Bad Business Twitter Strategies

You want to bring your business to Web 2.0 standards. Myspace takes some effort, and Facebook isn't exactly business-friendly. Naturally, your next stop is Twitter, the microblogging powerhouse utilized by small businesses, celebrities, and the average Joe - your target audience. But many businesses fail on Twitter within the first few months, mostly because they utilize bad business Twitter strategies.

Many businesses think they can abuse Twitter with links and promotions, but that is the quickest way to lose potential customers and gain spam status.

Here is what you need to avoid.

Bad Business Twitter Strategies
1. Only posting links or promotional content. Twitter is a personable social networking platform, and using it only for promotion goes against what Twitter stands for. Your Twitter audience probably does not like receiving spam mail or spam phone calls, and it won't work on Twitter either. If you need a place to post promotional material, use your website. Or better yet, stick with print ads.

The average Twitter wants interesting, personal content, not a ad ripped from Sunday's newspaper. If you must post business links, keep it sparse. And make sure to add a personal touch when posting. Twitters appreciate it.

2. Listening to so-called "Social Media Marketing experts". For every five twitters, there's one twitter that claims to be an expert in social media. They have a taste for spam and like to post links to blogs spouting off their knowledge about how to amass a huge following. Note: they don't tell you how to gain a solid, strong following where the Twitters are actually interested in what you have to say. If you look closely at their own followers, it consists of - big surprise here - spammers and so-called Social Media Marketing experts. Experts who are too busy promoting their own business. People who are interested in quantity, not quality. These experts utilize bad business Twitter strategies by focusing on the number, not the profit.

If an expert chooses to follow you or give you advice, you know where the block button is.

3. Reposting the same information. It seems like common sense, but many businesses retweet their own information, sometimes several times a day. Businesses: Would you call your customers several times a day to promote a sale? Of course not, unless you want a proverbial kick in the balls. I don't know why businesses think these are good Twitter strategies, but they do it anyways, throwing up the same links and information several times a day. You want to get unfollowed? Then by all means, do this. But if you want to avoid bad Twitter strategies, start by stopping the retweets to yourself, the redistribution of this morning's information, and constant spamming of sales. People don't want to hear your message repeated several times a day, and your average Joe will block you faster than you can say "Please RT!".

4. Posting too much. Using your Twitter regularly is a good thing, but be careful not to overdo it. If it would get your banned in a chatroom, avoid it on Twitter. It's bad to post five times in a row. It's worse to do it every day. Posting too much in a day or posting several times in a row are bad business strategies you should always avoid. If you must, leave one or two hours between tweets, and make sure the content is relevant. And as always, trim down any retweets, as it counts as repetitive information that no one likes to hear.

5. Too many retweets. I don't know who thought this was a good idea - it really isn't. Businesses think that retweeting information that includes them to their own Twitter will drive traffic and sales, and while it might, it's also completely annoying. Maybe your Social Media Marketing experts won't mind since they won't read your content anyways, but for the average Joe will mind. If you have to retweet, make sure it's not promotional. No one minds if you retweet about a missing child or Michele Bachmann's crazy antics. But if you continuously retweet information about the new renovations in your store, people will get very, very annoyed with you.

Bad Business Twitter Strategies - Another Word of Advice
The most important thing for businesses to remember is this - don't be fake, don't be annoying, and for heaven's sake, don't be too promotional. Remember, if a Twitter fan says hi, the correct response is not "Hi, have you seen our latest sale? Find more information here!". The key word is honesty. If you see a so-called Social Media Marketing expert doing it, do the opposite (since they're the kings of bad business twitter strategies, you know). Keep that in mind, Twitter honestly, and watch the followers trickle in. You'll feel better about it too.