I have compiled a list of the 10 most frequent mistakes hip hop artists make while using twitter:

Adding too many people at one time. So you want to brand yourself, yet you’ve got 50 people following you, while you’re following 2,001?  How does that really portray you?  If not only makes you look extremely desperate but it also shows that you’re not on twitter to build relationships with people, only to gain a vast amount of followers in order to spam them with your links.  Take it slow, let the follows come naturally. Bad photo. Using photos of inanimate objects on your avatar or profile picture, even worse-not using any profile photo at all.  People feel more comfortable interacting with people online when they know that they are communicating with a real person. Posting nothing but totally random drivel daily. While this could work if you are only using the network to connect with family and friends, if you are using Twitter for business then you should post meaningful messages that can help you grow your brand.  You can post promos, updates, and links to articles that provide value to people within your network.  You can also post humorous tweets and other more personal tweets just make sure that they are interesting. Using the default twitter layout. If you are a professional and want to be seen as so, take a few minutes to either create information packed twitter background, or at least something with some style.  Who knows, you might even get featured in an article about twitter layouts and end up gaining a lot of subscribers because of it. Carrying on long conversations between two users. The temptation to use Twitter like an IM service is there, but to fill a timeline with replies to a single person in a short span of time is aggravating enough to make other followers reach for the unfollow button.  If you sense your convo will drag on, use direct messages, or better yet, just call the person the phone. Not making regular Twitter updates. If you want to gain followers on Twitter, you need to post updates or tweets at least once a day.  You can’t expect people to follow you if they see that the last message on your feed was posted a month or two ago. Failing to add yourself to twitter directories. You want to gain followers but you don’t add yourself to places to be found.  Directories such as Blacktwitters.com and Hiphopontwitter.com or powerful places to add yourself and be found by twitter users.  Blacktwitters is a twitter directory for African American twitters. Tweeting famous people. Nothing looks more obscured then to see unknown hip hop artists tweeting things to Jim Jones like “I sent you my mixtap but you didn’t respond.”  This makes you look bad to your network and it’s unprofessional. Selling in your tweets. You want to tell people about your brand?  Do it in your bio.  Put your URL there and leave it at that.  Focus your time and creating quality filled tweets.  If they like you, they’ll look into what you do because they enjoy what you’re saying and believe you are a valuable source, not just someone who spams the twitter world with random “buy the hot song” tweets. Dising other hip hop artists. Internet beef are super weak.  Beefing with other hip artists on twitter is just dumb.

And like any tool, when used badly, you get bad results. Sometimes very bad. Some of the worst mistakes you can make on Twitter are very easily avoided with just a few basic cautions and by reading good Twitter tips.

The first and most important thing to remember about Twitter is that it is a social platform in a very public medium. So your business or brand will be seen.

With that in mind, and in the context of using tweets on Twitter as a promotional tool, here are some of those deadly mistakes you must avoid.

The most deadly Twitter mistake

Using Twitter to send out ‘spammy’ and ‘in-your-face’ promotional tweets will get you shunned by the Twitter community faster than a burp at the Queen’s table.

Think of your tweets like conversational comments at a nice cocktail party. People are there to have fun and enjoy what they are doing; they don’t want a sales pitch shoved in their face. You Twitter audience feels the same.

Your tweets must leave your Twitter followers feeling benefited by reading your comments, not targeted as a sales prospect.

Twitter is a community: you have to participate

This is an easy Twitter mistake to avoid. The old adage is true; “You have to give to receive.” You have to participate in the Twitter world.

Follow other Tweeters, respond to their tweets, participate in tweet threads. Don’t expect results if you only send out tweets that benefit you and never interact with other tweeters.

The logic follows like this: If you want Twitter to be an effective tool you have to develop a following to receive your tweets. To develop a following you have to write tweets people want to read. If you want people to read your tweets you have to make them feel benefited by doing so. Think of it like you do your incoming phone calls. If you don’t know the number, or recognize it as a sale call, you will probably return the call later or not at all.

But if you see it’s a friend’s number, odds are you will take the call.

Find more Twitter tips here.

Twitter is known as the SMS of the Internet due to the limited amount of characters you can send to an exclusive group of followers. Still, that does not diminish the appeal of this social media one bit.

Here are some issues about Twitter to watch out for.

Trouble # 1 with Twitter: It’s virtually irresistible.

Many Twitter users admit that checking their Twitter account is one of the first things they’ll check when they turn their computer on.

While this does not exactly pose a problem when you’re at home, it is a different matter when you’re at work. Some companies have actually restricted Twitter sites on their employees’ computers because it hinders workflow.

Instead of composing filing documents into their respective folders, employees are twittering on their computers – maybe even twittering that they’re filing documents and then forgetting about actually doing it all together.

There’s nothing wrong with using Twitter. Just keep it in moderation, and not when you have a list of other more important tasks to attend to.

Trouble # 2 with Twitter: It’s a poor replacement.

Twitter also has a nasty habit of taking over meaningful conversations and reducing them to 140 characters.

Sure, it’s instant messaging in an attractive package, but Twittering thank you messages to the friends who attended your wedding is not the same as sending them thank you cards. In fact, it’s almost an insult to use Twitter to deal with such personal expressions of gratitude.

Sending Twitter messages to dear friends can be fun, but don’t use it to take care of personalized special messages.

Trouble # 3 with Twitter: It cannot promote your business single-handedly.

More and more people are using Twitter these days, but that doesn’t mean you can rely on it to single-handedly market and advertise your business for you. While Twitter marketing can be effective for your business, it cannot stand alone.  

It needs the support of other means of marketing and advertising. According to CEO of Zappos.com Tony Hsieh (via Copy Blogger), they do find Twitter an advantage to their business but they don’t necessarily use it for “driving immediate sales.”

Twitter helps spread the word around through followers – and can be extremely profitable as a marketing tool – but it should not be the sole backbone of your business.

The trouble with Twitter is that it is sometimes being used in unproductive ways. But as long as you know its limitations and proper usage, you can achieve amazingly profitable and productive results with Twitter.

Nothing wrong so far …

However, if you don’t take care HOW you use Twitter, you may just waste your time or even worse … you can even damage your reputation.

You don’t want this to happen, do you?

Then … take care and avoid these mistakes …

MARKETING MISTAKE # 1

Letting your followers know EVERY LITTLE thing you do. Like “Drinking my coffee”.

Decide what you are. Are you a marketer or not?

Who do you think that cares when you drink your coffee? I bet that not even your mom!

If at a certain moment in time you have nothing important to say or you cannot help anyone, then … don’t say anything.

Sometimes silence is better.

If you want to show a human, friendly face instead of a corporate one, that’s a good approach, no problem. But …

Do it not by telling your followers when you drink your coffee but by trying to help them when they need and by offering them free tips & resources.

MARKETING MISTAKE # 2

Setting up automatic direct messages that are sent to ALL your followers but contain a message that is targetted to a very narrow niche that excludes many of your potential followers.

Here is one of the funniest DM I received:

“Free ebook ‘Internet Marketing Essentials for Newbies’ with subscription at …(link removed)”

Well, if you bother to read my short Twitter bio, then you find out within seconds that I’m the CEO of an ezine advertising network, not a newbie.

What someone may think about you when receives such message? “You’re ridiculous.” Or … “You’re a newbie”, or “You’re not professional”, or “You’re not polite”.

Is this the result you were looking for?

MARKETING MISTAKE # 3

Not responding to direct messages or replies that require an answer from you.

When you do this … it’s like saying, “I don’t care what you say or what you need, I only want you to signup for my mailing list and buy my products”.

If this is how you understand that a prospect has to be treated, you better try something else other than internet marketing.

MARKETING MISTAKE # 4

Don’t understanding that your tweet is actually a headline.

If your tweet is “Check this out: …(link)”, you have just wasted your time by writing that tweet.

Any marketer should remember what David Ogilvy said: “When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

To Your Success!
Adrian Jock

Mistake: Not using a real picture of yourself for your avatar.

When I first joined Twitter over a year ago I was guilty of using a cartoon-type picture of me for mine. I thought it was cute and it happened to be part of the design I had on my previous blog. However, I switched to an actual photo of myself a few months later, and more than a few people commented that they were glad to see the real me.

I feel the same about others now. A picture of you is a lot more personable than a picture of your dog or a company logo. People like to see your smile!

Mistake: Automating pushy direct messages for new followers.

Many Twitter users use a service such as TweetLater to set up automatic messages to go to anyone who begins following them. This is a bit controversial among people on Twitter. If you are automating a friendly message to just say thanks for following me, that’s one thing, but a message with a link to one of your products when we haven’t even connected yet is generally frowned upon.

Mistake: Starting to follow people without posting a couple of your updates.

It may feel like you are talking to yourself to do this, especially if you don’t have any followers yourself. But when someone comes upon your page and is deciding whether or not to follow you, they need something to go on. People are looking for some sign of life or personality.

Mistake: Not spending a good amount of time interacting.

There is nothing wrong with letting others know what you did last night or what your plans are for the day. Just be sure to intersperse your tweets with some two-way conversation. Ask questions, re-tweet others, reply to questions, comment on others tweets, etc. This builds community and keeps things balanced and interesting.

Mistake: Mass following right out of the gate.

My ratio of followers to those I am following is pretty even, mainly because I like to follow back most of the people who follow me as long as they don’t look like spammers.

However, I find it hard to follow others who, in addition to having only a couple of updates, are following thousands of people and have only a few people following them. It feels spammy, like they don’t have much interest in having a relationship or conversation with anyone.

Mistake: Doing everything from the web instead of using a Twitter client.

Installing a client such as Tweetdeck gives you more functionality than what you can do from the Twitter website alone. For example, Tweetdeck allows you to place people in groups which make it easier to keep track of them, especially once you are following lots of people. Plus, you don’t have to be connected to the web to use these types of clients. I find they make tweeting a lot easier and more convenient for keeping track of your replies, direct messages and followers.

Mistake: All promotion, all the time.

As I have mentioned in previous articles, no one likes to follow someone who is constantly selling and promoting without giving anything back. Keep things balanced and respect that others do not want to be pitched all of the time. That being said…

Mistake: Not leveraging Twitter as part of your business marketing strategy.

If you are in business and using social media, you are looking at Twitter as a tool to get results in that business, not to just socialize all day. Remember that it is a great way to reinforce your brand, form strategic alliances and build credibility and trust.

You are free to use Twitter for whatever purpose you choose. However, if you are marketing your website, products, and/or services, then there are things you’ll want to avoid if you plan on your efforts being effective.

• Self-Promo Overload
  It’s important to remember that Twitter is ultimately a social platform, not a sales platform. Although there’s no harm in dropping a promotional tweet here and there, you’ll need to mix it into regular tweets that offer something a little more than only your latest sale. Share articles you read and other interesting stuff you find online, but don’t simply push your own promo, or else you’ll lose credibility quick.
  
• What Are You Doing? (No! not literally!)
  The Twitter home page famously reads “What Are You Doing?” just above the field where you type in your 140 character tweet update. However, that doesn’t mean that you add an update every 5 minutes with messages like “I’m peeling potatoes”, “starting the car”, or “havin’ a smoke”.  Of course, it’s fine to send a few really personal or even mundane tweets throughout the day, but don’t lose sight of Twitter’s primary function which is to socialize, network and connect. You need to be somewhat engaging.
  
• Don’t Be Auto-Social
  There are extra tools that you can use now to automate some of your Twitter tasks. While some people swear by them, many Twitter users despise them. It takes away from the very essence of connecting and networking when you have everything automated.  Many feel like it’s a bit spammy as well when you choose to follow someone and receive a DM (direct message) from them seconds later with  link promoting their website.  If you are sending out automated messages, why not just a “hi” and a “thank you for following me”?
  Whether or not to use automation is up to you, but maybe wait until you get a taste of it yourself  and also get a feel of how other people are talking about it on twitter before making a decision.

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