As a blogger and creative, you really shouldn't be afraid of mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn and grow within your blog and business. However, there are some mistakes you should try to avoid if you really want to stand out from the crowd and grow your audience. As one of the power players in the social media game, Twitter can have a great impact on your success as a blogger, so make sure you avoid these 5 common mistakes:
Mistake #1: You tweet too often
The biggest mistake is to overdo with the frequency of tweets. And here the best-accepted practice is to make three tweets a day. Let’s view this chart based on 2013 Social Bakers study and provided us by Buffer.
If you look at the average engagement rate presented in a purple line, you can see the highest rate is taken by one tweet per day. So when we talk about the tweets frequency, “the more the better” approach can’t be applied to Twitter or other social media channels. It can be explained by the fact that too much information from one brand, in our case a fashion blog, is perceived like intrusive. It’s the same as spamming your readers with different info and hoping you’ll be somehow remembered in the variety of daily news. Hence, the rarity of content gives more benefits than overindulgence with tweets per day.
Mistake #2: You do not respond on time
Sure, that’s the most frequent mistake most bloggers make because they keep an eye on their blog posts more often and thus, miss some comments to their tweets. As a result, a reader feels ignored and unnoticed. Honestly, would you return to the blog which ignored you once? I suppose you’d choose an alternative fashion blog because there are so many of them out there. So, if you actually want to drive more audience to your blog, you should always follow your tweets and respond as often as it’s possible. And please do not justify yourself with working during business hours because it can make your readers even more irritated like this customer in British Airways Twitter.
Mistake #3: You do not use Visual Voice
Why don’t you use this amazing tool which allows you to cross the line of 140 characters per tweet? You can express the same idea using visual aids and get the response from your audience faster. The Visual Voice should be in the first place by the quality and its sense. Sure, finding a perfect picture with the high quality that also fits your message takes too much time. That is why a fashion blogger should have a flair for photography and know all the must haves for better fashion photos. Nothing impresses in Twitter than juicy pictures with unique author’s style.
However, be aware not to get carried away with the photo’s originality. Because I know some photo lovers who forget about the main rule in the content marketing – a picture should always match, add or interpret your message expressed in a short sentence. It must also evoke some emotions or afterthoughts to create a perfect visual voice of your blog. Here’s a good example of an engaging visualization taken from @ManRepeller.
This picture has too many colors not to stop your gaze on it. Plus you can see very different emotions – the boy’s serious and focused look and a childish laughing image of a pregnant woman. It touches our hearts with openness and sincerity. I think it’s the perfect example to demonstrate how powerful such a Visual Voice message can be.
Mistake #4: Too much promotional information
When I develop a weekly content plan within our project’s marketing strategy, I include only 3 promotional tweets for the whole week. This way I engage a reader with more targeted information and do not irritate the audience with the direct selling of a brand. Of course, you should promote your blog and drive more traffic to it including your blog’s name but if you talk about the uniqueness of your blog in the first place, you’ll receive less engagement. Besides, you should always regard the fact that most likely your TA is Gen Y or Gen Z readers who obtain natural detectors of intrusive marketing.
Mistake #5: You do not use Periscope
A live streaming app Periscope is the best thing for fashion weeks you may attend. Promoting your brand on Twitter with such an app is also called “native advertising”. It allows you to get rid of old persuasive methods such as “It’s the most amazing of the most amazing ones”. With a Periscope app, you’ll promote your blog naturally via tags and interesting information for your readers.
The popularity of live streaming is growing so fast that you can’t just ignore this fact being a fashion blogger. So, it’s a must for you to study Periscope and its benefits such as an instant connection to your readership, Q&A sessions in 2 simple steps, tagging a particular brand, instantly promoting any live event using some specially utilized hashtags. Thus, with the help of Periscope, you’ll be able to promote your fashion blog not leaving Twitter. You can also share some suggestions and experiences with your readers from any runway shows you attend. And what’s more important, Periscope allows you to connect to bigger audiences since anyone can join the livestream and participate in the discussion.