Twitter is undoubtedly the most addictive social media platform in the world. With millions of users globally, it offers small businesses an excellent chance to connect with both current and potential customers in a casual yet engaging way. This is why organizations of all sizes now invest significant time and resources into creating and managing their Twitter profiles.
However, if you’re a small business owner, there are certain Twitter mistakes that can cause severe damage to your brand image, and cost you previous time and resources.
Here’s a quick look at some of them.
- Ignoring Your Profile
In an ideal world, I shouldn’t be discussing this point since a complete profile is one of the first things any social media user should do. However, a surprisingly large number of businesses do not spend enough time in building their Twitter profiles. This can cost you heavily in the long run.
Credibility is one of the key requirements to make sales through social networks. On Twitter, its need is even more magnified since there are thousands of fake and unreliable profiles all over Twitter.
Your profile is a great place to create a lasting impression on your followers. If created properly, it would immediately depict credibility and present you as an active business that regularly engages with its customers.
Action Points:
– Make sure you complete every part of your Twitter profile
– Use your company logo as the profile picture
– Use a picture of your office building or employees as the header image
– The name of your company should ideally be your Twitter handle as well. If not, then any close variation would work.
– Add your main company website URL
– Mention the location of your head office.
- Wasting The Profile Bio
The profile bio is also a part of the profile information. But I’m mentioning it separately because of its importance and because of the frequency with which I come across companies that underutilize their profile bio.
The Twitter profile bio is a place where you tell the world about your business. It’s not meant for fancy descriptions or between the line messages. Be absolutely clear, even if it’s boring, about what your company is all about.
The profile bio helps people discover you and understand the nature of your business. Not everybody is an expert at understanding witty descriptions. So you need to make it easy for your followers to understand what you do.
Action Points:
– Create a clearly written profile bio that mentions your core services.
– Use relevant keywords in your profile description
– If you have multiple Twitter accounts, mention them in your profile description (they are clickable.
– You can also mention a URL in the profile description as long as you add http://www. with it.
- Broadcasting, Not Socializing
Far too many business use Twitter as a broadcasting platform instead of using it to socialize with their followers and potential customers. Sharing content and product links with your followers is fine, but if that’s the only thing you do on Twitter, then you’re not only losing out on precious engagement opportunities but also risking your brand image.
Action Points:
– See your last 10 posts on Twitter. If more than 5 of them are just plain links, then you’re a link broadcaster.
– Even when you Tweet links, add a small comment and tell your followers why you think it’s worth sharing.
– Proactively engage with your target audience by searching for relevant topics on Twitter. See what people are talking about. If there are any unanswered queries, respond to them. In general, focus on building conversations.
– Identify the influencers in your niche and follow them. Become a part of their conversations and mention them in your Tweets. Become a familiar face to them. Conversations with influencers would give you great exposure to their followers and help you increase your own following.
- Mass Following Users
Nothing could be more damaging to your brand image than mass following hundreds of users in the hope of getting a few follow backs. This strategy only worked in the early days of Twitter and is now only used by spammers. So do yourself a favor and avoid mass following.
Instead, refer to point number 3 of this post and focus on engaging people. The more you connect with people and help them with your content, the more followers you’d attract. It takes time, but it’s worth it.
Action Points:
– Instead of mass following people, go to your competitor’s profile and see if any of their followers have left any Tweets for them.
– If there are any unanswered Tweets or questions that you believe you can answer, latch on to this opportunity. This would build awareness about your brand and win you genuine followers.
- Ignoring Twitter Cards and Twitter Lists
Twitter has several tools that not only make it easier for you to use Twitter but also increase the effectiveness of your content and Tweets. The best of them, is the Twitter Cards option. Twitter cards add an additional layer of text and image content to your Tweets and allow you to display a preview of your links.
Similarly, most Twitter users underutilize Twitter lists. Twitter lists are there to help you filter out the noise and follow the most relevant people on Twitter. By not using them appropriately, you’re wasting a simple tool that can save you precious time and resources.
Action Points:
– Sign up for Twitter cards here.
– Create a Twitter list and add all the influencers of your niche in it.
– Follow the activities of these influencers and engage with them when you see the opportunity.
– Similarly, create separate lists for different customer segments to monitor them better.
- Lacking Personality
In the social media age, your business needs to have a clear personality that users can relate with. Without a personality, your Tweets are bound to be boring. Most small businesses never address this issue. As a result, their tweets are monotonous and lack engagement.
Action Points:
– Hand over your Twitter profile to a single employee and make him/her the face of your company on Twitter.
– Daily add one Tweet from the CEO. You can mention in your description that the Tweets from the CEO would include CEO (or their surname) at the end.
– Use memes, vines, gifs and other forms of interactive media to add an element of fun to your Tweets.
- Being Inconsistent With Your Tweets
Like any other form of marketing, Twitter requires consistency as well. You cannot build a loyal following if you regularly disappear from Twitter for weeks. Every minute there are tens of Tweets on a Twitter timeline. So if you don’t Tweet regularly, people will forget you quickly.
Unfortunately, this is another mistake that many small businesses make. They leave their Twitter profiles dead for weeks and then suddenly come back to life and Tweet a dozen links in a minute.
This is not how things work on Twitter.
Action Points:
– Create a Tweeting schedule
– Tweet at 5-8 times a day
– Schedule your Tweets in advance using BufferApp
– Use BufferApp to Tweet across all time zones.
Conclusion
Twitter is a powerful engagement tool that can boost your overall customer satisfaction and even help you acquire new clients. However, as a small business owner, you need to ensure that you stay away from all the mistakes mentioned in this post. Not doing so may cause all your efforts and resources to go to waste.