There’s no question about it: Twitter is a fantastic social media marketing tool.  It not only allows you to reach out to over 100 million people every day, but it also allows you to gather wisdom and insight about your customers, your competition, and what it is that you’re marketing.

But there are certain things on Twitter that are a faux pas and will have both you and your company looking… well… a bit foolish to potential followers, leads, customers, and competitors.  Here’s what you can do to make sure that your company looks like a superstar on Twitter:

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Upload Real Pictures

When you’re creating your profile, upload a real picture.  If you don’t feel comfortable with your face being on your profile, that’s fine. But at least make it a picture of your staff, your company building, or your logo.  You want to make it look like a real human being set up the account and that people are behind the tweets that are being delivered rather than a robot.

Your Profile is Important

You must fill out your profile.  I don’t know why a lot of companies decide to skip this important step, but they do.  A lot of potential followers on Twitter use your profile to decide whether or not to follow you, so if nothing’s there, you can bet that they aren’t going to take you seriously and that they won’t be following you.

Stop Promoting So Hard

No one wants to hear about your company day and night. As thrilled as you may be about your new product launch coming out this summer, those who are following you don’t need to hear about it in every tweet. They don’t even need to hear about your company in every tweet.  Mix it up and tweet about things that are related to your industry, but in a fun and entertaining way.  For example, relate celebrities and sports figures to whatever your company’s interest is.

Update Frequently

Twitter is a microblogging site which requires for you to update your site more than once a week.  Most inbound marketing firms will tell you to update several times a day (between 3-5). The tool isn’t made for you to drop by every once in a while; its 140 character limit is created to encourage you to drop by every single day.

Don’t Beg for a RT

RT’s, or retweets, are something that a lot of companies out there seem to be constantly begging for.  If you are adding something like “please RT” to the end of every single tweet that you put out there, you’re not only NOT going to get retweeted, but you’re going to get unfollowed.  Save the “RT” for those statuses that are really important and keep them far away from anything else.

Ick… Autoresponders!

One of the tackiest things I can think of a company doing on Twitter is to respond to a new follower with an auto responder.  Who in this world enjoys ever getting an auto response, regardless of what the subject is?  It looks cold, impersonal, and unprofessional.  Autoresponders are even worse on a social media site since the whole purpose of social media is to engage and converse with people online on a human-to-human level.

Facebook and Twitter are NOT the Same

It always confounds me when I see hashtags on Facebook. Why are they there?  For what purpose do they serve?  The same goes with “likes” on Twitter.  I’ve seen several people “like” things on Twitter. While this may be funny or even acceptable for personal accounts, as a business, don’t do it.  Keep Facebook lingo with Facebook and Twitter lingo with Twitter.  Otherwise you’ll look outdated and, sadly, like a “noob”.

Key Takeaways:

  • Leverage Twitter in order to get the message about your company while also staying in touch with your leads and customers.
  • While it’s a good idea to be personable and personable, you have to keep a certain level of professionalism. Be tasteful.
  • Be sure to include a profile picture and also fill out your company profile.

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