8 ways get unfollowed on Twitter really fast

Houstonians, and most of the nation, tweet and retweet all the cool stuff. No doubt about it, Twitter is the fastest way to share news and keep updated on the people and things that interest us. It’s short, 140 characters or less, sweet, and to the point.

Businesses are taking advantage of social media marketing more and more. After all, content marketing includes a good social media marketing strategy. And any form of marketing is all about creation and distribution.

Twitter comes into play on the distribution end.

Over a half a billion people all over the world use Twitter. A content marketing dream to attract and retain customers.

Or not.

Many businesses open up a Twitter account and start tweeting. They start tweeting without a clue to “Twitter-quette” or abbreviated language. They start to see followers, and then …

Suddenly, the follower count goes down.

Leaving the tweeters scratching their heads and wondering why their new friends all left.

They started tweeting without looking up the basics first. Not knowing the Twitter basics leaves you without followers.

So here are some of the rules if you want to get unfollowed fast and sink your social media marketing campaign.

1. Tweet too much. Actually, this takes 1^st place to get you unfollowed fast. If you’ve ever followed a news outlet, you’ll know what too much of a good thing means. Who needs news updates every 30 seconds? It’s OK to the same content frequently over the first 24 hours, but then give it a break. On the flip side, not Tweeting enough will get you unfollowed, too.
2. Tweet only about your own stuff. Plugging your own stuff appears spammy. Synonyms for social are friendly, community, group, and mannerly. So isn’t it neighborly to retweet someone else’s great tips to speed up an underwater basket weaving project?
3. Don’t brag about your latest and greatest conversationally. If you’ve found a new pliable reed that works really well for your basket and have written about it, by all means share. The trick is to brag about a new product or new content on your website, but don’t do it constantly, day in and day out. This is too much in your face marketing, and the purpose of Twitter is engagement.
4. Be boring. Who will want to read a teaser that comes across like a research paper? Isn’t “look at this new basket reed! What do you think?” much more intriguing and engaging?
5. Wander off topic. If you’re an expert on the subject of underwater basket weaving, don’t tweet about baking cupcakes. You aren’t an expert about baking, and your followers know it.
6. Don’t craft keywords. Keywords about your niche are important, but too much crafting appears like spam.
7. Don’t create hashtags (#) and stay active on them. Hashtags are your keywords that let you categorize your tweets and others to easily find them in a Twitter search.
8. Not responding. Social media is networking, right? If someone tweets you, reciprocate. After all, you want them to know you’re not dead.

So learn your Twitter-quette and go forth and conquer, Houston.

Or not, and get unfollowed on Twitter really fast.