10 Reasons Why Twitter Marketing Does Not Work For Your Business

[Md. Anikuzzaman]

If you have figured out how to make Twitter work for your business then you are a part of happy minority. Congratulations!

For the rest of the businesses, I am going to reveal the "secret": "It is Not Twitter's Fault That You Don't Know How to Use It Properly".

If you study the mechanics of a successful marketing on this wonderful social media platform you'll realize that it offers capabilities and opportunities that are not available on any other network.

However if you try to use this media channel as a tool for blatant self-pitching, you will fail. Every time.

Here are 10 Common Reasons Why You Might Not Be Successful at Twitter Marketing:
1) Your Tweets are Boring.

2) Your Tweets are "All About You".

3) You are Trying to Send People to Sales and Product Pages.

4) You Violate Twitter's Unwritten Rules.

5) You Tweet Irregularly.

6) You Don't Have a Tweeting Strategy.

7) You Don't Provide Timely Replies.

8) You Don't Participate in Relevant Conversations.

9) You Don't Actively Reach Out to Industry Influencers.

10) You Don't Encourage Your Followers.

Now let's take a closer look at each of these "you don'ts" .

1) "Your Tweets are Boring."

If you are tweeting regularly about the time you get up, what you ate for breakfast, what you are going to do during the day or are whining all the time about your problems, then nobody will follow you, let alone buy your product or service.

People are not interested in your daily routine unless you are a celebrity, and they care even less about your problems. They don't know you, you don't have any relationship with them, why should they care about your problems? Everyone has problems. Get over it and leave "soul sharing" for your close friends.

People come to Twitter to find interesting information, to be entertained, to receive a shot of positive emotions. So make sure you cater to at least some of these needs.

2) "Your tweets are 'all about you'."

Twitter marketing is not about you, it's about serving your community. Remember 80/20 rule. 80% of the time share interesting, inspirational, entertaining or educational content, then people will tolerate when you spend 20% talking about your own business.

3) "You are trying to send people to sales and product pages."

This is a recipe for disaster. Once again, people come to Twitter for information. Want to advertise your products or services? Use the allowed 20% to send people to webinars, high value blog posts, videos, etc. Let your website convert them into leads. Then use marketing automation to convert them into customers. One exception might be e-commerce sites, and even there don't just send people to your regular product page, offer special deals and discounts reserved only for Twitter users.

4) "You Violate Twitter's Unwritten Rules."

There are many rules within Twitter community which are not spelled out in official Twitter TOS. If you don't know them, you can quickly annoy people.

One such rule – never use replies with individuals whom you don't know. That's a spam (well, there are certain exceptions, such as Twitter chats, etc. But as a general rule – don't do that.)

5) "You Tweet Irregularly."

There is an idiom "Out of sight, out of mind." It applies to Twitter as well. If you don't tweet regularly, people forget about you. If they don't know you, they are much less likely to buy your products. It's that simple.

6) "You Don't Have a Tweeting Strategy."

Why are you on Twitter? What exactly are you trying to accomplish? How are you going to mix and schedule content? Which hashtags are you going to use? How would you entice people to look at your webinar/ blog/ special offer? How are you planning to extend your reach? These are just some of the questions you should have clear answers to before you start tweeting.

7) "You Don't Provide Timely Replies."

People expect the response from companies on Twitter within an hour. If you respond in a few days you might as well not respond at all.

8) "You Don't Participate in Relevant Conversations."

If you don't look for conversations that are highly relevant to your business, you are not only missing out on an excellent source of hot leads, you also limit the ability for other people to find you.

9) "You Don't Actively Reach Out to Industry Influencers."

If you are trying to do it on your own, good luck. You need to build relationship with influencers of your industry if you want a higher probability to get increased exposure for your business.

10) "You Don't Encourage Your Followers."

If some of your followers actively re-tweet you, recommend you to their followers, etc, do take time to acknowledge their efforts and thank them for their help. A kind word can go a long way...

Those are just main reasons why you currently might be struggling with Twitter marketing.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-reasons-why-twitter-marketing-does-work-your-business-oleg-ilin