According to a recent study, there are now over 2 million active twitter accounts in Australia (let alone across the world!), and with growing evidence that Twitter is also one of the most effective social media marketing channels for small businesses, more and more SME’s are investing time into building their Twitter networks. Whether you’re just starting out on Twitter, or a seasoned tweeting professional, there here are some golden rules on what not to do when using twitter for business:
- Automating your updates: This is the number one offense businesses make on twitter!! No matter if you are tweeting B2B or B2C, you should never automate your twitter feed – put yourself in the mind of your intended audience (who have followed you on Twitter for a reason!) ..would you as a fan, then like your twitter feed to be clogged up by uninteresting, useless tweets? No of course you wouldn’t. If you struggle for twitter content, try posting links to relevant articles you’ve read related to your industry, funny pictures (again relevant to your products & services) …or better yet, create a business blog where you can regularly drive traffic to your website through your business blog articles, that way you not only gain followers but also website traffic too.
- Tweeting too little: There’s nothing worse than following a business on twitter that initially tweets out a few updates, but then after time forgets they even had an account in the first place, and you never hear an update from them again! Tweeting regularly not only gives your business a better chance of building your follower numbers, it also engages your audience with food for thought and shows you are a market leader and influencer within your chosen industry.
- Tweeting too much: There is such a thing as over-sharing, so make sure you tweet regularly but not so regularly as to annoy your twitter followers. A good rule of thumb to follow is to test what is the best amount of tweets per day for your individual account – for instance, try posting one tweet on the hour every hour one day, versus every two hours the next day and thus find your tweeting ‘sweet spot’ – aka the best amount of updates that brings in the maximum amount of new followers, without losing followers along the way.
- Acting like a twitter-bot: Twitter and other social media networks have revolutionised the way businesses market their services in that traditionally it was more of a one-way channel, but now you are able to have a proper conversation with your fans and potential buyers. Tweeting for your business can provide you with a valuable outlet to build up a persona for your company in line with your branding message; so when tweeting, try to keep the tone conversational and don’t be afraid to inject your own personality into your updates.
- Sending irrelevant tweets out into the twitterverse: Your fans and followers on twitter (and in fact, all your social networks), have signed up to receive your business updates on an assumption that you will be providing informative posts based on your core business. So, no matter what you do always ensure that your tweets are relevant otherwise you risk the chance of alienating your audience and losing the followers you have so painstakingly fought to achieve in the first place.
There is no denying that Twitter has the potential to drive the largest amount of traffic to your website over other mediums such as Facebook & Google+, so its important to ensure that your tweets are engaging to your fan-base. Do you have any tips on what to do (or what not to do) when tweeting for business?
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