The 4 Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make On Twitter

Marketing is an ever changing paradigm of content promotion for the purpose of brand awareness and product sales. Far before the internet was around, print media advertisers were setting the foundation of what would later become a billion dollar industry with the rise of telecommunications and later the online marketplace.

However, today we are seeing a shift towards inbound marketing. It could be argued that social media marketers are setting the foundations for the new-age advertising that is to come in the next few decades.

While some are scared that we would be blasted with advertisements everywhere we look and others are worried about the implications of VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) marketing, we tend to be hopeful.

In fact, just by looking at the Twitterverse, you will be able to note the first steps we take as a community towards humane advertising and brands humanizing marketing. And it’s no wonder that Twitter is a great example for this.

People visit Facebook to check on their relatives and friends. They visit Instagram to check out cool photos and videos. But they visit Twitter to primarily engage with the latest news, trends and entertainment.

Yes, YouTube is regarded as the new media platform, but the Twitterverse is the place people visit to directly engage with what’s happening in the world around them. And with the U.S. President using the platform constantly, things tend to be looking up for Twitter.

With that in mind, and with so many brands misappropriating what the platform is all about, we decided to spend some time and gather some interesting insights on the best social media marketing strategies that brands could use to step up their Twitter game.

How to Tweet

Tweeting is as easy as writing a few lines of text and clicking a button. Yet, most brands tend to misuse the platform all the time.

Striving to achieve the highest followers numbers, some brands disregard engagement rates due to the notion that not every tweet is successful. And this is true. Even some of the best brands on Twitter have low levels of engagement on most of their posts.

Nevertheless, this notion often leads brands to completely disregard the notion of humanizing content and the core purpose behind Twitter as a platform.

Lead a Community, Build a Following

When pushing their marketing campaigns on Twitter, some brands tend to think that it is all about the numbers and the brand awareness. Yet, the best proven strategy for tweeting is to instead focus on building a following first.

Yes, the ultimate goal is promotion, but don’t push only promotional Tweets. Take Diageo News PLC., for example. Having a pretty strong social media marketing campaign, they primarily use Twitter to promote their product or other promotional material, instead of trying to build a following. With over 32K followers, they rarely receive more than 10 retweets. In fact, their engagement is extremely low.

What could the brand do?

Instead, Diageo could focus on what their audience likes. Delivering content that entices the audience and further leading a community and building a following around the product is the right step forward.

Everything should be tested as the numbers will ultimately show the results. The company could focus on gaining an audience through the promotion of content that beer lovers would engage with. We believe that is the right step forward.

Create Specific Content Designed to be Used on Twitter

Some Social Media Marketers do the mistake of utilizing the same content strategy across all different social platforms. While this might often save time and effort, it is not always the best choice.

In the Twitterverse, for example, short humoristic posts and pictures, as well as roasting humor might help humanize a brand. At the same time, a roast on Facebook might do the exact opposite to the point that it damages the brand.

Make sure that you are aware of what type of content your audience is after, but don’t forget the platform you are on. Take Simon for example. A clothing destination with a brand based on fashion, beauty and lifestyle, you’d think that they’d have it pretty easy on Twitter.

After all, the beauty industry is perfect for all types of social media. Yet, Simon posts photos as if Twitter was Instagram. Instead of choosing a variety of posts based on what the platform is all about, they only post promotional photos of models, photography sessions and their clothing collection.

What could the brand do to improve?

For starters, they should try to spread out their photography posts and include a better variety of tweets. Another great thing would be to focus on better interaction with their audience.

Acknowledge the hotness of the summer and the beauty of the upcoming autumn with more than a photo of your newest clothing collection. Instead, try to show your human side. What are your staff up to? How are you doing today? Any comments on favorite day of the week?

These might sound silly at first, but consider what makes you and your audience human and cash in on that instead of constantly promoting your collection with the same type of posts.

Stop with the Constant ‘Re-Tweets’ and Focus on Original Content

One huge mistake some brands do in their attempt to quickly gain Twitter followers without having to push with a stronger social media campaign is to retweet. While retweeting relevant content is not a mistake, when it becomes your primary way to push your brand on Twitter, it is.

Having more retweets than original tweets not only serves to dehumanize your brand, but it also damages your growth rate. Take Dixons Carphone PLC. for example. For the past couple of years their strategy on Twitter has been to retweet and so far they only have around 6,5K followers. While this is not necessarily a bad number, their growth rate is abysmal and their engagement rate is simply non-existent.

What could the brand do?

Sending a few original tweets per day and lowering the percentage of retweets so that original tweets are the primary tweeting source is the best way to go forward.

Of course, there is a lot they can do to improve their overall social media strategy, but starting from there should be the right step forward.

Use Brand Humanizing Elements to your Advantage

Speaking of humanizing a brand, this is exactly what you should try to achieve with your Twitter posts. Social media is at the forefront of inbound marketing and people are known to respond better to companies that utilize such strategies to their advantage.

There is a vast number of ways you can humanize your brand on Twitter. Some are based on what industry you are in, others are common inbound marketing tactics, while third are down to sheer logic.

For example, you can humanize your brand by placing the attention towards your employees. Another way would be to humorously or not acknowledge the struggles people experience in your industry. Learning from your audience and interacting with them on a human level is also a step in the right direction.

But this is not what most brands do. Especially corporations. Take the London Stock Exchange Group PLC, for example. Granted, it’s pretty rough to humanize a brand in the financial sector, but they could nonetheless try to present better content based on what their audience is after.

What’s more, they could further interact with their audience. Overlooking the fact that the brand also has some retweeting issues, the LSE Group primarily use Twitter to share the latest developments and news related to their own brand.

What could the brand do?

To humanize their Tweets, the LSE Group could try to fit in some more diverse content that shows that even though they are financial experts they are human too. We understand quite well that they are proud of their 1000 companies to inspire Britain from their millions of posts and retweets of ‘thank you’ tweets.

But, what if instead of the dozens of similar Tweets, they posted a simple one stating ‘don’t thank us for featuring you, we thank you for inspiring Britain,’ it certainly sounds quite more human to us.

Using Twitter Statistics to Your Advantage

Quantity and quality of your tweets can have a vast impact on your overall social media strategy.

You should make sure to plan out your content, review the results and improve to achieve the ultimate results.

Here at Locowise, we can help you out not only by giving you tips and advice on your social media marketing strategy for Twitter, but also by providing you with the latest statistics.

We’re giving you an extremely detailed overview of each one of your posts, with report and audit building options, alongside analysis on the perfect time to Tweet, which type of posts perform the best, how to boost your engagement and more.

We also give you insights on your competitors. We also have stats on other networks. Learn more on what Locowise is all about here and make sure to give it a try by signing up for our 7 day free trial.