Every marketing expert knows that Twitter is a quick way to stay up to date with modern trends no matter what industry you are in. Lack of content ideas? It can give you an endless stream of it. The reason why so many online marketers prefer Twitter is because of all the access it gives to keep on top of the latest news in online marketing and build connections with colleagues. No doubt, Twitter is a marketer’s dream.

But to make the most of this social network, you have to know how to use it in the most efficient manner. In fact, there is no perfect solution to Twitter marketing. A winning strategy should be customized to the specific needs of the brand or blogger. In the online space, you can find a lot of tips and tricks on how to do it. Unfortunately, most of them won’t actually work. We’ve created a list of the most popular Twitter marketing myths we need to stop relying on right away.

Myth #1. Playing “follow, pause, unfollow’ game is the best way to get new followers.

Do you still think that it’s the best method to grab the attention of new followers? Count on people’s sense of reciprocity? Let’s see how it works. To get new followers, you follow a random stranger. Because this stranger is polite, he or she follow you back. Then you wait a little bit and, after you’ve been followed back, simply press the unfollow button. Usually, this process works automatically with the help of special tools.

If you want to strengthen the influence of your business, this way is totally ineffective. As practice shows, you will end up with more followers. On the other hand, they won’t likely be the audience that wants to engage with you, become leads and even your regular customers. Especially, when they realize that you were cheating. Don’t damage your reputation by using this trick. Instead, focus on increasing the number of your followers organically.

Myth #2. Automating direct messaging helps save time as well as put a personal touch on your Twitter marketing strategy.

With an endless list of online marketing tools like Agorapulse and ManageFlitter, automating Twitter is easier than ever before. It can be useful both for time-saving and keeping the social network working for you even if you’re not technically online. On the other side, automation neglects the social aspect of online conversations and can cause you to become spammy.

Nowadays, too many people opt for automating their direct messaging. Basically, the majority of such DMs falls into one of three categories:

• thanks for following;
• ask to like or follow another social media account;
• visit the website;

All of them make one huge mistake – they don’t add any value to the interaction with the followers. There is absolutely nothing personal about it, as it’s just one generic message. If you don’t want to be unfollowed, stay away from it. Get more personal with your DMs and don’t try to automate everything. The only thing that can be automated is scheduling tweets ahead of time.

Myth #3. Put a lot of hashtags to get higher engagement.

You want to catch people’s interest to your tweets, do you? Relevant hashtags help you attract the audience that is interested in the certain topic. So what’s wrong with using hashtags at every opportunity?

Its effectiveness doesn’t depend on its quantity. A report from Salesforce shows that tweets with three or more hashtags receive lower engagement that those with one or two. A huge number of hashtags simply don’t work. Less is better? Yes, indeed! Including one hashtag than overloading is a sure-fire way.

Myth #4. Twitter marketing takes a lot of time and efforts.

The truth is that it’s not 100% myth. Certainly, Twitter takes time and effort as nothing will work effectively unless you do. But your Twitter management can be kept simple and sound while reducing the time you spend on your daily tasks. Fortunately, there is a bunch of social management tools to help you save a lot of time every day. Here are some of them:

• Agorapulse. It’s a full-suite social media management tool gives you all of your mentions in one, easy to use inbox, lets you publish and schedule updates, and it also has customer relationship management tools, extensive monitoring features and moderation rules for automation features.
• Canva. It’s one of the most popular graphic design tools that is extremely user-friendly. Using this software, you’ll get great results in less than five minutes, as it offers pre-built templates for Twitter posts. You can create your own images from scratch or customize something from already prepared graphics.
• Feedly. It’s called to pull any RSS feed and personalize your Twitter stream in the best possible way. Just add preferred blogs and news sources to find interesting articles in your niche in a matter of minutes. It also helps to indicate social media buzz among other topics by showing the number of shares for each case.
• Paper.li. With Paper.li, the tool automatically collects great content and tweets that is relevant to your audience and also shares it automatically from your account.
• Buffer. If you are looking for a useful app for scheduling your content, Buffer will definitely come in handy. Using its browser plugin, you can quickly manage various social media channels.
• Triberr. If you want to maximise your Twitter shares and your traffic, you can cut down on time spent by using Triberr, where other content creators just like you help you share your content on social media.

Myth #5. Turning the first interaction with follower into a sales pitch is a must.

Trying to sell your product or service right away is probably one of the biggest pet peeves. You don’t sell people something when you meet them for the first time in real life, right? So why do so many brands do this on Twitter?

Still, the secret of successful relationships is simple – try to build it over time. For example, you can begin with sharing useful tips related to your sphere of influence or entertaining tweets like memes. Consequently, people will be more receptive to your future offers than if your first-time tweeting is to sell your services. To add even more value, you can also provide some discounts or bonuses.

Myth #6. Start posting only with links to your blog posts and landing pages.

Of course, you want your business to be active on social media. Thus, you’ve started to produce landing pages and blog post. The problems appear when you begin to promote it on Twitter. In fact, there is nothing criminal with it in case you’re pushing it out in combination with content that isn’t your own. News articles, YouTube channels, podcasts, responses to your followers, other industry blogs – all of them should become an integral part of your posting strategy.

Don’t be afraid to share links to the websites within the same niche. This doesn’t give your traffic away to the competitors. Begin searching for the best content in your industry, and you will see how much your followers will appreciate it.

Myth #7. Jumping on trending topics is essential to recognition.

It’s exciting to look through trending topics to discover what’s happening around. This Twitter report shows that about 17% of the top 1000 search terms lose ground every hour. So you can do your best to rush into trends but instead get into the topic that no one’s paying attention to anymore. That’s why it’s better for your business to focus on monitoring keywords that your audience cares about rather than using trending topics for your long-term Twitter strategy.

Myth #8. Interaction doesn’t bring the growth of an account.

This is one of the biggest pitfalls to watch for when trying to build a successful Twitter account. You can tweet regularly, but if you have no time to interact with your audience, all your efforts can disappear without a trace.

When you analyze some of the most popular Twitter feeds, you’ll see that they are filled with conversations. Try to retweet and favoriting other tweets, and you’ll notice how powerful this social network can be when it comes to bringing traffic to your website. Besides, it is much easier than it seems to be. To begin with, find some popular conversations related to your sphere and get in there! Surely, it is an excellent way to get yourself noticed.

Myth #9. Video is for billionaires.

Everybody talks about the growing popularity of video as this kind of content can boost engagement levels considerably. After Facebook, Twitter has released an update to the iOS and Android apps that allow users to broadcast live videos.

Why is this good news for your brand? With the rise of live broadcasting, you can connect with your followers in a more effective way. No need to have perfect video skills or hire professional video team. All it takes is your smartphone and a little bit of creativity.

And what about your Twitter marketing tricks?

Did you believe in some of these Twitter marketing myths? Don’t worry; you are not alone in this. Even the most successful online marketers have made these mistakes. The best thing you can do for your Twitter strategy is to grow professionally, analyze new trends and find out what works best for your brand.

Have any tips or other myths? Let us know in the comments right below!

About the author:

Veronica Hunt is an edtech expert and an experienced content marketer from Philadelphia, PA. She sees her purpose in providing her readers with up-to-date info in the spheres of digital marketing, entrepreneurship and psychology. Currently, works for StudentShare as a content manager. Apart from work, she adores traveling and yoga. Follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.