As mentioned in my previous post, I've recently just started my serious relationship with Twitter with the intention to improve my blog traffic. To me, having Twitter is simply sharing of high quality content to gain more followers. With this in mind, I use a tool namely WP Tweet Machine to automate tweet or retweet and ignore any @mention or DM from my followers. No doubt this tool has managed to increase my Twitter followers at about 400% in less than 1 week, however this only shows reciprocal effect by my followers. There is no engagement at all.

Investing in Twitter is the best thing one can ever do. Unlike Facebook where filtering content are common practice, Twitter does not have this filter constraint. This also  means there is no limit to how large you can build your community. Thanks to @KimGarst and @SocialQuant, I've learned so much by following them on Twitter.

Today, I would like to share with you 3 prominent mistakes I've made when starting my relationship with Twitter so that you will know what to do if you ever faced one (of course I've stop making these mistakes … lol).

Mistake #1 Never Engage

No doubt sharing valuable content is important to attract followers, however, if you want to really build a relationship with your followers, responding to their action is the way to go. Many businesses fail to do this and simply treat Twitter as a platform to broadcast their business. Given the reciprocal nature of Twitter, you will only get back in return what you give.

You need to practice engagement with your followers as a routine – something you or your team will do everyday. I am currently managing various Twitter accounts with Hootsuite in one single dashboard and this makes my life easier. Everyday, I spent less than 30 minutes responding to @mentions, DM, favourite and  retweets to engage my followers. All thanks to this wonderful tool – Hootsuite that comes with 30 day free trial.

Mistake #2 Content is used to promote yourself 

It is very common to see businesses promote their products or services on Twitter. I remember reading the 80/20 rule of content management by some authority out there.

The rule says,

Best social media practice is to share 80% content that can add value to your followers and 20% to promote your business

…if you do not want to lose your follower.

This is really true. You need to ask yourself what type of content your readers are interested in. To get the answer, you can analyze each of your tweet and see which one gives you the most engagements. Then focus on providing content that are relevant to your top tweets.

Of course, the best is to share relevant content about your business. However, you can also share content that are interesting but not relevant and do it occasionally. For me, I share 1 or 2 tweets of such content every week to educate and entertain my followers.

There are many valuable content in Twitter where you can curate and share with your followers. Just make sure that the content provides value to your followers. Never repeat my Twitter mistake by only sharing content to promote yourself. This can cause damage to your brand before you even realize it.

Mistake #3 Treat all social media the same

To be very frank with you, I started with Facebook before Twitter. Unlike many, I find Facebook too “noisy”, complicated and allows me too much space to write! This make me turn to Twitter as an alternative for me to engage socially.

Posting on Twitter is so different from Facebook. You are only given 140 characters to get attention. This is pretty challenging to some but for me, I enjoy the simplicity. Here's how I write catchy headlines on Twitter in less than 5 seconds.

I've spoken to many of my followers on Twitter and amazingly, those who are active on Twitter are commonly not a fan of Facebook. This is the same for me. It is really important to remember that every social media and its audience are different. You must not treat all social media the same. Understanding your audience is the way to go before deciding on how frequent to post, type of content, or even level of engagement with your fans or followers.

We've all made mistakes throughout our life journey. Without, none of us can learn and grow. I hope by reading this blog post, you will be able to avoid Twitter mistakes that I did and continue to tweet valuable content to engage your followers. Start conversation with your audience and you will never know who you'll speak to next.

To share with you, I've managed to engage @KimGarst, the social media influencer by sharing a review of her product FB Ads Launch Pads on Twitter. This engagement earns me some followers too. Please do not get me wrong. I am not saying that you should purposely engage them with some spammy tweet. If you want it to be a long term relationship, your tweet should be genuine and sincerely from your heart.

Do share your experience below so that more people can prevent making Twitter mistakes that we all do. I would love to hear your Twitter story. If you are planning to start a relationship with Twitter, you may want to check out 7 Tips To Effectively Grow Your Local Business With Twitter.