Twitter Marketing for Small Business – 20 Things you Should Avoid

Like What Your Reading? Please Share

17 February 2011. ‘Is a day that will go down in infamy’ is not quite as dramatic as the FDR quote on that fateful day.

But, 17-2-11 is the day my life changed forever. It was the day I joined Twitter.

Twitter marketing is not like marketing on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Avoid Twitter Marketing Blunders

Two years later and I’m still on Twitter. I consider myself an early adopter, but, 4 years late to the Twitter party means I am either a laggard or a Luddite. But, 24 months is still 30% of the life of Twitter — so that’s something (or not).

I have learned a lot along the way. Talking with people, networking, listening, live tweeting events and webinars. Oh, the joy of it all.

How not to put my foot into it. There are always rules! Here are 20 you Should not Break on Twitter

#TwitterTuesday Post

@urbanrenstrom think before you speak becomes read before you retweet #twitter

— Xava Ireland (@XavaIreland) March 22, 2013

In this #TwitterTuesday post, I am going to practice what I preach. One of the first lessons I learned as a Twitter marketer is to listen and share!

So here are my 20 things you should not do on Twitter.

Keeping in mind personal branding is important and one goal of social networking is to build a community of raving followers and fanatical brand advocates.

Here are 20 Twitter Marketing #MegaFails to avoid

1. Do not use Auto DMs (auto reply direct messages) as a way to thank new followers. It is really really annoying, and impersonal and defeats the purpose of building relationships with people.
2. Do not schedule multiple tweets for delivery at the same time. They will display one|after|the|other. I will label you a #spammer – probably – and people will unfollow – probably.
3. Please do not automate Twitter. a) automating defeats the purpose of being social and b) it’s not social. Scheduling is not automating. Automating is RSS to Tweet. It’s ok to schedule tweets. I schedule tweets, with Tweet old Posts, with Buffer and with Hootsuite. However, I read every article that I post and schedule.
4. Egg Head Avatar – To be taken seriously use your photo or your company logo. I want to engage with people. Not an egg or a ‘brand’. I prefer a photo instead of a logo. But, that’s my personal view. You could include your company logo on your Twitter background. Also, I have seen, and it’s very clever, the “ˆUR” nomenclature used for instances where there are multiple peeps and one account. It’s the ˆ followed by the person’s initials.
5. Don’t forget to fill out your profile/bio – I decide whom to follow based on what is said in the bio and by looking at the last 10-20 or 30 tweets. If the bio is empty I’m not going to take you seriously and a few others would also.
6. Are you a food blogger? skip to no 8. Otherwise, don’t tweet what you had for lunch or dinner. People don’t care and you’re wasting their time.
7. Avoid banal tweets. Is your personal brand important to you? Your business depends upon it. #Immediate “unfollow”
8. Be very careful tweeting about sex or religion. Except if you’re @Pontif or @AskDrRuth that is.
9. Twitter is the social phone, don’t broadcast. Probably it’s better to listen more and talk less.
10. Don’t over-promote yourself. The Pareto principle 80:20 is a good ‘how often can I tweet my content’ rule. 80% of the time tweet other people’s content, conversations and RT. The remaining 20% is your own content. Be generous always, add value and share lots of content. That’s the best kind of promotion you can make.
11. WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME??? CAPITAL LETTERS imply shouting, probably bad manners and all that.
12. Don’t Cross Post from Twitter to Facebook or to LinkedIn etc. Just don’t. Treat each social platform differently. They are independent and have different audiences, etiquettes, goals and purposes.
13. Don’t use more than two #hashtags per tweet. More than that and your tweets are unappealing and may be spam. Hashtags need to make sense and be relevant.
14. No one cares that you are now the mayor of Foursquare. Or that you ousted me from the local fish and chip shop. Stop polluting your feeds with this trivial information.
15. Don’t auto-tweet how many people unfollowed you. It is bad Twitter etiquette, but, it is not my space to judge. Also, it is not very cool.
16. Don’t send a tweet without checkin speling and grammer. Spelling mistakes make you look unprofessional.
17. Don’t send an update when a direct message is right — for example when it’s personal or private.
18. Don’t think Twitter success has anything to do with your followers count.
19. Don’t just post a link. Help me understand why you think it’s helpful/useful/informative. Tell us why it’s interesting to you or the value you got from the article.
20. Plugging your company in every tweet – see no. 10.
21. What is up with “protecting your tweets”. Very anti-social if people can’t see your tweets. Does anybody do this anymore?

That was actually 21 don’t on Twitter marketing.

Did I forget any Twitter marketing don’t dos? Probably. So let’s continue the conversation on Twitter and in the comments. And thanks in advance for a tweet, share +1, or Like

@UrbanRenstrom Very good advise indeed. http://t.co/tXilJQNyM7
— A Direct Drive (@adirectdrive) July 25, 2013

Image Credit

Like What Your Reading? Please Share