Danger Running Twitter on Autopilot
Going from a brick and mortar business to being online requires a strategy for promoting and maintaining brand recognition.
10 years ago some small business owners were slow to accept the importance of having a website, even slower to add a blog, and now some are fighting tooth and nail against having a Twitter account.
Before choosing a Twitter strategy, consider the danger of running Twitter on autopilot.
Adding original quality content often is the secret to online success.
How to get there often requires having a quality website with a matching blog enhanced with a Twitter account.
Taking shortcuts as a strategy on any of those could defeat your website purpose.
Consider Twitter and shortcuts for automating tweets before deciding on the easy route.
The issue of duplicate content running Twitter on autopilot may have little impact on search engine ranking for your Twitter account, yet it may affect your reputation with real people.
As Twitter matures and external apps are created to maximize efficiency, any automated approach with robots for tweeting becomes easier and easier to identify.
People you follow who once interacted real time may not respond if they are running Twitter on autopilot.
The reality of how people tweet became very apparent recently when viewing tweets in Tweetdeck.
Two people being followed created identical tweets two minutes apart, and each posted automatically using TwitterFeed.
The text was identical in word, case, punctuation, and the reference hyperlink.
Those were not retweets.
They were consecutive tweets in a group column created in Tweetdeck, yet from different persons.
You can tell an account holder is using a robot if their posting method is entirely API, Twitterfeed, or another RSS format.
This means tweets are generated and put in queue to "drip feed" into their public timeline to show activity when in fact follower interaction is probably not being monitored.
Twitter is social media.
The purpose is to socialize with your followers.
The moment you choose efficiency over being personal, you dilute the value of being on Twitter.
When people reply to an automated tweet or ask a question they won't get an answer until a real person checks for replies.
Going robotic allows account holders to tweet 24/7 but automated tweets will result in duplicate content, and it could be obvious to followers as just explained.
Most people do not use bots.
Some people mix tweet feeds and real time interaction.
Others use 100% automated robot tweets.
Any method is fine if your choice was for the right reason and meets your expectations for having a Twitter account.
Otherwise, the danger of running Twitter on autopilot is not meeting your purpose for tweeting.
Most users originally follow people based on the quality of their tweets.
Automation may affect reputation if a user becomes popular for actively tweeting new and fresh content and then changes tactics.
If joining Twitter to promote a brand, running Twitter on autopilot may affect your success reaching, connecting, and keeping followers who convert to buying customers.
Consider how just being online has evolved.
Business owners began to understand 5-10 years ago that they must have a website to compete.
A one-page website was better than nothing.
A www address on your literature was a sign of sophistication even if your website sucked.
10 years ago many owners fought getting their first website because it was a radical shift in how they did business.
Next came blogs.
The discipline to post new content to a blog was agonizing for many, especially micro small business owners or sole proprietors.
The owner of a very small business couldn't delegate the plumbing task when the toilet backed up.
That's a simple example of how most are involved in day to day details of running their business.
The real work that generates revenue is often interrupted.
These same entrepreneurs certainly did not want to learn web design or blogging! Now Twitter? Good luck convincing a small business owner that they can create an effective message when limited to 140 characters, and that the marketing effort will be good for business.
Those who are slow adopters or unaware of the reality of Twitter may lose opportunities to their competition.
Even those who do tweet need to understand what's right and wrong.
More recently, company managers have realized they must be on Twitter to maintain a leadership role in their marketplace.
Sadly, many corporate Twitter accounts suck as much as that one-page website gathering dust or that blog with the latest post dated 3 years ago.
An effective Twitter strategy for brand awareness requires companies to interact with their followers, tweet with consistent frequency, and display human personality in their tweets.
People want to see that personal touch in Twitter much like dealing with a real person and not a robot.
Interact, tweet often, and keep it personal to succeed converting followers to buyers.
Finally, who is winning in Google search results? The winners are those small business owners who recognized that the importance of being online means an annual budget to add original quality content often.
The secret to enhanced search engine ranking means having fresh content on their main site, blog, and yes...
Twitter.
10 years ago some small business owners were slow to accept the importance of having a website, even slower to add a blog, and now some are fighting tooth and nail against having a Twitter account.
Before choosing a Twitter strategy, consider the danger of running Twitter on autopilot.
Adding original quality content often is the secret to online success.
How to get there often requires having a quality website with a matching blog enhanced with a Twitter account.
Taking shortcuts as a strategy on any of those could defeat your website purpose.
Consider Twitter and shortcuts for automating tweets before deciding on the easy route.
The issue of duplicate content running Twitter on autopilot may have little impact on search engine ranking for your Twitter account, yet it may affect your reputation with real people.
As Twitter matures and external apps are created to maximize efficiency, any automated approach with robots for tweeting becomes easier and easier to identify.
People you follow who once interacted real time may not respond if they are running Twitter on autopilot.
The reality of how people tweet became very apparent recently when viewing tweets in Tweetdeck.
Two people being followed created identical tweets two minutes apart, and each posted automatically using TwitterFeed.
The text was identical in word, case, punctuation, and the reference hyperlink.
Those were not retweets.
They were consecutive tweets in a group column created in Tweetdeck, yet from different persons.
You can tell an account holder is using a robot if their posting method is entirely API, Twitterfeed, or another RSS format.
This means tweets are generated and put in queue to "drip feed" into their public timeline to show activity when in fact follower interaction is probably not being monitored.
Twitter is social media.
The purpose is to socialize with your followers.
The moment you choose efficiency over being personal, you dilute the value of being on Twitter.
When people reply to an automated tweet or ask a question they won't get an answer until a real person checks for replies.
Going robotic allows account holders to tweet 24/7 but automated tweets will result in duplicate content, and it could be obvious to followers as just explained.
Most people do not use bots.
Some people mix tweet feeds and real time interaction.
Others use 100% automated robot tweets.
Any method is fine if your choice was for the right reason and meets your expectations for having a Twitter account.
Otherwise, the danger of running Twitter on autopilot is not meeting your purpose for tweeting.
Most users originally follow people based on the quality of their tweets.
Automation may affect reputation if a user becomes popular for actively tweeting new and fresh content and then changes tactics.
If joining Twitter to promote a brand, running Twitter on autopilot may affect your success reaching, connecting, and keeping followers who convert to buying customers.
Consider how just being online has evolved.
Business owners began to understand 5-10 years ago that they must have a website to compete.
A one-page website was better than nothing.
A www address on your literature was a sign of sophistication even if your website sucked.
10 years ago many owners fought getting their first website because it was a radical shift in how they did business.
Next came blogs.
The discipline to post new content to a blog was agonizing for many, especially micro small business owners or sole proprietors.
The owner of a very small business couldn't delegate the plumbing task when the toilet backed up.
That's a simple example of how most are involved in day to day details of running their business.
The real work that generates revenue is often interrupted.
These same entrepreneurs certainly did not want to learn web design or blogging! Now Twitter? Good luck convincing a small business owner that they can create an effective message when limited to 140 characters, and that the marketing effort will be good for business.
Those who are slow adopters or unaware of the reality of Twitter may lose opportunities to their competition.
Even those who do tweet need to understand what's right and wrong.
More recently, company managers have realized they must be on Twitter to maintain a leadership role in their marketplace.
Sadly, many corporate Twitter accounts suck as much as that one-page website gathering dust or that blog with the latest post dated 3 years ago.
An effective Twitter strategy for brand awareness requires companies to interact with their followers, tweet with consistent frequency, and display human personality in their tweets.
People want to see that personal touch in Twitter much like dealing with a real person and not a robot.
Interact, tweet often, and keep it personal to succeed converting followers to buyers.
Finally, who is winning in Google search results? The winners are those small business owners who recognized that the importance of being online means an annual budget to add original quality content often.
The secret to enhanced search engine ranking means having fresh content on their main site, blog, and yes...
Twitter.
