My Microblogging and Networking mistakes in Twitter

Twitter is a networking site  which allows for micro-blogging with posts not longer than 140  characters.  Twitter has caught peoples attention and since people do business with people all kinds of business and markets  have embraced twitter to gain followers.

As I started out blogging, I have made some mistakes and one of them involves using twitter and twittering.

When I heard about twitter, I thought it must be a place where idlers tell other idlers what they are doing. I really thought that it was not a forum for me. Which I now realize was a very big mistake.

However once I overcame my ignorance and realized I can use Twitter as a  networking forum, I joined twitter and started out making mistakes that have made me not make the right kind of connections as intended.

I will share of the mistakes and how I am correcting them or intend to mend them.

Wrong User name:

@sandeolando was my user name in twitter until I changed to @graceonyango. Why? because Grace is an easier name for one to use get me in twitter if they are to search. Instead of having two unheard of names that will always be typed wrongly. I have realized using my real name is important in twitter. This makes it easier for connections. I can also have other accounts with pet names but they must be easy for others.  So that was my number one mistake, started out on the wrong foot.

Ignoring my  competitors.

I made this one huge blunder, ignoring my competitors and not following them.  It is in  my human nature, to treat hem like enemies. A big mistake. In twitter I have realized, I better tweet some new habits into my life, like loving my competitors tweets, sites and blogs. Twitter is my third eye to quickly know what they are doing and who are they associating with.

Following any one without a specific goal.

This is a huge one for me. I did not have any twitter marketing strategy when I started. I never defined who I was and why I was there.

I got my account and got some people I knew to follow and  then started following anyone. I was wrong. Take for example if someone is talking about God, and yes I am religious and I am talking about my new blog and product, we are not connecting. A conversation must have a theme. I have realized I may want to  have more than one account and microblog the right characters to the right people, forming relevant connections.

Not engaging people.

I just thought that with Twitter I should go in and tweet, tweet and tweet and then close my account till later. Well, I have realized it does not work that way. I must engage people in conversations, someone is following me for a reason and if I do not encourage any interactions and familiar feedback then there is always the ‘unfollow’ button at their disposal.

All about numbers.

When I started following people and saw some with thousands of followers, I thought it all lies in the numbers.  So I started following anybody and anyone to pump up my numbers.  A vey wrong and spam like strategy.  Now I know to follow someone then I must have a reason to follow them and people will follow me for a reason. Then they will continue to follow if  I remain relevant to them.

Wasting time.

In my earlier post on Focus, I mentioned twitter as one of my time wasters. This is because I kept on checking who is following me instead of engaging in the present tweets.  I therefore spent so much time checking people’s profile, which is only valuable when you want to know more about the person but I have to do so with a focus and a perspective of expanding my business. Not just checking out.

Useless tweets.

Since I had no specific goal for following someone or for my followers, my tweets were also not useful. I would tweet just about anything. Being very irrelevant is a sure call for the ‘unfollow’ button. I am now learning to narrow my focus and have useful and relevant tweets.

Lack of professional integrity.

As I mentioned before, I tweeted anything including very useless tweets and personal tweets. Therefore I risked losing two things my professional integrity and followers. It is trues  I can ask for a suggestion for a natural cure among internet marketers but if  it becomes my focus, they will not want my association anymore.

Not using tweeter tools.

Since I did not have a twitter marketing strategy, I also have not used many of the available tools. I am now using tweet deck which is awesome, I can quickly post my tweets, see who mentioned me and get news and other updates.  I plan to incorporate more tools like twitpic and others and get all the tweeter plug ins in my blog. I want the whole scoop.

Those are some of my mistakes that I have made with twitter, the good thing is, I am learning from them and I hope someone learns from me not to make the same mistakes.

You can comment and share some of your twitter mistakes, I would love to hear them.

@graceonyango, that is my new user name.

I will try to be my best in 140 ways or less in twitter.

Grace