Social platforms are just a door from the brand to the client when it comes to business. Many companies make the faulty assumption that once you create a professional profile, all your other social strategies will follow. However, these platforms are not favoring any party, and all the success must be the responsibility of the owners of the profile.

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Twitter is one of the most successful social websites, where the essence of every message is captured in fewer than 140 characters. The character limit itself conducts a fair trial when it comes to messaging awareness. The brands that have nothing meaningful to say are sorted out from the ones who have a clear message. So, the use of Twitter can greatly improve your brand awareness.

However, if used without the proper strategy, Twitter can disclose your weaknesses. It’s frighteningly easy to step into some of these common pitfalls in your attempt to promote your business on the social platform.

FIVE COMMON PITFALLS OF PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS ON TWITTER

1. PRODUCT, PRODUCT, PRODUCT

Twitter will display the history of your posts, and it will be ruthless when it happens to see an overuse of promotional content. The platform itself doesn’t have rules about the number of selling-heavy posts, but with just a one-second glimpse of a brand’s profile, a prospective client can feel the brand is not interested in a relationship with them, so they will be less inclined to stay on the page and engage with the brand.

People have no reason to follow a brand on social media unless they are given one. Here, everybody communicates with the world about the meaningful events in their life or cultural events they’re interested in. If they want products, they will go to the online marketplace, which is typically the official brand website. The website is full of product descriptions, professional pictures, reviews, promotions, and basically, all the client needs to do is research on the product they need. That’s what it’s there for.

So it then makes sense that you should question yourself on why people go on social media to follow a brand outside the website. Unless the profile has something extra besides the content on the site, it may not happen. Repeating the same content is a dangerous pitfall that most marketers step in.

Your goal with a Twitter account is to make clients remember the product. On the other hand, the interest of the client is to find something meaningful on your profile, so that they have a foundation on which to create a connection with the brand. Thus, the overuse of promotional content can greatly work against you on Twitter.

Solution: apply the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of your content can cover posts promoting and distributing your product. The rest of the eighty percent should focus on connecting with clients. Create meaningful original content for them that still has something to do with the field of your brand. That way, you will promote your business without looking as if you’re selling it too aggressively.

2. LACK OF INTERACTION

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One thing that is certain about social media is that it’s never a one-way street of communication. Some companies might find their lack of interaction with their clients a good method to show that they are a serious culture that is busy working on their favorite products. Or they might just not have designated a person yet to take the responsibility to answer and interact with the clients.

Twitter users are interested in building an interconnected community. Even though your profile has made great use of the eighty percent content destined to engage the readers, it is not enough. Your brand should have a personality that is proactive.

However, the moment you created the Twitter profile, you entered the world of online interaction. Answering inquiries and even replying when not asked is not an option, but rather a responsibility to your brand.

Solution: Make a habit of daily replying and retweeting your clients’ posts to open up the two-way communication street. Make sure you always use the appropriate tone that is in tune with your brand. Usually, your reply should be a reflection of the original post.

Moreover, you should take the two-way communication to the ultimate level. This typically requires designating a qualified employee for this job. You can open a new customer care channel through Twitter chat. People are more open to communication on Twitter, so use it to your advantage to find what the issues of your product are and encourage clients to ask questions related to it on Twitter too.

3. TWITTER PROMOTIONS GOING WILD

The Twitter platform has 313 million active users which make it an open door to a large audience. So, it is no wonder that when Twitter opened up to the possibilities of advertising, the marketing teams had no second thoughts on using Twitter as a trampoline for their products. Or did they?

From the large community of Twitter, there are only 130,000 active advertisers. And that is a waste of easy resources when you come to think that offline sales show an increase of 29% when the tweets are promoted. Paying for exposure might seem a little daunting. However, Twitter is the fastest way to bring your brand in front of prospective clients that have no chances to reach you otherwise. Not even considering the option is a common pitfall in promotion because you might be missing out on vast resources.

Solution: Twitter promotions are suitable both for small and large companies. And there are two ways to do that:

1. Promoted Tweets: these are the same as usual tweets, but the only difference is that they appear as a promoted post. You can set the demographics of your audience, and also set the budget you want to use for a day. Twitter will do the rest, by selecting the users that have interacted with similar content and bringing your post in front of them. You only pay once a user interacts with your post or profile. So, no money will be wasted.
2. Promoted Account: by activating this paid option, your account will appear more prominently in the “Who to Follow” section. Your brand will be among the first recommended Twitter accounts, and it is an agile method to increase the number of followers. Moreover, your new followers won’t be unrelated to your domain, but they will actually have a genuine interest in your product. If used right, the advertising options can be non-intrusive and work just like organic marketing strategies.

4. HASHTAGS AS JUST WORDS

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Many industries underestimate the power of #hashtags. These keywords are designated to represent an entire marketing campaign, and they also prove to be some powerful trackers of the activity of your campaign.

Choosing the proper hashtag is vital for the success of any Twitter campaign. There are numerous examples of quality promotions that might offer inspiration. However, there’s one thing a business should remember: skipping research can empower the hashtag to ruin an entire Twitter activity. Entenmann’s, which sell divine bakery goods, had chosen the #notguilty keyword to play as an ambassador for their low-calorie products. At first sight, it seemed like the ideal choice for people who want to enjoy delicious food without worrying about the calorie intake. However, it proved to be a disaster. The same hashtag was previously used for a crime case featuring the controversial murder verdict of Case Anthony. The rest of the story was a nightmare for the bakery company.

Solution: Do your homework, and make sure your hashtag is original. It also should represent the brand itself, so if the tone of your tweet is funny and entertaining, the keywords need to send the same message. Moreover, use the power of hashtag at every step of the campaign, and even print them on the product’s brochures, posters, to include them in the real world also.

5. THE SPECIAL WEEKLY TWEET

Indeed, scarcity is one of Cialdini’s main principles that drive the success of a marketing strategy. You can tempt your followers with short, concise, yet inconclusive pieces of a story to make them want more. However, Twitter is the exception from the Cialdini’s rules. Under most circumstances, Twitter works best with minimum content.

As emphasized above, your interest with Twitter is to make your brand seen by as many people as possible. Sticking to your weekly creation of content and only tweet about this won’t do you much good. On the contrary, your followers will lose interest in a poorly organized official profile, and will move on to the next of your competitors in line that spoils their community with fascinating news about their field.

Solution: there is no such thing as “I have nothing to tweet about at this moment.” The online world is full of interesting articles, and there are new research studies or study cases on a daily basis. The only limitation could be the unfounded limitation of links that come only from your suite of websites. There is nothing wrong on sharing external online articles that have something of value to say to your Twitter community. It is actually recommended to share relevant content. Make it a habit of posting at least once a day with insightful new details that concern your field.

IN SUMMARY

All in all, these are the five pitfalls to avoid when promoting your business on Twitter. We’d love to hear about your insights too, and how you’ve found success with your Twitter account!

This article was originally written by Thea Millard for the Heyo blog.