Twitter, like many social networking platforms can give tremendous insight into your personality. This is not always a good thing. Consider this your twittervention.
The Narcissistic Tweeter:
“I’m eating a turkey sandwich!”
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of tweeting all the time with the first thing that pops into your head - even if that thing happens to be a mouthful of turkey on wheat. Really, you can blame it on the Twitter icon and tag line “What are you doing?” It’s not such a great idea to take that prompt so literally. The most successful tweets and lists are overflowing with really interesting thoughts that condense nicely into micro-blogging format. Follow their lead and challenge yourself to review a book or piece of art or a newly discovered band while staying in the character limit. We love it when folks share insight into their lives - not so much their lunches.
The Smarmy Hashtagger:
“Brighten Your Smile and Lose Weight http:tinylinkgoeshere.com #strandedvolcano traveler”
This tweeter wants you to click their uber-spammy link but they’ve used all other tricks so get into your tweet-lists and profiles. They need a new audience so they latch onto a new hashtag host – in this case it’s a help list for folks stranded by the volcanic ash cloud that grounded a number of planes. Their unrelated tweet will now show up in all kinds of searches as well as the feed for that tag. It looks slimy because it is. Just don’t do it.
The Desperate-For-Attention-Event Marketer:
“We’ve got lots of tickets for tonight’s lecture series!” followed by “Tickets still on sale!” Followed by “We’re sure hoping for a big crowd tonight!” Followed by “Come on, people…Get your tickets!”
Admittedly, this is an easy trap to fall into as we’re all under a lot of pressure to produce results. Yelling at me will get my attention all right, but only for as long as it takes me to unfollow you.
Now that I’ve called you out on your bad twitter behavior, it’s only fair that I offer some remedial steps to help you become a better twittizen.
- Get In Character and Stay There. Sue The T-Rex, a dinosaur skeleton exhibit inside Chicago’s Field Museum tweets daily in a manner that gives insight to the personality of the museum while pointing out features and events that visitors might like. Better yet, she never dips out of character. Witness her reply to a visitor who tweeted about an upcoming visit:“RT @LesVieuxJours: …visiting @ SUETheTRex Should I bring an 8 piece bucket of brontosaurus?” Thanks but I prefer Triceratops.”
Other hilarious tweeters include Darth Vader and Stephen Colbert
- Send 140 love letters. It’s not wrong to want to use Twitter to promote events, exhibits and good news, but you have to balance it with a little love for your followers. Southwest airlines could easily fill their tweets with “fly to [insert destination] for less” promotions. Thing is, Southwest is famous for personality first, low prices second. Their tweets reflect that. They treat @swa mentions like seat call buttons and tweet back almost immediately. Here’s their response for a traveler looking for insight on traveling with children:
zoocoup here’s everything you need to know about traveling with your lil peanut: http://bit.ly/9QPN6f
- Get To Know Your Neighbors. Once Twitter started geo-tagging accounts, smart twitterers latched onto programs that allow for audience building. Let’s say you have a line of organic cotton shirts, a tool like Twellow (twitter yellow pages) and Geo Meme can help you find like-minded folks who you can follow (and get a follow back). Instant fan base for the win.
- Crack Open The Toolbox.There is no shortage of tools to help you tweet smarter. Friend or Follow helps you identify followers that are just cluttering up your feed, Qwitter tells you when someone stops following you (giving you incredible insight regarding what your followers are looking for…and what they’re not), Hoot Suite and Tweet Deck allow you to monitor when your name gets mentioned and helps you identify trends (both up and down) allowing you to stay on the forefront. New tool Co-tweet has got a lot of tech folks chirping its praises. Most if not all of these tools are like Twitter: free. Social marketing is just that, social. Treat Twitter like conversation, a way to meet, connect and engage with your audience and you’ll find new friends flocking to you.
If you’d like to chat with us more about social marketing and how it can help you, give us a call at 757.431.1996 or visit our Website.
