Social media is no different from having a conversation at the water cooler or with your friends at the bar.
You go for the conversation, the social atmosphere, the presence of other people.
When you go to a social media platform, think of it the same.
You go for conversation, news, event invitations, to tell others about your product, program or service.
Remember the Zombies from The Return of the Living Dead? All they wanted to do was eat your brains, right?
If you’ve been tweeting and not getting leads or traffic to your website, chances are followers you overlooking your tweets.
Why is that?
Let’s take a look at some mistakes that happen on Twitter I’ve noticed over the past month from checking tweets for clients to looking at my own Twitter feed. Although it’s not a full list of what you should or shouldn’t do, it will help you be more aware of what you are doing, what works and how you can change your Twitter marketing plan for the better.
1. Scheduling tweets one right after another. While it’s perfectly okay to schedule tweets… I mean who doesn’t now-a-days, because we don’t have 8 arms, right?… it’s not cool to schedule tweets that post like burst mode on a camera. Rapid fire tweeting is annoying. It’s the fastest way for your followers to click “unfollow.” Bye-bye…
So what should you do?
Schedule your tweets throughout the day. Schedule one per hour or half hour if you’re ambitious to gain attention. If you need a scheduling platform, try Hootsuite. It’s easy to use and schedule . You can even shorten your link using their in-platform link shortener. Cool, huh?
2. Just tweet stuff with links. Did you not get the memo? I think half of Twitter didn’t because it seems that’s all they tweet.
Yeah, it’s cool to share good articles and posts you think your followers would like, but don’t stop there.
Twitter was originally created to be used as an instant messenger. The creators, Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone wanted to keep up with each others’s status.
And if you use another big social media platform (Facebook) then you know about the “status” message. Think about what your friends are saying on there right now. How many of them post with links?
And now think about how many of them post their status to start conversation?
So the next time you’re scheduling tweets or on Twitter, post some tweets without links that are just status updates. Tell your followers what you’re doing whether you’re eating a frittata, skateboarding at the park, or just nailed a business proposal.
3. Overrun the 140 character limit. It sucks. You have just so much room to write your tweet. But, so many people out there overrun the limit and for what?
It gets cut off mid-sentence and that just looks bad.
Here’s what you can do. Apply some of those copywriting headlines to work for you.
Haven’t studied up on them? Check out this Headlibs report that’s fun and you can use it to get some ideas, get your headline mojo going. You’ll have to shorten them up for the 140 character limit, but these are great for attracting attention to your posts.
So, when you’re pasting your headlines into Twitter or coming up with some different ones to say the same thing in a different way, stop yourself at the 140 character limit. That includes the URL you paste in Twitter too. So use a link shortener like Tiny URL or Bit.ly or the one in Hootsuite.
4. Be boring. Nothing makes someone run from a zombie faster than one that’s drooling, walking with its arms outstretched, with its eyes rolling around in its head.
Do you look like that during the day?
I didn’t think so…
So let your inner self out. Everyone who is human is funny. Maybe not Eddie Murphy funny or Adam Sandler, but you’re funny so let it out.
Post some funny stuff on Twitter. I’ve seen more retweets of funny stuff that go viral more than anything informative.
Why is that?
People get average conversation all the time. They’re overrun with average conversation. That’s why over half the people in America go home and veg on the couch after work because television is funny…
They need a break from average conversation and they look to Twitter and Facebook for funny stuff. So why not be the one that gives it to them? Post that funny video you saw earlier on YouTube, write a killer headline that gets interest or just say how much it made you laugh.
I’ve found that I get more comments when I post something funny and of course, it makes me look like a real human, not a mindless zombie.
5. Be mean. This one’s a big no-no for business. This one will definitely get you…
No soup for you – The Soup Nazi, Seinfeld
You’ve maybe heard all the stories of abuse, but what happens more often than not is Twitter users posting about work.
So, the other day, the producer of the morning show I listen to was in a 4 hour long meeting and he struck up a conversation with the speaker after it was over.
He was talking about how he was just getting started on Twitter, that he was creating a background. This speaker wanted to see it so he could help him out with the design. The producer adamantly refused. When the speaker finally got to see the producer’s Twitter account, he had just posted how boring the meeting was and it went on and on. Talk about an embarrassing situation…
So be nice. You never know who is watching (your boss). And if you are snarky, no changing that, just no abuse.
What are some other things you’ve noticed that do or don’t work on Twitter? Enlighten us in the comments below…
Image Credit: Yanito
Gabrielle, really great post. Very funny too I stumbled across it given we just had a brief encounter on Twitter too!
Totally agree, especially if you end up ONLY tweeting articles.
Also love your point on “schedule tweets in staccato mode”, really hate that too. Scheduling them generously throughout the day will give you a far better result.
Thanks for a great post, let me put this in my Buffer, watch out for it
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Thanks, Leo, for your comment. That’s a cool program, Buffer. I glanced over your page and it looks very helpful. Will check it out some more and try it out.