Twitter No-No's: Top Ten Things NOT To Do On Twitter

#10. Beg For Followers

Begging for followers is one of the easiest ways to turn people off. Twitter is a community, be part of it. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.

#9. Randomly Jump In Conversations

If you’re going to hop in a conversation, please make sure that what you’re saying is relevant

#8. Follow Everyone

Twitter can be exciting when you first get introduced to it, but don’t go following everybody. It makes it look like you are just searching for others to follow you.

#7. Tweet Everything

We don’t need to know every move you make.

#6. Forget About Direct Messages

When a conversation only involves two people, why make the entire dialogue public? Sometimes it’s better to send a direct message.

#5. Auto-Tweet

Many social media outlets allow you to auto-tweet everything you do. Between Facebook, Wordpress, Myspace (Does anybody still use Myspace?), Tumblr, Picasa, Flickr, etc., your Twitter profile will quickly approach SPAM status.

#4. Initiate SPAM

Simply not cool

#3. Forward SPAM

Apple does not need your help testing a product that’s already been out a year. They have a huge research department that conducts market research BEFORE a product launches. Stop telling me about how you got a “FREE iPad!!!!” Real copywriters rarely use that many exclamation points when writing copy.

#2. Choose A Weak Password

Makes #4 and #3 easier for those who don’t practice social media etiquette.

#1. Be Fake

Just like in real life, it’s just weird, and people will figure you out.

People, The Missing 'P' In Marketing

Most marketing textbooks teach the 4 P’s of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). Although the promotion aspect of marketing gets the most attention the other 3 P’s are equally important in a successful business. If there’s no product worth buying, no amount of promotion will make it successful. Likewise, if the price is above what the market will allow, no units will move. Also, if you have everything else right (the price, product, and promotion are all ideal for the market) if the consumer can’t find how to obtain the product, it doesn’t do anybody any good.

However, I argue there is one more P that is the most important—people. We often use the term consumer so much we forget that everything we do as marketers and businesspeople is supposed to satisfy the needs and desires of people…real people. Today’s most successful companies are aware of this, and they incorporate people and their feedback into every component of marketing, from product design to communication. Smart companies know that people keep the bills paid. Smart companies know that people talk. Smart companies are coming up with solutions that people need and want often before people know they need and want them. Take Apple’s iPad for example.

Employees and customers must be treated with the utmost respect, as though they’re the ones making and buying the products. Oh wait, they are. Remember that.

The Power Of 'With'

The word ‘with’ is powerful, yet underutilized in our discourse. We live in a society that tends to value competition more than collaboration. Thus, we end up with statements like, “Yesterday, I talked to him” or “I work for this company.” Those sentences, while perfectly fine, lack the nuances of dynamic relationships and communication. If you talked to somebody, you didn’t converse with them.  However, if you talk with somebody, you both can add value to the conversation, and therefore add value to each other. Likewise, working with somebody or an organization places a sense in the individual that they are working with others towards a common goal.

When I’m consulting a non-profit or a small business, I don’t do anything for them. I work with them to bring out their potential as well as mine. I let them know that we’re in this together. Take a vested interest in everything you do. Try using ‘with’ in your conversations, work, and relationships and see how its use changes the meanings and value of them.

Ummm, excuse me?

Scenario:

Person A is busy at work, typing away on their computer or reading over some documentation. Person B walks into Person A’s office and immediately asks, “Where is person C?” You recognize this don’t you? It happens all the time.

Analysis:

There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t know where to start.

• Whatever happened to “Hello, how are you doing today?”
• The way the question is asked assumes that Person A knows where Person C is located. Person A may have no idea. Maybe a better way to ask is, “Hello Person A, do you know where Person B is?”
• Person A may be in the middle of something important. Abruptly stopping them is disrespectful, inconsiderate, and may make them lose concentration.
• This list goes one…

Conclusion:

Be considerate