Connor BrookeAre you frustrated that you aren’t getting results from your Twitter campaign? Not sure what you’re doing wrong? Here are 8 Twitter marketing mistakes that might be hurting you:
1. You Tweet at the Same Time Everyday
Twitter is a fantastic tool to broadcast information, but it’s also instant and temporary. If you only tweet at the same time everyday, chances are you are only reaching the same people. Broaden your audience by varying the times you post. Also keep in mind that business hours may be the least effective time to post, depending on who your target audience is. Don’t leave out early mornings, evenings, weekends, and holidays. If you have customers in a different time zone, make sure to keep this in mind as well. Sound daunting? That’s what tools like HootSuite, Timely.is, and Buffer are for.
2. You Send a Bulk Amount of Tweets at One Time
Depending on the patience of your followers, if you’re posting more than 2 or 3 times in a row, you may be hurting your efforts. Not only are you not broadening your audience by saving the content to tweet throughout the day (see point #1!), you also may cause your followers to tune you out or unfollow you all together by flooding their twitter feed. If you are live tweeting an event, be sure to warn your followers ahead of time that you’ll be tweeting more than normal on that occasion. The exception to this is @reply. If you reply to someone through Twitter, it won’t show up in your followers feed unless they follow the person you are replying to as well (if you aren’t replying to tweets, see mistake #8).
3. You Tweet as a Logo
There’s a lot of debate as to if it’s a good idea or not to tweet behind a logo instead of adding a human face. My opinion is that it’s generally a bad idea, and here’s why: Twitter is largely based on conversations and generosity. It’s human to human interaction, more so than even Facebook. This is the source of Twitter’s power, connecting individuals who may or may not know each other around a common subject. People have conversations with people, not logos. If you take the human interaction out of the equation, you’re just another brand broadcasting their message hoping someone will listen, and you’re missing out on a key benefit of being on Twitter. If you’re a company tweeting, you can do what we do here at Shift Digital and add the names of the people tweeting from the account to the Twitter bio, and the end of the tweets. Whenever you interact with @ShiftDM, you know who is on the other end of the tweet and it doesn’t feel like you are taking to the man behind the curtain.
4. Your content strategy consists of retweeting what other people say.
If most of your posts are just retweets, what would be the motivation for others to follow you? Curated content is an important part of a content strategy, but it can’t be the only piece of the puzzle. You need to build your credibility by showing that you know your stuff, not that you can identify other people who actually do. This is where a blog is an important piece of your website. You can show off your skills and your knowledge on your industry in a blog post and share it with your followers. Bonus: Other people will retweet and share YOUR content!
5. You Tweets Don’t Relate To Your Business or Your Community
Your goal on Twitter should be to build your reputation as an authority in your field, and a staple of your community. Keep your posts related to your field of expertise as much as possible. Don’t be salesy, be conversational, but keep the conversation focused around your expertise. If you are a real estate agent for example, focus on what matters to homeowners, sellers, and buyers. That’s the information that your followers are looking for you to provide.
6. You Can’t Remember the Last Time you Updated your Twitter
That abandoned Twitter account that you started but stopped updating after a while is not helping you, and it may actually be hurting you. An abandoned Twitter account hurts your credibility as a business because it shows a lack of follow through and commitment on behalf of your business. It also may lead people to wonder if you are even still in business. If you don’t plan on putting together a content strategy and making Twitter work for you, than it would benefit you more if you deleted your account. If you do want to get serious about your Twitter presence, a company like Shift Digital can help you set up a solid content strategy and all the tools you’ll need for success.
7. Your Twitter is Automatically Updated by Your Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
What makes Twitter so unique and popular is its 140 character limit. While these may be frustrating boundaries for some, it’s what keeps the conversation and information flowing and easily accessible. Because it’s such a unique platform, what works on Facebook will not work on Twitter. Any overflow past 140 characters is truncated and replaced by a link, and if you didn’t get your point across in the first 140 characters, chances are slim that the reader will stick around to click the link for the rest.
8. You Don’t Engage In Conversation
You’re missing the point of Twitter, and social media in general, if you aren’t engaging in conversation (which is hard to do when you’re a logo! See #3). Part of the benefit to Twitter over Facebook is the ability to communicate more freely with customers and prospective customers. If you are just talking at people and blindly broadcasting your message, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities and frankly coming off as a jerk who only cares about yourself.
What other mistakes do you see people making on Twitter that are hurting their efforts? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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Great article. I have made almost all the mistakes myself
Thanks Shantanu! I’ve made all those mistakes as well along the way…I’m hoping this list will save everyone from learning the hard way like me.
Thanks Brittany, I too have made similar errors. On the hiding behind a logo point, I believe that some businesses will be use Twitter (and FB) as a branding exercise or perhaps the account is controlled by a number of individuals? I think it depends on what Twitter is being used for, as I entirely agree that hiding behind a logo for a personal blog or one-man-self-employed business is a big mistake! Businesses with lots of “Followers” seem to be of brands that are instantly recognisable, rather than startups etc. Be interested in your thoughts here?
Hi Lee, thanks for the comment. Brand recognition that has been built for years before social media came along obviously helps some brands when they start using social media to gain a following very quickly. But, if they can’t find a way to inject humanity into their messages, they will soon find themselves losing out to companies who are interacting on a human level with their customers through social media.
One brand that I think is doing a great job of being transparent on Twitter even though they are a huge name is Southwest Airlines @SouthwestAir. They do tweet from a logo, but you can quickly see who the actual person is that is running the account in the bio. Humanizing a brand on Twitter does come with its set of challenges, but I definitely think it’s worth it to gain the trust and loyalty of customers.