3 reasons why you shouldn’t be using Twitter

Written by Karen Skidmore on - 12 Comments
Categories: Marketing Small Business, Social Media

Twitter isn’t right for everyone. I know – shock horror!! But it’s true.

There has been so much hype about Twitter over the past year that it can be easy to get sucked in to and feel that everyone is on Twitter already and you should be doing it too.

I was speaking at the 1230 AOB conference yesterday in Bromley to a group of ladies about Twitter. In the morning Claire Young from The Apprentice gave a very interesting talk about her career and the journey that made her a TV star. It was great that she referred to Twitter – but I had to cringe as she stood there in front of the audience to tell everyone that Twitter was to become THE most important marketing tool within the next 2 years and as she made £10,000 of business from it in the last 2 months, everyone should be tweeting too.

These are dangerous words and I worry that for every hype story like this, there are a dozen or more so being banded around.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Twitter. As many of you who read my blog may know, I use Twitter in my own business and help many clients integrate it in to their marketing and business plans too.

But to be telling everyone that they should be on Twitter is not something I recommend, and especially to an audience of self-employed professionals and small business owners. And these are reasons why.

Don’t use Twitter if:

1. You are a Magpie. A magpie is notorious for swooping down and collecting sparkly, shining objects and taking them back to their nests. And many business owners act like magpies too. They see a new sparkly toy (Twitter!), swoop in and spend the next few days and weeks playing around with it. It’s easy to start wasting time, but also to forget to spend time with the stuff that actually works already, such as networking, sending out their next email newsletter or making those follow up calls. So not only does Twitter distract them until the next new sparkly toy turns up, the stuff that used to work for them, stops working for them.

2. You don’t know your target client. Like any marketing and business tool, if you are not totally clear on exactly who your target client is, don’t go near Twitter. Using Twitter without understanding your target clients will be like throwing mud at a wall to see what sticks. Start with your clients first before deciding whether Twitter is a tool for you.

3. You hate being “you”. If your website is very “corporate” and talks about your business in terms of the “royal we” without any photo or mention of you – the business owner behind the business – then Twitter is going to be a hard slog for you. Twitter works best when your Twitter profile is humanised. For example, the avatar is a picture of the person behind the tweets, rather than a logo (or even worse, a clip art image!). The tweets are mixed in with real-life comments, rather than a series of bot-like tips & article links. And there is conversation in the form of @replies, rather than a series of scheduled adverts.

So be careful of falling for the Twitter hype. Twitter can be a very powerful business tool, but like any other marketing or business tool, it has to be right you, your business model and, more importantly, your clients.

What are your thoughts on using Twitter? And where would you recommend starts if they plan to start using Twitter?

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12 Responses to “3 reasons why you shouldn’t be using Twitter”

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@smartamatt

March 18, 2010 at 8:09 am

I’m not sure any of the points you raise, while valid, are reasons not to use Twitter just solid advice on how to use it.

I agree with Claire Young, I honestly believe Twitter can benefit ALL small businesses providing they embrace it correctly and work within their resources.

[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Thanks for stopping by and appreciate your thoughts. I am a huge advocate of Twitter but I don’t believe it can benefit ALL small businesses.

One of the challenges of running a small business is not being able to do everything, all of the time. You just don’t have the resources (time, money, people) to be able to embrace every marketing and business tool – it just isn’t realistic. And to be honest, marketing is far more effective when a few select activities are done well, all of the time.

It’s like giving the advice that public speaking is THE most effective way of promoting yourself. There is no doubt that it can reap huge rewards, but not every business owner is kitted out to public speak. And when done badly, it can back-fire big time. I believe it’s the same with Twitter.

Done well, it’s an excellent tool. Done badly and it can damage your brand and reputation. Oh and damage your sanity, too!!

[Reply]
Ian Harm

March 18, 2010 at 8:25 am

I know exactly where you are coming from. The type of work I do I don’t feel it appropriate to discuss on twitter or any other social media. I see other investigators tweeting their every move during an investigation and feel it is really inappropriate as our work promises confidentiality to clients. I am therefore reduced sometimes to tweeting article links, retweeting other people’s interesting tweets and engaging in personal interaction about anything other than investigations work. Oh yes and the occasional promotion of my business with links to my blog or web site.

[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 9:47 am
How interesting that there are private investigators out there tweeting their every move! I agree – it does feel very inappropriate. And daft – what if the person they were tracking where following them LOL

Although, to use Twitter as a way of explaining what you do could be useful. I suppose it’s how much specific information you give away, isn’t it.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, Ian. Much appreciated.

[Reply]
Majella Wilkins

March 18, 2010 at 10:00 am

Thanks Karen for the non hype view on Twitter.
Because it is a free marketing tool with considerable excitement about how Twitter can extend your marketing reach beyond some of the traditional marketing approaches, it is easy to get sucked in.
To engage with your customers effectively you need to be clear who is your target audience first and then what is the best way of communicating with them.

[Reply]
Zoe Godfrey

March 18, 2010 at 1:54 pm

Thank you Karen!
As with any “new toy” unless you learn how to use it effectively and properly, it will remain “just” a toy!

[Reply]
Paul Bridgland

March 23, 2010 at 8:55 am

Hi Karen – I think the three points you raise are very valid and quite correct but I don’t agree with your overall summary that Twitter isn’t for everyone – in fact I believe it is, but the points you raise emphasise the fact that everyone who uses it needs to use it in the right way – I do agree with the speaker that is probably is the most important marketing tool to come along and that everyone even if they have to drag themselves kicking and screaming should learn to embrace it and use it properly.

[Reply]
Lynette Allen

March 23, 2010 at 11:26 am

Interesting blog Karen…like any of these things, when used in the right business, at the right time, they all have their benefits but no-one should believe all the hype and stop using other forms of publicity.

[Reply]
Graham Jones

April 5, 2011 at 12:56 pm

Great blog post, as always, Karen. I think your third point on “being yourself” is the most significant. But as I point out on my own blog today – http://bit.ly/i1gOym – being yourself is fundamental to credibility. The real issue I feel that Twitter exposes is that for the past 30 years or so, large swathes of the business world have gone “corporate” removing personality from business. That has probably been the biggest single economic set-back of all time. The problem is, it makes small business owners believe “corporate” is the right thing because it is associated with so-called success. What Twitter is exposing is that the corporates who are returning to personality business are the ones truly succeeding. So, rather than the “royal we” website owners being told not to use Twitter, perhaps they need encouraging into being more personal on their own websites, which means then they could then embrace Twitter and profit from it.

[Reply]
Neil Fletcher

April 5, 2011 at 1:24 pm

Karen, given I came to this article via a re-tweet, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to find! Great piece, very well balanced view.

I disagree with Graham Jones (which is unusual for me!) in that I think the second ‘don’t’ is the most important. Twitter is very powerful IF your target market is using it routinely. If they aren’t you’re just wasting your time. There’s a very common saying I see a lot with regard to selling “fish where the fish are.” I think this applies equally as well to any and all marketing!

[Reply]
Graham Jones Reply:
April 5th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Sorry you disagree with me Neil – but, of course, it is allowed…!! The way I look at it, though, is that even though the second point Karen makes is, I agree, very important, it doesn’t, for me have quite the same significance as the third one. Even if your customers are not on Twitter, they use Google, and that uses Twitter. Even if you customers are not on Twitter, they use Facebook – and that uses Twitter. It is the searches and activities that your customers and potential customers do on other networks which will deliver the relevant and appropriate Tweets to them. I have another saying similar to your fish one – if you want to get run over by the traffic go and stand in the middle of the road…! Focusing your online activity in the right place is still required, I admit. But your customers may not use Twitter, but their contacts do and can deliver your Tweets to them via their own websites, or via their Facebook updates etc.

[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
April 5th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Thank you to you both, Neil and Graham, for bringing your viewpoints to this blog article. Much appreciated!

[Reply]