It’s easy to forget the little things when you’re tweeting up a storm. One of the most forgotten parts of any social media account is the need to continually review your profile wording and how you are best putting forth your brand. So take a few minutes and start putting your Twitter account through a little tuneup.
Here are 10 easy things to do on your Twitter account today:
Sadly, far too many businesses today are still dismissing Twitter as a useless tool with little value. These businesses will often point to tweets by teens as an example.
Here’s what a business owner recently told me: “I do have to wonder what “VALUE” and what impact promoting Twitter does …. I wouldn’t get caught up in that culture personally.”
The business owner used a specific example of a tweet by a teen: “$84 dollars later “well there’s a nice t-shirt”#happybirthday bearf—–.”
Anyone can try this experiment. Oh, um, wait a minute! Many of you probably have done it. If the results annoy you, you are not alone.
Social media experts often do tests where they attempt to engage big brands in discussion on social media. The results are usually less than flattering. Media tends to be the worst, according to one recent study, responding to only one per cent of wall posts. Overall, the study found only five per cent of wall posts ever receive a response. That’s bad. How bad? On a tool called social media, it’s viewed as being ignorant.
Twitter use is still in its infancy in rural Norfolk County, Ontario, however, there are tweeps who are leading the way at effective and entertaining use of this incredible social media tool.
Looking for Norfolk County inspiration, and examples for how to get started on Twitter? These are 10 local accounts to check out. Each one has a specific expertise. And they all focus on quality tweets vs a zillion tweets about, well, nothing much.
My grandfather departed this world long, long before there was even the phrase, social media or Twitter. But I think he would’ve liked the concept behind Twitter.
1. Tell stories to build your personal brand. Yes, 140 characters is short. So make them short stories. My grandfather liked short stories. I heard plenty of stories from his days walking the beat and life on the horse farm. He’d spin some short tales from his usual spot on the couch. Through his stories, I learned my grandfather was a no-nonsense cop and a no-nonsense guy who just happened to have a soft side (for horses). Who are you? You are your stories. Tell them.
Measure! You have to be able to measure it! What’s our measurable return on using social media?
It started out as a great idea by cellphone company Fido. Hold a contest to select a dog to appear in its advertisements. But weeks after the contest began, Fido found itself literally buried in complaints one morning by barking entrants. And we don’t mean the dogs.
With less than a week before the contest deadline, Fido disqualified hundreds and hundreds of dogs without notice. “It was blatantly the case that some people were voting multiple times for the same dog” in violation of the contest rules which limits daily voting, a spokesperson told the Montreal Gazette.
One of the classic mistakes made by new businesses on Facebook is to hit ‘Like’ on every post you see. You think that by doing this you’ll build your page Likes fast. True, you may do so. But there’s a long-term pitfall of being a ‘Like’ spammer on everyone’s most recent posts.
I regularly see businesses robotically Liking every new post that is added on Facebook. After a while it becomes plainly obvious that you are not genuine. You will quickly be identified as a serial ‘Like’ spammer with little authenticity behind all your thumbs ups on Facebook. You may eventually start to lose followers too. Most certainly, the social value of your Likes on posts will be diminished. People will soon figure you out….. “Oh, he/she clicks Like on everything!”
It’s easy to do a tweet on Twitter or add a post on Facebook. Businesses and organizations do it every day. Some are fanatical about adding lots of posts. But sadly, that’s where it ends for many businesses and organizations.
Check any organization or business Facebook or Twitter page. Too many businesses simply add a post and then forget about it. It’s selfish. They want you to read their posts and tweets. But they don’t really care if you comment. That’s because they have no intention of engaging with you. It’s all about them. It’s not about you.
Customer service failure: When companies forget about the power of social media
Social media is an incredible tool for companies and businesses to showcase their public relations expertise at dealing with customers. On the other hand, used the wrong way, it can be a public relations bomb (and for all you hipster language folks, I don’t mean da bomb, or any other bomb in a good kinda way).
Take this example of a US woman who recently purchased an electronic device from BodyBugg and soon discovered it to be defective. She emailed the customer support department (the company includes email as an option to reach them for support) twice within a week and did not get a response. Frustrated, the customer took her anger to Facebook.
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