Twitter: What not to do
Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash
The first step to doing social media right is knowing what not to do.
While scrolling through PR Daily, I came across an article called “5 Twitter gaffes brand managers should avoid.” While each of the points are valuable, I am going to relay the top three I feel are the most important.
- You don’t post regularly.
The whole point of social media is to share content with your audience. Posting regular content is vital and, depending on your Twitter approach, may include a post every day – at minimum. Not posting regularly will leave followers looking for engagement elsewhere: According to PR Daily, 15 percent of Twitter users unfollow a business within three weeks if they feel the brand doesn’t make a strong effort to engage.
- You use Twitter like Facebook.
Each social media channel is designed for a different purpose, and often businesses forget to differentiate appropriately. It can be tempting to cross-post content between different channels, but this can leave your feed looking messy and unprofessional. For example: PR Daily makes a point to note that Facebook posts allow 5,000 characters, while Twitter gets 280. A beautifully written 1,000-character Facebook post is not going to relay well to Twitter. Make sure to create posts for the channel on which they appear.
- You ignore your audience.
Keyword: social. It’s in the name. Social media is not designed to be a one-sided conversation. It’s important to make sure your Twitter audience feels heard – whether in replying to comments or crafting content around what your followers are talking about. One way to help your audience feel heard? “Like” responses from followers, or even retweet their posts.
