My 10 Commandments of twitter
Done the right way, twitter can be a fantastic marketing and networking tool for your business – but get it wrong and you can quickly alienate people and negatively impact your brand.
Follow my 10 Commandments to ensure you get it right:
1. Thou shall not use automated Direct Messages – there’s nothing more likely to turn off a follower (and have them head straight for the unfollow button) than sending a cheesy auto-DM thanking them for the follow, especially if you ask them to like your Facebook page too!
2. Thou shall not use auto-tweets – again, this is a big turn-off for followers. If you really, REALLY need to then by all means schedule a few tweets to appear if you’re busy or to cover you “out of hours” but don’t use them all the time. And if you are using auto-tweets, vary the content – I’m not interested in reading that you’re “Number one in Google” 10 times a day!
3. Thou shall not link your twitter and LinkedIn accounts – LinkedIn is a professional networking site, so people aren’t interested in what you’re listening to, that you’re watching the latest reality TV offering or that you’ve just eaten a wasabi and it was hot! Stop annoying your LinkedIn connections and set your account so you only share tweets that include the #in hash tag.
4. Thou shall not sell – another big turn off are people who constantly sell, sell, sell. Twitter is about networking, sharing and having conversations – you wouldn’t run into a restaurant and shout about your latest product or service to anyone who’ll listen, so don’t do the same on twitter!
5. Thou shall be courteous – if someone’s retweeted your tweet take time out to say thank you. Likewise, if someone tweets something favourable about you it doesn’t hurt to say thanks.
6. Thou shall not regard it as a numbers game – it’s not a popularity contest. Yes, you might feel good about yourself if you see you have 2,000 followers but what’s more important is that you interact with them.
7. Thou shall not expect people to follow you back – if you choose to follow someone great, but don’t be disappointed if they don’t follow you back. Again, it’s not about the numbers – follow people you have a genuine interest in connecting with and make them count.
8. Thou shall not be an egg – take a few minutes to upload a profile pic, preferably a head shot but if you’re camera shy then a logo will do.
9. Thou shall be yourself – let your personality shine through to encourage followers.
10. Thou shall interact – please, don’t set up a twitter account unless you are prepared to talk to people! Interaction is the key to your twitter success.
Those are my 10 Commandments of twitter – can you add any more?
If you’d like more Twitter tips then download my FREE Twitter for Business ebook.
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