How to Lost Twitter Followers

Contrary to popular belief, gaining real followers on Twitter is not really the hardest part. The challenge is keeping your followers interested, which means you should avoid:

• Tweeting too much.

At some point, you’ve asked “how often should I tweet” and that was a mistake.
It’s not about quantity, or frequency. It’s about knowing what to say and when to say it.

• Promoting too much.

You might think that you’re using Twitter to promote your products/services no matter what it takes, but really you should be promoting your brand. That means you might want to let off a little on the “special offer” tweets or “look-I-published-a-new-blog”. Those are good things to tweet about, but should only be a small fraction of how you use Twitter.
Instead, focus more on the topics that your audience truly cares about. They aren’t staying up at night waiting for your next coupon… so start or participate a conversation that matters.

• Spam.

Very few people like the canned meat-like substance. Even fewer people like spam in their inbox or newsfeed.

• Automation.

If you are using third party applications to manage multiple social media accounts, then you really don’t get the point of social marketing. One sided conversations serve absolutely no purpose.

• Being boring.

Let’s be honest. People don’t go on Twitter to be marketed to, they look for entertainment. Humor is almost always the best approach to going viral, but the worst thing you can do is fall into a pattern where you’re just too predictable.

• Setting followers up for disappointment.

Sometimes you have to look at what followers expected when they first committed to following you. It may have been a promotion or a promise, which is always going to be hit or miss. The best way to get loyal followers is to be honest about what to expect from your brand on Twitter.