You want to use twitter for your business or brand - it seems like a good idea right? It is, but you need to be careful with how you go about it - things can turn disastrous quickly and once they do the denizens of Internet that lurk around social media sites like Twitter will NEVER let you forget it.
I know nobody follows the "unspoken" rules for anything ALL THE TIME (even me! hehe) - but it's good to have a working knowledge of these rules and the accepted etiquette of a given platform and do your BEST to adhere to them.
Assuming you know the basics of Twitter such as downloading the app to your mobile device (such as a tablet or smart phone) or using the website, signing up for an account and filling out your profile - I am going to skip ahead (but will go back to the basics later for those of you that need a refresher, I promise) to some valuable tips I have learned through my personal and professional use of Twitter.
Here are 5 Things to Keep in Mind:
1. Responding to new follows, those that favorite or those that retweet you
It is a fine line you travel when responding explicitly/direct to new follows, favorites or retweets; occasional explicit responses is okay but should be used very sparingly - there are reasons for this of course. The biggest reason (particularly if your account actively gets new followers such as on a daily basis or close to daily basis) is responding to every new follower with a thank you will clog your feed - people don't want to see a bunch of thank you tweets and it will make your account look like a spam account which in turn will push people further away from your fold. Like I said occasional explicit thank you tweets can be "okay" if used sparingly.
What Else Might Help You:
If you do want to acknowledge new followers in some way - there are ways! Once a week or as your schedule permits, take about 20 minutes to scan the personal feeds of your newest followers and favorite a tweet they themselves wrote (not something they retweeted from another user) that interests you. Doing this "scan & favorite" is much quicker than explicit/individual thank you tweets and actually does what you think the thank you tweets do - it lets people know that you see them, that you appreciate the time they took to follow you and that you took time out of your busy schedule to visit their profile... the last will go a lot farther in cementing a long time fan/follower than a simple thank you tweet.
The potential exception to this whol "rule" is #followfriday - this is a regular hashtag event on Twitter (every Friday!) where people often choose to do #shoutout tweets to their most recent followers - again though, use it with discretion... if you do more than one #followfriday tweet spread them throughout the day and do your best not to be excessive (2-3 is about right, you can always go back and thank followers you didn't get to on the next #followfriday)
2. Direct Messaging (DMs)
DMs is a valuable tool on twitter used to connect with followers/potential followers; but as a business or brand don't EVER use the DM function for soliciting sales or promotion that was not sought out - it is often seen as pushy, along the lines of "dry begging" (the act of talking around a subject in order to gain something or asking for something without literally asking - I hope this makes sense) and can send your followers running the other way especially if your account represents a business - they followed YOU, they sought YOU out you don't need to try SO HARD!
What Else Might Help You:
For businesses and brands DM use is best if:
a) a follower/someone has contacted YOU via DM and you are responding - always respond to DMs
b) a follower/someone has tweeted something to you that requires a little customer service attention - respond to that tweet by inviting them to DM you so you can help them on a personal level
(remember you need to follow each other in order to DM each other)
3. Those you follow ... and your favorites
Those you follow and tweets you favorite are gathered in to neat little lists accessible with the click of a button from the top of your twitter profile page. These "lists" are tools that if used correctly can draw more in to your fold with very little extended effort - if curated properly.
Remember how your parents were always admonishing you to choose your friends carefully as a kid? Well when using your Twitter account for promoting your business or brand the basics of that adage apply quite perfectly - choose those you follow and what you favorite carefully; this is because your list of those you follow and the things you favorite are an expression of you (and by extension your business) and your interests.
While the ideal of "follow for follow" seems reasonable - don't AUTOMATICALLY follow back those that follow you; sure you will lose some followers if you don't follow back within a few days but... you didn't want those fair weather followers to begin with trust me.
The most successful accounts (the exception being big business or celebrity accounts) follow what I call the "golden follow ratio" when it comes to managing the number of those they follow; the golden ratio is basically a 3:2 rule wherein for every 3 accounts that follow you - you follow approximately 2 (or 1). For example: you have 100 followers - so the number of you accounts should hover about 75 or less.
There are a few reasons for the golden follow ratio, the main being that depending on how many more you follow (number wise) than how many follow you (number wise) it could unintentionally make your account appear spammy. What you want your followering list to be is a representation of your interests - those of your business and those of you personally as they RELATE to your business (remember your twitter account is for your business/brand right?) - same thing applies to the individual tweets your favorite.
What Else Might Help You:
The easiest way to manage those you follow and the things you favorite is to draw up a list that has about 5-10 varied interests (you never want to be heavy handed in one "section" as this may make you seem one-dimensional and/or narrow minded) that represent you/your business/your brand best and when you are thinking of following someone (following back even!) or favorite a tweet ask yourself if it falls under that list of interests! See how easy that is?
Now I am not saying don't ever follow or like a tweet randomly - people by nature are random and that's okay. Rather don't make all your actions in respects to those you follow or tweets you like random - it is then that things can get chaotic, messy and spammy looking.
4. Tweet with a PURPOSE
Remember that Twitter is a tool that if used correctly can be invaluable when it comes to promotion; as such you should always tweet with a purpose. Your tweets should have a goal - sell something, communicate something, showcase something or (very sparingly) be random. There are 3 basic types of tweets, they are as follows:
Casual Tweets - these are the best kind these days, they often are framed as "behind the scenes" or "progress" tweets
Command Tweets - these are tweets that "direct" people to do something either outright or passively; for a business they often take the guise of sale notifications, new items becoming available or asking (albeit sometimes in a round about way) for a task of some sort to be completed
Personal/Other - these are ones that are about you, not your business/brand
Try to have a healthy mix of the 3 types of tweet mentioned above ... I personally, although not always successfully, try to follow the 40/30/30 rule which breaks down as this: 40 % of tweets casual, 30 % of tweets command, 30 % tweets personal/other.
Ideal, bare minimum tweeting would be in the 1-3 tweets daily range with the optimal being more if you can manage (but spaced out through the day).
What Else Might Help You:
Twitter Parties - these are organized promotional events, run by various entities and each have their own rules; basically these help spread the word through tweets, retweets (someone else sharing your tweet) and use of related hashtags
Tweet Events - if you find you have a whole bunch of products you want to tweet about in your shop, try spread them throughout the day and make an event of it
Read Out Loud - when in doubt read your tweet out loud before posting it to Twitter! Try to place hashtags organically (keeping the hashtagged words in the order they would appear in a naturally spoken/written sentence) or order them at the end of the tweet where when read aloud they roll off the tongue/"sound right"
5. Remember The Internet is a Forever Unforgiving Monster!
NEVER tweet anything you don't want others to know - this may seem obvious but in the era of mass digital connection the world is much smaller than people think; never tweet anything you wouldn't say to someone in person, avoid tweeting personal information that could lead to your identity being stolen (IDs, credit cards, etc.) or your life being compromised. Safety is KEY!
STAY AWAY (or at least try to) from the 3 danger zones - religion, sex, politics and copyright/trademark/patented items (unless you have permission to produce said items from the original owners); the only exception being to this hands off rule is if said topics somehow have a direct relation to your BUSINESS (remember this account is for your business right?).
A SECOND IS FOREVER when it comes to twitter - a tweet needs to only be up for mere seconds to be potentially seen by THOUSANDS - even if you retract/delete quickly someone may have already taken a screen shot and shared it. The trolls and denizens of the Internet won't hesitate to remind you repeatedly of your slip ups REPEATEDLY when given the chance.
APOLOGIZE for your mistakes! If you unintentionally tweeted something that caused a massive backlash because others perceived it as offensive, in this cause offense being in the eye of the beholder so to speak - you'll sink fast if you don't respond properly; delete the offensive tweet (even if you don't think it is offensive) and apologize appropriately (never include the words "if", "but" or similar qualifiers in your apology - some may see the inclusion of these words as your being nsincere), then leave it and go on about your business.
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for what you tweet - when you tweet something and in the case that it is taken as an offense but you still believe in what you tweet wholeheartedly -stand your ground... period. If you stand your ground then later waffle under the pressure - the twitterverse will tear you apart even MORE than if you had simply stood your ground.
WHEN IN DOUBT don't put it out! If you ever wonder "should I tweet this?" before you it that blue tweet button to publish it to twitter ... DON'T PUBLISH THE TWEET. You need to be confident in what you are tweeting, remember ... a second lasts forever.
Follow us on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/m3pstudios
