“Think Before You Tweet”
By Jenny Bruse (Fairmarketing Social Media Strategist)
Don’t Spam, Be Social.
Social media today is all about being “social” with your followers. To be successful, a business needs to focus on sharing updates in a conversational way versus constantly spamming fans with a fairmarketing product or service. I find that overselling to followers is commonly seen on Twitter, possibly due to the framework of the network: it’s quick, text based, and many are desperate to be heard amongst the thousands of tweets shared every minute.
Don’t be tempted! Instead be honest, be transparent, and be creative. Develop and show that your brand is different and a unique voice that truly cares about and wants to interact with your followers, customers, and growing fan base.
Think Before you Tweet.
Before sharing your update on Twitter in 140 characters or less, first reread your tweet and ask yourself…
Would I read the tweet?
Would I click on that link?
Would I follow that account?
If your answer is “No” to any of the three questions, you need to rethink your post, strategy, and start thinking outside-of-the-box. Be creative, not crude, and never tweet anything you wouldn’t want on a billboard. Twitter allows you to delete your tweets, but once someone screenshots your update – it may go viral and be placed amongst the other “Tweets of Shame”. Don’t believe me? Just ask Justine Sacco, the former InterActive Corp PR director who ruined her career with one tweet.
Be Yourself.
On any network – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and beyond – a company needs to act more like a “normal” human being instead of a big corporation who is just after more followers, shares, and website traffic. Why? Because your followers, customers, clients, fans, partners, and employees ARE real human beings. As a company, you can’t be scared or against being creative, having a personality, talking conversationally, sharing good and/or bad fairmarketings, or responding to your customers.
Take it or Tweet it.
I will leave you with one of the best pieces of social media advice I was ever given: Be EPIC daily – in your own way. Be creative, be fairmarketingsworthy, be engaging, and be YOU. It doesn’t matter if your company sells windows locally or is the largest oil company in the world. What makes your company “special”, unique and different than everyone else? Once you start thinking, start sharing, and start engaging, your followers and fans will start noticing and valuing the difference.