February 4, 2010

Twitter is a perfect democratic forum: If people don’t like what you have to say, they can vote with their fingers. With a quick click, choosing the unfollow or block features, your feed is forever removed from their life. However, for businesses small and large, the goal of Twitter and other social media tools is to build relationships, not tear them down. To master the fine art of friending followers, here are five ways to not be annoying.

1. Don’t hide. Include extra contact info in your Twitter bio or background. Sometimes, 140 characters isn’t enough for your audience to say what they want. To encourage further dialog, and limit your customers’ searching frustration, include your website URL, email address, and telephone number (if appropriate) within your Twitter page.
2. Don’t ignore. Answer all replies or questions within a reasonable timeframe. If a customer called you up on the phone, it’s unlikely that you’d sit on the call in silence. When you’re participating online, the same rules apply. While it might be time consuming to respond on a regular basis, your social media success depends on your accessibility and ability to engage in conversation. In other words, grab a cup or two of coffee every morning or night, and answer away. Your followers will commend your commitment, and they’ll respect that you’re listening.
3. Don’t yell. As much as you want to promote your business, limit direct marketing messages about how great your business is or why someone needs your product now. It’s OK to sell on Twitter, but for some users they prefer a soft sell or a message that has some real value to them (such as a product discount). To get some examples of how businesses effectively use the micro-blogging site, seek out some of the top companies on Twitter, such as @Zappos and @Starbucks, and learn from them.
4. Don’t disappear. Consistency is the key to your business’s online marketing success. Just like going to the gym, regular activity leads to results (and the good news is that you don’t have to break a sweat on Twitter, unless you’re tweeting on the treadmill, which I’ve been known to do). There are few things more frustrating than a company that is online for a few days in a row, and then disappears for a few days at a time. Think of Twitter as a series of marathons, not a quick sprint to the finish line.
5. Don’t lie.While it might be tempting to write a clever marketing tease that leads to an online promotion, try to be as direct as possible when messaging. For example, if you try to entice people with tweets, such as this link leads to the “the funniest video ever” or the “cheapest product you’ll ever find,” you should be certain that their expectations are met. If you send your followers astray too many times, they will stop believing what you have to say. Since trust is a must-have quality on the web, always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Amber MacArthur is a social media consultant, speaker, and author of Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Build Your Business (June 10, 2010 release).

Join the conversation ( 13 )

• Marie Rhoades 1 year 10 months and 14 days ago

  

  These are some of the best Twitter use tips that I've seen. Thanks for putting together this list - I'll definitley forward some Twitter newbies to your article.
  
  Marie Rhoades
  Sally Lee by the Sea - Nautical Boutique

• Sean Simone 1 year 10 months and 19 days ago

  

  I love it. It's so true that you should interact with followers on Twitter as if they were standing in your business's lobby waiting for help. I also love the part about CONSISTENCY. It is weird when a company tweets every other month..

• Guy Siverson 1 year 10 months and 29 days ago

  

  I agree with all 5 of your ways of not being annoying on Twitter. Unfortunately you forgot the most critical one of all.
  
  DON'T FORGET YOUR PASSWORD
  
  In today's world a password is critical to everything you are doing. Forgetting it leaves you lost in many cases. While retrieving in from most systems is relatively painless, I personally have found it hard to recover when it comes to Twitter.
  
  I do need to get it and return in the near future, but for now the SEOGuy Is stuck when it comes to Twitter.
  
  Not that I can't get it mind you, its just that I have half a billion other things to do at the same time which leaves me very stretched. However, if you are going to be social on Twitter following the 5 suggestions about is indeed a very VERY good idea.
  
  Thanks for sharing.

• Kate Sullivan 1 year 12 months and 8 days ago

  

  In sessions today at the Poynter Institute (yup, I'm a journalist) we discussed the Twitter list. Everyone agreed that by acquiring "list status" --higher numbers--that it created a solid sense of credibility. Any comments on this idea of the list being "the next, next thing" on Twitter?
  Kate Sullivan
  www.wordsmitten.com
  @wordsmitten

• LenSchwartz ShawneDuperon 1 year 12 months and 8 days ago

  

  Being new to twitter this article is very helpful. I agree that the goal of Twitter and other social media tools is to build relationships, not tear them down going forward I will follow your advice.

• cori padgett 1 year 12 months and 14 days ago

  

  Good article, totally agree. It's true that you wouldn't do these things on the phone or face to face with people so why would you use social mediums such as Twitter or Facebook to do it? It's just poor taste. Thanks for posting!
  
  Warm regards,
  Cori

• Stephen Cunic 1 year 12 months and 17 days ago

  

  I have a question...I was wondering what you would do in this situation. I am part of a National Franchise by my Store is privately family owned in Allentown, Pa. Here is our Site Http://www.signsbytomorrow.com/allentown - Is it still worth being on twitter for my individual store? How can I make twitter effective for my store and not just the franchise as a whole?
  
  Stephen

• Pamela Grow 1 year 12 months and 24 days ago

  

  Great points - in the article as well as the comments. I agree with you Michael, about not tweeting every 10 seconds. I've had to remove people from my lists because their tweets were the only thing in my stream (does anyone else find this language a bit ridiculous? LOL). Then there are the Tweeple who ONLY engage in 2-way conversation - unless you're hooked up to Twitter 24/7, it's hard to follow. I strive for a balance when I'm engaging on Twitter:
  * passing on current and useful information (be it mine or one of the countless bloggers in my industry I read), including retweeting
  *inspiration and motivation (times are tough)
  *"how to"
  *referrals to other sources to follow
  *light/humorous photos, videos, etc.
  
  Of the three social media outlets that I engage in for business purposes, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, Twitter has proven to to be the most rewarding - in terms of knowledge, connecting with terrific people I wouldn't have otherwise (I've lost count of the people I've met in person via Twitter), and feeling a sense of community while working at home.

• Debby Bruck 1 year 12 months and 25 days ago

  

  This article is a list of "Don'ts" and highlights the negatives. Another is "Don't isolate yourself and send one-way messages." If you are not reading and interacting with others in this twitterverse community, you will not be forming any relationships. Without interacts, you will not create a partnership and benefit from the great potential that is out there for businesses to share ideas and turn these tweets into real time meetings.
  
  One of the greatest compliments you can receive is when you are 'listed' as a conversationalist. That will put a smile on your lips.

• EC (Lisa) Stewart 1 year 12 months and 26 days ago

  

  Of all the Twitter Tips I've read, this list is the most relevant. Thanks for that!

• Michael Neuendorff 1 year 12 months and 26 days ago

  

  Hi. Can I add a few that I've discovered since taking up Twitter a few months ago?
  
  1. Don't tweet every 10 seconds. There are some people you follow that seem to be tweeting so often that it must be on auto-pilot. I think this way of using Twitter as a blasting machine is a drag.
  
  2. Don't follow people because you want an auto-follow back. I believe a lot of people are doing this using an automated service in the hopes that you, too, are using an automated service and will immediately follow them back. The point being that they can then sell to their thousands of followers. As you alluded to in your post, don't be a spammer and don't strategize to become one either.
  
  3. Don't just retweet, but come up with your own stuff, too. This is more easily done for bloggers, of course, but if you don't write your own stuff then go out and find unique news and articles and white papers, etc. that haven't already been retweeted 478 times. The Twitterverse will appreciate you for it.

• JASON MARSH 1 year 12 months and 27 days ago

  

  Really good points. The real key to effectively use Twitter from a business perspective is to make it less about 'you' and more about 'them.' While it's nice to occasionally post news about your business, ideally the goal is to make Twitter posts interesting, valuable and relevant to those that are following you. That typically involves talking about, and providing professional insight on important issues and trends with the industry. With that approach, in tandem with the points above, Twitter is a wonderful platform to increase exposure for the business, reach more potential prospects and engage new customers.

• Jill Fehrenbacher 1 year 12 months and 27 days ago

  

  Great article. This is all wonderful advice for small business owners who are looking to the web for new paths to customers. The biggest things to focus on are availability and transparency. Today's consumers (especially those on Twitter) are fluent in all kinds of social media, and they can detect even the slightest hint of spin or runaround. If you stay true to your followers and mission, though, there's no better way to engage present and future customers than Twitter.