While reading a book by M.J. Brown about social media marketing, I really liked the way he put together a list of "dos and don'ts" for Twitter. I thought it would be nice to simplify things and add my thoughts and explanations in this presentation. I think these are mistakes that a lot of people may make without even realizing it. This is a nice way to check in with yourself and your social media marketing practices.

1. What NOT to do according to M.J. Brown

2. BUY NOW
 Social media by definition is social. Asking nothing of your
customers but to buy your products isn’t creating a
dialogue between you and them, it is just trying to sell your
product. Where is the added value? Where is the
conversation?

3. Please follow me!
 You can earn followers by offering them engaging
content. You can offer them incentives/promotions for
following you. You can gain a larger audience by
utilizing shares and ads but please.....PLEASE do not
beg.
 It looks awful, childish and is annoying. If someone
continually begs for followers, they will quickly be
unfollowed because that is just wasting valuable space
on news feeds. People are looking for valuable content.

4. Don’t make your tweet too long or you
will be wasting valuable space and people will move on to something else.....
 It you want your tweets to be shared/seen/liked by
others, you need to leave room for mentioning people
via @. That creates an even larger audience.
 Long tweets are not engaging, people like short, witty
and catchy tweets. That’s what people like about
Twitter. Its quick, easy and you can get information at
the drop of a hat. People do not want to spend time
reading and reading.

5. Ignore shout outs
 Keep on top of your @ mentions
 Reply to customer queries in a timely manner
 If a company is not responding to tweets, customers
will not bother engaging with them anymore.

6. Read me, read me, read me
 Don’t tweet the same thing all day
 Keep it interesting and intriguing
 Get people to engage with you instead of being
spammed by you- remember, it’s supposed to be a
conversation.

7. Candy, binders and vacations
 Stay consistent and relevant- retweets should be in
line with your brand and strategy
 Don’t retweet everything
 People are following you for a specific reason, if your
content becomes diluted, it just becomes more spam.

8. ############
 Don’t hashtag every word- it becomes hard to read
 Only hashtag relevant words to your overall message
 Stick to 3 per post

9. Quick! It’s been 2 minutes, must tweet
 Stick to a max of 8 tweets a day
 If you post all day, chances are you are diluting your
content and turning off customers with the irrelevancy
of the tweets
 Make each tweet count
 Think before you tweet
 Followers may not want to hear what you are eating,
wearing, watching on tv etc.

10. Auto-Tweet and walk away
 While management systems for pre-scheduled tweets
are very convenient, you still have to keep an eye on
them
 Mistakes happen, and if you are not being vigilant,
mistakes can impact your business
 Keep an eye on your social media

11. Mix up handles
 For those who manage more than one account this can
be a terrible mistake to make
 Posting personal business on a business account looks
extremely unprofessional and can hurt your business
in a BIG way
 Make sure to keep business and pleasure separate
 Check and double check if need be!