Snaptastic Blog

With the growing number of users on Twitter (140 million active users) it’s important to treat your followers the way you would like to be treated…or tweeted

Here are a few tips to make sure you are being respectful on Twitter:

Never Spam: Many people, especially business owners think Twitter, as well as other free social media platforms, are a place where they can sell their products or services within a week and drive instant traffic to their website. In rare cases this will happen, however if you create a Twitter account and the only posts you are publishing speak solely about your product(s) or services, you are spamming your following.

Make sure 70% of the content you are tweeting is adding value to your audience. Post things like industry news, trends, reports, quotes, tips and advice. 20% of your posts need to be sharing other people’s content. You do this by ReTweeting/RTing (reposting) other people’s posts and in turn making comments on their posts and blogs. Only 10% of your tweets will be self promotion, so make sure you start following this rule so you aren’t spamming your followers.

Be a Human, Not a Robot: The thing that is beautiful about Twitter, but also overwhelming, is how many applications there are to manage and automate your account. Even though there are many tools for automation, I strongly urge you to have human participation with your Twitter account, especially if you are using it for business. You might have seen accounts that link several feeds at once to their Twitter account. This can be OK occasionally; however, you must combine your automation with human interaction. Also, I recommend turning off auto Direct Messages (DMs). Since Twitter users have been given the ability to auto-respond to new followers via direct messages, the DM section has become complete spam and rarely gets checked due to this issue. A lot of users will automatically un-follow you if you send them an auto DM. Use DM’s for private conversations, not to sell.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T and Customer Service: Hopefully as a business person, you are already treating your clients and peers with respect. With advances in technology, people get to see a much more insightful look into our lives and businesses. I’ve seen people on Twitter say inappropriate and unprofessional things using their business accounts! This behavior will put you on the fast track to damaging your credibility and reputation, which can take a very long time to rebuild. Think of Twitter as a customer service tool and know that tone is very hard to read via Internet, emails, texting and tweeting. Be attentive and helpful and if someone is upset with you and challenges you online, think before you tweet!

Remember that Twitter is a free brand management and relationship tool, don’t abuse it and always tweet people how you want to be tweeted!