7 Sins Of Twitter Marketing Startups Should Avoid

#1 Auto-Direct Messages

The Auto-DM is the number 1 sin in Twitter Marketing because when you get one, you’re in awe that people still use them. If you’re going to send out a Direct Message, customize it and show your follower(s) that their connection is meaningful to you.

#2 Oversell Yourself

Many social media marketers make the mistake of forgetting that social media is all about engaging with fans and followers. They turn most of their focus to getting more followers and getting their name across instead of creating relationships with their audiences. One of the biggest mistakes you can make on Twitter is to oversell yourself. The most successful marketers not only share their brands’ messages and drive traffic to their sites, but curate third-party content with the intent of building meaningful connections.

#3 Over Spamming Tweets with Multiple Hashtags

Some users see a trending hashtag on their Twitter feed and assume that by adding that hashtag to their own tweets they will get more views and potential clients. You are not awesome for using irrelevant hashtags in your tweet.  Your reputation will suffer, and it will appear painfully obvious to all that you are promoting where you should not.

#4 Using Long-Trailing URLs

Not only are bit.ly and ow.ly free to use and allow you to produce customized links, but they also allows you to track the links used in your tweets by keeping an eye on the number of people who have clicked on them, when they clicked on them,  and which social networks each shortened link has been shared to. Using long-trailing URLS is not only unappealing to look at, but wastes valuable space that could be used to motivate followers/fans.

#5 Lacking Creativity

Go to your Twitter profile and scan the last 50 tweets. What’s the percentage of text-only tweets to tweets with an image or video? The majority of the tweets are probably text only. Images and video are 5x more likely to be clicked on than text-only content. Test each type of tweet out and see which ones your followers respond to the most.

#6 Being Greedy

Things get pretty boring pretty fast if all you do is update your status, post links, post pictures and promote your blog. In order for people to care about any of that, you need to engage with them. This involves replying when something sparks your interest, or you think you can be of help; re-tweeting where you can add value; and getting involved in the discussion.

#7 Updated Profile

Your Twitter profile is crucial to legitimizing your real-life existence. When you follow someone on Twitter they’re trying to figure out if you’re human, interesting, and worth the follow back. You have one strike against you if you don’t use a profile picture and an updated profile.

There’s no shortage of lengthy guides out there on how to successfully use Twitter. They’ll all tell you what peak times to post in, how your tweets should be formatted, headline suggestions etc. But if you’re committing these seven deadly Twitter sins in 2016, no guide or tip will help you. Avoid these sins at all costs.

 

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Photo credit: eldh via VisualHunt / CC BY