Twitter.com is quickly becoming one of the most useful, fastest growing social media tools available today. Yet a large number of twitter advocates are making the most basic mistake in social media which is costing them valuable opportunities and slowing their desired results.
#1 Mistake to Avoid: Collecting Numbers
Stop collecting and start connecting! Too many people view twitter as a place to collect followers. This syndrome is not exclusive to twitter as many people make the same mistake on Linkedin. The collection of connections little value unless you create communication leading to relationships.
#2 Mistake to Avoid: Staying within Your Own “Tribe”
Many people are guilty of staying within their “tribe.” Many people fail to communicate or investigate outside their sphere of choice. Instead they tend to limit much of their messages to their industry.
#3 Mistake to Avoid: Stop Hard Selling
Often people have been trained to push their features and benefits with an ongoing hard sell sales strategy. In today’s information rich, Web 2.0 savvy world, the hard sell is dead. Instead people must provide valuable information on an ongoing basis: no sales pitch attached.
What does this mean to your efforts on twitter? A: If you only provide links about you and your company, people will quickly begin to stop paying attention to your messages. Which brings us to the next challenge.
#4 Mistake to Avoid: Narrow Focus
Avoid delivering the same narrow focused message over and over: it is not compelling. Do not continue to leave links to your industry, business, products, services, or about page. Without a variety of information, people do not have the opportunity to know more about you.
Then What is the Strategy?
Like any social media community, twitter is most valuable when you engage other members in meaningful communication, provide valuable information to the community, and then collaborate when given the opportunity. Antidote to the 4 Mistakes:
1. Stop collecting numbers by communicating with people, show you care, and get involved.
2. Go outside your industry or niche and make new connections with people from other career paths. Also consider people with similar hobbies and interests as viable networking partners.
3. Stop hard selling and become a provider of valuable information. By doing this people will perceive you as a valuable resource and somebody to be read and respected.
4. Widen your subject matter for a more well rounded approach to your messages. Personalize and humanize by providing information about things other than your business. Create value for your business connections as well as your networking partners who have no business ties to you.
