Twitter, a platform that has been around for ages, yet adapted and changed so many times. From 140 characters tweets, to the 240 character upgrade, as the app has shifted, so has the way we use the app for our social marketing.
While some Twitter marketing trends are effective and great practices, others… not so much. Today, we’re going to introduce you to some of the worst marketing strategies on Twitter – and how to make sure you avoid them.
- Hashtagging #every #single #word
Hashtags, if used meaningfully and appropriately, can be great tools to connect your content to other users in a common topic. However, hashtagging random words doesn’t serve that same purpose. People on I Twitter aren’t going to be thinking, “Oh, I wonder what conversations are being had on the #breakfast hashtag.”
Niching your hashtag to be specific and targeted to what you are posting about is the best way to make the most of this Twitter tool. For example using #Tupperware in a post about new Tupperware products would allow someone searching through the #Tupperware hashtag to discover your post (and maybe even shop your products!).
- Follow-for-follow
Social media marketing is reliant on building and sustaining an engaged audience, so it makes sense that users would utilize trends that center on growing that audience. Follow-for-follow, while gaining you more followers, will not improve your sales or your success in social marketing.
This is because when you participate in a follow-for-follow, the person following you is not following you because they enjoy and want to engage with your content, but rather as part of an exchange (they follow you, so you follow them). This bumps your follower number, but will have a negative effect on your engagement meaning Twitter will de-prioritize your content. The BEST way to grow your audience is always authentically, through building connections and making your content something users want to interact with!
- Automated DMs
This Twitter feature actually seemed quite promising when first rolled out, however, it is extremely challenging for social marketers to actually use this strategy effectively. For a large business (think Target or Best Buy, for example) that receives a large influx of messages a day, having an automated system to answer frequently asked questions is a great system. But for the social marketer, who is reliant on relationships and authenticity with their audience, if a follower sends you a direct-message asking a question, they do not expect to receive an answer from a Twitter robot.
So while it takes more time to answer each follower individually, it will preserve your relationship with your audience. To save time, though, it might be a good idea to save some answers to common questions you receive in your phone’s Notes app so you don’t have to retype it each time. Also, setting goals for answering DMs (ex: answering 5 messages a day) can help alleviate the load.
Which of these cringey trends are you guilty of? Being successful on Twitter certainly isn’t easy, however, these tips will hopefully help you to avoid some major mistakes.