Social Faux Pas You Don’t Want To Make When Marketing With Twitter

Marketing with Twitter is a little like being at high school. You have your wildly popular kids (10,000+ followers), your cliques (writers, vampire lovers, MBAs), people struggling to find an identity…and your social outcasts. The last group is the one you really don’t want to belong to. The best way to steer clear of the outcast status is to avoid the following top mistakes when marketing with Twitter.

1. Forgetting That Your Tweets Are Public

It’s amazing how many business owners seem to forget that their Tweets are public when marketing with Twitter. Profanity, questionable images, taunting, and similar unappetizing behaviors could end up costing you a lot more than followers. Create and maintain a reputation for professionalism when marketing with Twitter, and remember that all eyes really are on you!

2. Being a Snob

If someone takes the time to send you a private message (even a generic “Thanks for the follow” or “Thanks for the retweet”), take a few seconds to send a polite response and keep that conversation going. Use it as an opportunity to connect and find out more about this person. Marketing with Twitter is about connecting with real people and seeing how you can help them, so see every contact as important. This does not mean sending them a link to your opportunity, just connect with them on a human level and be genuinely interested in “them”.

3. Begging for Followers

Begging for followers is the cyber-equivalent of going to a live networking event, standing in the middle of the room, and shouting, “Won’t somebody please be my friend?” You might get a couple of pity contacts, but most people will be turned off. When marketing with Twitter always lead with value and people will become drawn to you and will want to connect with you. Basic human psychology is such that the more you chase, plead and beg, the less likely it is that people will want to interact with you.

4. Getting Too Personal

The key to effectively marketing with Twitter is to be professional, whilst still being “you”. Show your personality and always be authentic but don’t press your luck. Let’s just say that what happens in the bathroom should stay in the bathroom. As for the bedroom, well, if you’re a consummate writer of erotica, you might be able to pull off a few posts along those lines, but other than that, forget it. Also, if you are marketing with twitter for your business, then stay away from bashing others, complaining and whining. It creates a negative experience for your followers and they are more likely to unfollow you.

5. Losing Your Temper

Did someone disrespect you online? Well then, take a deep breath, think of all the things you’d like to tell that person (in 140 characters or less), let your fingers hover above the keyboard…and do nothing. Adopt a Zen-like mentality, breathe and let it go.

Responding with insults will make you look immature at best and deranged at worst. It can really harm your business and online reputation. Unfollow the offender so you don’t have to read any more of his or her hurtful posts and move on. Even a moment thinking about this type of situation is a moment wasted.

6. Constant Hard Selling

Whilst it’s fine to Tweet about your business, you need to remember that Twitter is first and foremost a social platform. It’s not a 24/7 spam-fest. About one in five or 20% of Tweets should be about your business or product. The rest should be geared towards community participation rather than “shouting” about your opportunity or product. The good news is that most people marketing with Twitter do not understand this so by creating engaging and interesting content you will stand out from the rest.

7. Leaving Your Profile Blank

Complete your Twitter profile before you start marketing with Twitter. Be sure to list your web address where people can go to find out more about you. Use your logo/you as your profile picture and use your brand name/your name as your handle and in your Twitter bio. And for goodness sake, replace the Twitter default picture of an egg with a picture of your own. Nobody wants to follow an egg!

Quick Tips for Marketing With Twitter.

Use the Twitter Search option to find people who use your target keywords in their Twitter profiles, tweets and hashtags.

Lead generation when marketing with twitter can be greatly increased by identifying potential prospects by the above method and then following them. After following them you can then review who they are following and then follow more and more prospects. This will expose your business to more and more potentially “interested” people.

Always have links to your Twitter account from your website/blog so people can follow you easily.

Many people who are marketing with Twitter don’t utilize email footers as a way to get people to follow them. Essentially, any potential prospect is more likely to engage with you and become a potential customer or rep, the more exposure they have to you. On my blog and all emails that I send to my subscriber list, I have links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ Pinterest, Youtube and aim to connect with people on as many networks as possible. On each respective network I also have links to all the other networks.

Always share relevant and interesting content that you would want to see yourself.

Marketing with twitter should involve not only sharing your own content (blog posts, current research or tips, webinars, interesting information and statistics) but also other people’s content. If you are connected to other leaders on the social networks and are subscribed to their newsletters it becomes easy to find useful information that will help others. Don’t worry about losing potential leads, people will appreciate the information and see you as an authority figure that keeps up-to-date with the latest information.

Marketing with Twitter can be tricky, but if you can sidestep the traps and focus on leading with value, you should be well on your way to marketing with twitter the right way.