’t try and achieve this through putting out a very exciting link description only to have people arrive at a completely different page. This kind of practice will destroy your reputation forever.
Stay Consistent and Remain Exciting
Finally, be smart about your message. Don’t be offensive, don’t be egotistical, don’t be boring. Do bring something exciting to the table, be consistent, be kind, be social, be entertaining, be informative, be honest. Build relationships. Become a trusted resource. Above all, have a purpose for being on Twitter and let that guide you with every post you tweet.
Are there any other mistakes you see brands making on Twitter? Or, some things that some brands do exceptionally well? Let’s make another round-up list here!
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