10 Unforgivable Mistakes Twitter Marketing Newbies Make
Note: This is a throwback article I wrote in February 2014, which has since been unpublished, but after attending yesterday’s session on “The Power of Twitter” at the Social Media Week Independent Accra yesterday, I felt a nostalgic surge to resurrect this article. It reflects my thinking in 2014 with respect to the topic and many of the thoughts expressed remain relevant and applicable today. I have opted not to edit the article.
Twitter is a greatly misunderstood social network, at least in Ghana. It’s pretty much unknown in digital marketing circles. The few who do know about it, do not really use it that seriously for content marketing and product promotion.
Those that take it seriously enough, often know little to nothing about the platform. Twitter is one of the most powerful networks for influential, result-oriented content marketing, if you ask me.
It’s no surprise then that most digital marketers new to Twitter, make mistakes that any seasoned brand wouldn’t make. Whether you’re only just starting out, or you’ve been on Twitter for a while, these kinds of lapses are unforgivable, and may very well be the reason you’re not getting the results you expect.
Are you making any of these mistakes?
1. Not branding their Twitter page
The egg head is not meant to be for anyone to seriously use as a profile image — less so for a brand serious on content marketing through Twitter.
The first element of authority and credibility on your Twitter brand profile page is the imagery and color scheme that is consistent with what your brand is recognized for.
Take that away, and you place a level of hesitation on anyone who finds your page. Following you takes one extra thought process — and that could stop the process entirely.
Remove all doubt about the authenticity of your profile by branding in your recognizable colors and imagery.
2. Not filling out their bio information
You know, the rush to start social media marketing often leaves brands jumping in to post content before they are done setting up their profile.
This should not happen to you. You need to do all the setting up patiently and make sure your profile gives all the information needed before you commence your content marketing.
Most people, myself included, read the bio of your profile, to figure out what you’re mainly or all about before following someone. I do that even if I was led there by an amazing piece of content from your tweet.
You should expect no less from others, and perhaps more scrutiny. A bio that doesn’t sound like someone I’d like to follow just puts me off. No bio at all… well, you get the point.
3. Not including links in their tweets
When you start out on Twitter, you will soon realize that 140 characters is really not a lot. Maybe for quotes and short statements, but if you mean to do content marketing, product promotion and the weightier stuff, you’ll need to extend that.
You do that by placing links to your content within your tweets. The link instantly extends the capacity of your tweet from 140 characters to a whole web page, to say whatever you need to.
Providing consumer-focused value through purposeful content should be the goal of any content marketer.
If you’re just starting out, you need to know that links are your way of providing maximum value per tweet.
4. Only sharing promotional content
Yes, Twitter is great for content marketing, but the best marketing is that which doesn’t look like marketing. Got that from somewhere.
In other words, you shouldn’t only focus on what you’re selling. Focus on the customer, the prospect. Focus on solving problems, building relationships.
Your tweets should include content that help the reader for free. Yes, for absolutely nothing in return. Because you want to come across as being genuinely out to help your reader and not just wanting to sell to them.
Plus, I don’t know but when I consistently only get salesy tweets from anyone I’m following, all of a sudden unfollowing them seems really attractive, cos non-stop salesy tweets just put me off.
It’s like ‘that’s all you have to say’. And it shouldn’t be.
Spice up your tweets with helpful, interesting content that informs, educates, entertains and yes, promotes stuff to your reader. An healthy blend of all these is best. In fact, you should have more other content than promotional content.
5. Only sharing their own content
Unless you are a content creation ninja with loads and loads of posts, articles, downloadable offers, videos and other content already at your disposal, you don’t want to be sharing only your content. Here’s a couple of reasons why not.
First, you probably don’t have that large a store of content.
Second, it’s difficult to start and build relationships with people on Twitter if you don’t share their content. Sharing other people’s content means you find it valuable, and that also helps them turn their attention to you.
Third, you should just be a source of great, great content, regardless of the source. Most people think sharing other people’s content will turn eyeballs to them instead of you.
I dare say it’s selfish, and it’s simply not true. You will need to share other people’s content, just as you expect to have others share your content.
6. Failing to engage with people who interact with their tweets
When someone retweets, favourites, quotes or mentions you, it’s a great launchpad for interaction and connecting with them.
Any form of interaction on Twiiter is in its most basic sense an endorsement of you, and you should capitalize on that.
No, I don’t mean sending three direct messages in quick succession to someone who just retweeted you asking if they’d like your product. No, it needs to be more tactful than that.
Simply acknowledging the tweet is enough for a start. Perhaps a follow-up question about the particular content that they interacted with, something very simple. The key is to acknowledge the interaction.
It’s a great start to a conversation with potential clients and brand lovers.
7. Not starting conversations with other people and brands
As a brand looking to build connections, build connections. Start the conversation. Draw others in. Don’t just wait to have someone retweet you before the conversation begins.
You retweet someone else. When you come across a great tweet, favourite it. Let the person or brand know you enjoyed the content. That gets the discussion going.
It’s also a great way to start contributing positively and making your thoughts, ideas and perspectives known.
8. Not redirecting inquiries and questions back to their website
Sometimes we leave the marketing out of content marketing in Twitter. Twitter alone cannot convert someone from interested to convinced, from prospect to client. That’s what your website is for.
You can’t really control the conversation so much and guide the prospect to a sales decision only using Twitter. So, when prospects get in touch and seek information through Twitter and you fail to redirect them to your website, you cut short the lead management process.
You may answer their question in a tweet, but that only satisfies present curiosity without encouraging any further discovery or action.
What you need to do is redirect attention to your website which you’ve set up to place the spotlight on your products, and funnel the prospect’s attention to it
9. Not taking Twitter automation seriously
Whoever told you that you could (or that you needed to) spend all day posting tweets, interacting, following up on leads, and retweeting others, told you a tall tale.
It’s virtually impossible to do all that without any automation tools, and still have the time to do your core business. Even if you had a separate marketing department, which you probably don’t if you’re a small business, it’s simply not worth it.
What works is to have some automated post scheduling tools keep your stream active with good content, while making time to personally start and respond to interactions.
You can use Hootsuite, Buffer, Trickly and other such tools to do that. This way, your content stream remains fresh, constantly serving good content to your followers.
The watchword, if you noticed, was good content. You don’t want to just fill the stream with irrelevant tweets lacking proper value to your followers. That is a mistake. Take time to curate good content — yours as well as from others, like we talked about earlier.
10. Not following influencers in their niche
I don’t know, there’s this feeling of ‘I want everyone following me but I don’t want to have to follow everyone’ kind of attitude that newbies have most times… it’s… misplaced, to say the least.
Twitter will not forgive you for that. In fact, the quality of your experience — and your growth as a business — will hinge on following others more significant in your niche and having them take notice of you.
Influencers have already gained a following that trust their judgment and see all their tweets. So if you were to get one such person to follow you, to retweet your content, to reply you in a tweet, to favourite your tweet, it would immediately give others who follow them a chance to check you out.
Immediately, you’re expanding your reach to include all their followers. Make it a point not to be an island on Twitter. Follow others who have reputation. You’ll make great waves on Twitter that way.
To conclude, Twitter is one lean, high traffic, super-efficient network. For me, it’s the content marketing superman. You don’t have to miss the point of Twitter simply because you’re new. With these insights and tips, you can take your content marketing to the next level and give your brand the exposure and growth you are looking for.
