Remember, social media is about being social. Many of the same social norms that dictate our everyday interactions also apply to social media. This means that you should listen more than you talk, and when you do talk, avoid talking about yourself. Your goal is to create professional content and join relevant conversations that promote and broaden your business’ brand. Ultimately, the more effectively social you are on Twitter, the more users will follow you.
1. Engage your followers
A great way to engage your followers is to use questions, facts, and figures. This increases the chances that they interact with you and retweet your content.
2. Punctuation
Don’t sacrifice grammar because you only have 140 characters. Keeping a professional tone is essential to all communication.
3. Mentions
Use @ mentions to prompt influencers to engage with you and make sure you respond. This can also be used to directly communicate with current fans. Messaging them directly can go a long way toward cultivating a relationship.
4. Retweet
Retweet relevant content for your audience. Leave about 20 characters so people can add content or comments. In addition, follow all relevant entities such as the leaders in your area and your competition. Knowing what they are doing (or not doing), helps you remain competitive in the marketplace.
5. Use #’s (hashtags)
Hashtags allow other users to search relevant topics; however, DO NOT over hashtag. For example, there should be no more than two hashtags in any one tweet. When you use more, you run the risk of looking like spam. Also, hashtags need to be relevant AND make sense to the tweet you are composing. Better hashtags mean higher quality readers. When your tweets are meaningful, you increase the credibility of your brand AND nurture a sense of community. Conversely, misuse of hashtags can adversely affect your company’s image and irritate your followers.
6. Keep it Short
Just because you can use 140 characters doesn’t mean that you should. One of the best aspects of Twitter is that it forces you to be concise. Develop this skill and tweet succinctly. This also leaves room for retweets and comments.
7. Join conversations
People are discussing all sorts of subjects on Twitter. Join conversations that are relevant to your brand. Keep your opinions positive and non-contentious. Remember to listen, respond and keep honing your ability to have a conversational tweet.
8. Discuss trends
Every day Twitter has a different trending topic(s) or hashtag(s). Follow the trends and determine how they relate to your business. When they pertain, join in the topic. Again, do NOT sell your product via Twitter. Instead, your goal is to use Twitter to broaden the reach and enhance the identity of your brand.
9. Search relevant topics
A critical component to the effective use of Twitter is to search key terms that are important to your business (again, this is NOT a tool to sell your product). Your goal is to listen, join conversations, and offer pertinent advice.
10. Limit the selling of your product
People will tune you out and unfollow you very quickly if they feel like they are being spammed. This is not to suggest that you cannot tweet an enticing promotion or a special offer. But you’ll want to limit these types of tweets so you do not minimize or neutralize their impact.
What business should never tweet
1. Talking too much about yourself or company
The purpose of Twitter is to build relationships and foster communities of all sizes. Instead of simply focusing on your company’s content, concentrate on the exchange between you and your followers to cultivate a community around your brand. In much the same way that you get bored with friends that only talk about themselves, social media users get tired of businesses that only Tweet about themselves.
2. Asking people to follow you
Not only is this unprofessional, it also portrays your company as desperate. Instead of telling people to follow you, tweet content that gives them a reason to want to follow you. You can certainly have promotional items that read “follow us on Twitter”, but you also need to include WHY they should be following you on Twitter. For example, "follow us on Twitter because we use it to give away free food, share daily specials, and have an awesome time."
3. Tweeting too much
The more you Tweet, the less people are going to put credence into what you’re saying. As a business, you should aim for between 3-5 Tweets a day (not including direct responses). This will keep your business recognizable, connected, and meaningful. Any more and you run the risk of devaluing your content, as it dilutes the message.
4. Posting from other social media platforms
Facebook is not Twitter and Twitter is not Instagram. You should create separate content for all platforms. Anyone that follows you will notice the overlap and get tired of the duplicate messages. Give your fans and followers reasons that they should be following you on all platforms. You can certainly repurpose content, but do not automatically upload the same exact content on multiple social media platforms.
5. ‘Multi-tweeting’
Never post something that will take more than 140 characters so it runs over into more than one tweet. The key on Twitter is to be concise. If your message is over 140 characters, you either have to pare it down or not post it. Can’t cut content from the message? Then Twitter isn’t the right platform.
6. Retweeting compliments or thank you’s
This is not what the retweet (RT) button was designed to accomplish. The RT button is “this is something pretty cool that I think would interest you”, not “this is something pretty cool aboutme that I think would interest you.” Instead, you should favorite those types of tweets. You wouldn’t approach a friend to tell him/her a compliment you got from someone else, so don’t do it on Twitter.
7. Carelessly following everyone who follows you
Followers are important, but maintaining professionalism is imperative. Just because people follow you, does not mean you are obligated to follow them. Be selective. Beware of users with illegitimate or inappropriate user names or accounts, especially those that are obviously spam. Who you chose to follow is a reflection of your business. Remember what your mom said: “you are the company you keep.”
