Twitter can ease users into bad habits as they are perceived to ‘save time’ or ‘are easier’, but they can cause long-term damage to your account.
Whether you are new to Twitter or have been managing your account for a while now anyone can develop harmful habits that will prevent you from achieving your goal, such as building brand awareness.
Identifying and acknowledging your bad habits is the first step to avoiding any negative consequence. Below are 5 easy Twitter mistakes to avoid, ensuring you don’t harm the reputation of your account and continue to build engagement and followers.
1 – Tweeting Inconsistently:
Pushing out content occasionally is better than not at all, right?
Wrong, it is about the same.
Posting Tweets inconsistently will make your followers forget about your account, and then potentially unfollow it. Not only is inconsistency a damaging habit, but so is mass messaging to fill up your account. Posting messages within minutes of each other can appear as spam which will cause your audience to ignore your posts.
Now, consistency doesn’t mean hundreds of Tweets a week, but posting 3 – 8 Tweets per day around your brand and relevant industry news will expose your account to your followers regularly and in return, drive engagement.
However, if not having enough time is a concern then tools, such as Buffer or CoSchedule can help you schedule posts in advance to save you time during the week. You can also reuse popular content later in the month to continue to build your consistency, and it will save you time.
You may also consider using a pre-packaged content sharing tool like our FREE Content Sharer that has Marketing, Sales and Social Selling topics pre-packaged for you to share to your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook within minutes. You can even put your Twitter on auto-pilot to share that content for you.
2 – Treating Twitter and Other Social Networks the Same:
All social platforms were created for a purpose, and have evolved based on what works for the audience. Now, writing a short Facebook post and reusing the copy to write a Tweet is creating a post that will underperform.
Now that Twitter has allowed us to use 280 characters instead of 140 the use of repetitive messages is a potential issue. However, keep in mind how your audience uses Twitter and having too much copy or no hashtags could really harm your engagement.
Twitter is a platform that majority of users use to consume information quickly. So, your tweets should be easy to read, straight to the point, and engaging.
3 – Forgetting the ‘Social’ in Social Media:
In other words, be active. As stated in point number one, writing consistent Tweets is great, but if you aren’t monitoring engagement or engaging with other accounts you aren’t being social.
Setting up Tweets and letting it run in the background will only cause your account to seem unoriginal, and decrease your follower’s interest. This doesn’t require a massive amount of effort, but part of utilising social channels is to be social with your audience and connect on a personal level.
Also, having a social account is the optimal opportunity to connect with your target audience by creating an engaging environment within your account.
Providing interesting content and staying active are two full-proof tactics to help you grow your account, and create a platform for your audience to learn more about you.
4 – Constantly Retweeting:
Retweeting is a great way to provide great content for your followers, and expand your network by drawing attention to your account. It can also help you stay engaged with your followers, and create the perception that you are active on your account.
I highly recommend incorporating retweeting into your content strategy, however, it shouldn’t be the sole provider of content. As stated above, you want to be ‘social’ and engaging within your account. So, constantly retweeting other accounts will diminish your credibility within your industry.
Promoting your own messages will only help your brand and/or company, but don’t be afraid to throw in a few retweets!
Overall, nipping your bad habits early is will have a huge positive impact on your account long term. Remember that your Twitter account is a great opportunity to connect with your audience, and increase awareness around who you are. Avoid deterring your followers by being consistent, engaging, and understanding how users utilise Twitter. Follow these simple steps and watch your account grow month by month.
This article was contributed by Alexandra Sutton.
