New Year is about breaking bad habits and learning to love new good ones. I thought I’d share some classic Twitter for business bad habits with you, just in case you didn’t realise how to get the most out of your Tweets. With the right strategy, Twitter can help to convey your compassion for your customers and act as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships.
Same Old Tweets
The wrong approach to tweets are the same type of tweets time and time again ie. Spam tweets. Twitter spam is basically someone who clogs up your feed and/or notifications with the same content. Posting the same or similar content nonstop is considered as a violation of Twitter rules and you can get suspended or even banned. And it’s annoying. Consider how to spread information effectively without violating the rules and causing people to unfollow you. Instead, understand your audience and search for useful quality content. Remember variety is the spice of life!
Facebook Posts as Tweets
Linking your Facebook to your twitter feed is a bad idea – why? Not only do you seem lazy to your followers, but even if people do try and click through many mobile apps don’t support the link through from Twitter to Facebook so you will lose followers. Evidently Twitter restricts the amount of words that you can use in a Tweet, and so many Facebook posts linked as Tweets are cut off mid-sentence and read like gobbledygook. How much more time would it take realistically to consider your audience? There are a wide variety of free social media tools that can help you to make sure that you manage your social media effectively such as TweetDeck. Twitter is not for everyone and all businesses, if you can’t get your head around it – that’s ok, look before you leap and learn more about it by engaging with an expert. Bear in mind if you’re on Twitter, you’d like to receive a Tweet. Integrating your social media strategy and tactics are a good idea for consistency but that does not mean linking them.
The Rise of the Guru
Self-proclaimed social media Twitter Gurus (Kings and Queens) scare me- why? Because I understand the term Guru refers to someone who is more than a teacher and primarily is a spiritual guide and I respect that. As a marketing expert, I understand the importance of marketing myself but a little modesty goes a long way. Before you buy an expensive ticket to attend a social media event, check out your guest speaker online. Google them and check out their LinkedIN profile – how many years’ experience do they actually have? What social media/ digital marketing background and qualifications do they have? If they have an unrelated background how has that helped them to become a self-proclaimed social media expert? What awards have they won and are they genuine? How long have they used social media and how many followers do they personally have on twitter? Consider the following/ follower/ tweet/ likes ratio – Twitter is NOT a popularity contest, it’s about quality over quantity. Evidently someone who has tweeted over 10,000 times but only has 1,000 followers is not that effective at engaging their audience. Most importantly, what professional indemnity insurance do they have? Bear in mind that for the cost of a ½ day generic Twitter workshop you can probably afford one-to-one tailored social media consultancy.
Twitter Recap:
- Define your audience – who are you communicating with? Consider quality not quantity.
- Define your goals- what are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to raise awareness? Increase traffic to your website?
- Plan your activity – what are you going to say, when and how can you add variety?
- Define your measurement- how will you know when you’ve been successful? Are you using analytics via tracked links?
- If you need help, why not research and find a genuine expert, they probably cost less than you think.
What Twitter bad habits annoy you? How do you choose to share your love of Twitter? Feel free to email your comments to: info@angela-consulting.com