If there are no rules, how can mistakes be made? There are no rules to Twitter or any of the social media platforms but you will quickly find out what gets you feeling a bit lonely. Twitter is widely for socializing, sharing information, breaking news, conversations about sporting events and quotes from seminars. If it is not on Twitter then it probably is not news or something we need to know. Social media marketing has brought us back to talking to one another in real time, albeit virtually, but we are still talking and sharing. If you don’t share information, someone else will. With all the good doings on Twitter comes the bad. We try to ignore them and call them out but they keep coming back and interrupting.

10 Mistakes to Avoid on Twitter

1. Auto DM. Huge annoyance. I just met you and you are already shouting at me and trying to sell me. Delete.

2. No Picture. There is a person behind the account. Let us see the person. Create a twibbon for your company logo. For some big brands this does not work but for mid sized and small businesses, be seen.

3. Incomplete Bio. You do not care enough to complete the bio then we should not care enough to interact. Before following many review the bio to see if you are someone they want to interact with.

4. Sales Pitch. Selling on Twitter is fine but only selling tells everyone that you only care about making a quick buck.

5. It’s All about Me. Just like selling, talking about only you makes it crystal clear that you have no interest in building relationships and getting to know anyone.

6. Failing to Interact. 1 tweet a day does not make friends. Share information that you find useful, follow conversations of interest and retweet. Provide value to your followers.

7. Not Giving Thanks. If someone retweets you, thank them. It is simple to do and it can open the door to a new relationship. For larger accounts that get retweeted every second this is impossible but those who receive a few a day thanking is the right way to go.

8. Failing to Monitor. With the gazillion conversations going on at once, it is impossible to keep up without searching. Hashtags make it so easy to find what interests you and keep on top of the conversation.

9. Unsolicited Tweets. Monitoring a conversation and jumping in is good but those freaky ones that pop up where we cannot hit the spam button fast enough.

10. Porn. Sorry to those who love. I say create separate platform. The adult industry is a legitimate business and deserves to be treated as such but when conversing with someone or introducing myself to someone and a porn tweet pops up… yeah not the impression I was looking to make.

Twitter brings people together from all over. Following conversations from seminars that you cannot attend makes you feel as if you are there. Many new people are connected from sharing interests and information. There are no rules, just some norms that have been created by human behavior.

3 Months ago, i have no idea to use Twitter to help our business. But after the seminar i attended, i realize that Twitter is expanding the way that we do business. As a small business utilizing Twitter as a tool to implement your social media strategy when outlining your goals and expectations will help you to grow your business. As previously discussed, there are mistakes that people make on Twitter that are maddening. It becomes maddening when the mistakes are repeated over and over again.

9 Small Business Tips for Using Twitter

1. Customer Service. Customer service is what sets apart a company from competitors. Bad experiences happen but how and when they are solved makes the difference.

2. Brand Awareness. Tweeting and sharing valuable information increases your presence and awareness of what you have to offer.

3. Reputation & Brand Management. Monitoring and gauging how customers are receiving your brand exclusively in sales is in the past. Real time reactions lets you know if you are on the right track.

4. Product Promotion. Launching a new product or supporting something that you have recently purchased shares experiences with the product.

5. Event Promotion. Have an event or attending an event you feel others will benefit from is a way to bring people together offline.

6. Communicating. Reaching out on Twitter to ask a question or to answer one gets the conversation started.

7. Blog Promotion. Posting a new blog article increases readership with an enticing headline.

8. Public Relations/News. Sharing an article on something that your company has done or showcasing the role new employees.

9. Merging Offline to Online. Face to face meetups are a conversation starter to build new Twitter relationships. Letting people know where you are online and how they can connect with you builds your online community.
As Twitter grows and we see the live searches on Google and Bing the way we tweet may change. There will be SEO benefits of tweeting by how we structure our tweets. Social media continues to grow and change and with that so does the way we do business.

Twitter concept is very unique. Let’s assume Twitter like when we walk in  the city. We can meet a lot of people while walking. And sometimes you can hear people whispering to each other (private conversation), sometimes you can also hear loud people talking about everything. When you first sign into Twitter, you can visit all the trending topics on the sidebar (right side) and you see masses of people there. Visiting trending topics is like you entered the school / restaurant / casino / cafe. You can only watching or talking with people there.

Tweets are the power of Twitter. Tweets are 140-character messages that you are able to let out into the public. It is the other form of SMS we usually use from our mobile phone. Because the length of message is very short (140 characters), people must write the most important word from what he/she want to said. When you let these out into the public, your followers will be shown what you had said on that time and date. Say you wanted to tell your friends you just broke up with your girlfriend, tweet about it and your friends ( whom are your followers ) see your message on their “dashboard.”

You may be thinking, “This is cool and all, but what is this for?” Twitter is a great place to start getting your product out to everyone or letting everyone know about your blog. When you start in Twitter, it is like you open a cafe in the middle of the town. You walk in and you see all different types of people, all the types of people you are able to target and get them interested in your product or service. You have the loud people, and the quiet people, and when you want to let people know about who you are and what you are about, be a loud person, and people will listen. Start up a casual conversation and let them know what you’re about and what your product or service is about. They’ll eventually get into it and you’ll have a client in no time.