3 Mistakes People Make on Twitter
There a quite a few mistakes I see people accidentally making on Twitter. Here are 3 of them:
Not Thanking People
People appreciate being thanked for sharing your content. I know for myself if I have shared someone’s content a lot, not just once, and I have not heard anything from them I am less likely to keep promoting them.
Most people do not share for the thanks but will still stop if they are not feeling appreciated.
To find who has been sharing your content click on the @Connect tab along the Twitter toolbar. In there you will be able to see who has retweeted you, favourited your posts or mentioned you in any way.
It is easy to respond to people if they have mentioned you in a tweet, simply hover of the tweet and a reply option will become available. Click on that, type in what you want to say and then hit Tweet.
It takes a few more steps to thank people for retweeting. To do this, click on their username, go to their profile, write the tweet in there and then tweet out.
No Bio/Image
Twitter, all social media really, is about building relationships. People want to know who they are interacting with. If you don’t have anything in your bio or, even worse, still have the egghead default image Twitter gives you when you first sign up, you will struggle to build a community.
Ideally you want to have a picture of yourself. If you are a big company you may want to have a company logo, but if you can have an image of yourself more people will interact with you. We like talking to people, not logos.
It is also really important to have a link to somewhere else in the bio. If I find someone on twitter and want to find out more about them and there isn’t a link, there is nowhere else for me to go to further interact with that person and the opportunity has been lost.
Buying Followers
Buying followers can really harm what you are trying to achieve on Twitter – building relationships. You want to build a community of people interested in what you are sharing and who want to interact with you. When you buy followers these people won’t be interested in interacting with you, lots of the followers you get will be fake accounts, a lot of them probably won’t speak English and many of them will still have the egghead profile image and no bio.
It's not about the number of followers you have, it's about the quality!
You might also think that it is alright to do that just to get the numbers up – no one will know, right? Wrong! I can look up anyone’s Twitter account and see how many fake users they have following them and get quite a bit of other information about their Twitter account.
Don’t waste your time being on one of the social media platforms if you are going to buy your followers. If you have already made this mistake, and a lot of people have, you can get rid of them with services such as Manage Flitter, where you can force people to unfollow you.
Discover how to use Twitter to send targeted traffic to your website, become an authority in your field and put your Twitter presence practically on auto-pilot on my upcoming Twitter workshop – What to Tweet? Short is Sweet!
[social-bio]
Yes, I agree on buying followers, I did it in the past, will not make that mistake again. #4 I don’t use Twitter regularly!
Yes, Mark, not using Twitter regularly will not get you the results. Buying followers is an easy mistake to make!
So true, especially the first tip! I share other people’s content pretty frequently, and I like to hear back from them!
It does make a big difference, that is for sure!
whew! not making those mistakes!
And I’m getting better with twitter thanks to you Stacey! Whooo woo!
Yay!! I am pleased to be of assistance!
Great post. Thank you for the reminder that quality is better than quantity.
Thanks so much, Retha!
Thanks for the tips. I do post to twitter however I haven’t made it a habit to Thank! Will be sure to starting doing that right away. Thanks for the great points. Best Regards, Wendy [Ultimate Blog Challenge]
My pleasure, Wendy! Thanks for stopping by.
I’m very glad I’m not making any of those three 🙂 I always thank people for sharesa, mentions, RT’s etc.
I’ve always had a picture of myself, even though I am using it for business as well.
And every follower I have, has followed me on their own accord.
That is so great, Linda, I am pleased you are not doing any of those things.
Your first comment ties in nicely with my latest post about giving and receiving compliments. Very important to acknowledge others – gives both giver and receiver good vibes!
Thank you for these tips! I’d never “buy” followers.
Aw Stacey, you would have to hit me with that #1 mistake, when I’m considering stopping my habit of thanking! It’s so time-consuming *whine* OK, OK, I hear ya!
Sorry, but I do think that is important.
I say hello and welcome all new followers, it is a bit of work but it is the start of engagement. I don’t get many replies, but when I do they seem sincere. Social media etiquette is important, just like in real life!
I completely agree. Thanks for the comment.
Yea, the not thanking someone is big. I guess you can sometimes take it for granted but a thanks goes a long way in making real relationships. Thanks (lol) for the reminders!
Yes, it does go a long way in building relationships.
This is a great post, with some great tips! I particularly agree with you on #1. I always thank retweeters & people that mention me, time-consuming as it is. It’s just the same good manners you would use in everyday life. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Thanks for the comment, Marcia. Yes, it can be time consuming but I do think it is worth it.