Twitter is a fantastic platform for finding useful information about very specific topics. By searching for certain hashtags you can easily find what you’re after. It’s commonly accepted that people only retweet that which they find to be relevant and of a certain quality. As such Twitter is somewhat of a quality filter. In a previous post, Twitter: Not for Twits, the following is written:

Twitter is a quality filter on a global level. No one retweets badly written, middling articles, and if they do follower numbers will drop dramatically. It will alienate their followers. Twitter is not only a way to share content but is, like all social networking platforms, a reflection of the person behind the profile. You define yourself in 140 characters or less. No one defines himself or herself as tolerable, mildly interesting or if-you-overlook-the-grammar-mistakes-I'm-OK. Everyone wants to look good, and so do businesses.

Contributed Tweets

Many Twitter users make use of contributed tweeting services, like RoundTeam. This means that tweets with certain hashtags are automatically retweeted regardless of what the rest of the tweet includes. This defies the point of Twitter as there is no real engagement from the user. What happens when a hashtag has nothing to do with the actual tweet, i.e. the hashtag is used incorrectly? You’ll be tweeting information that is irrelevant, inaccurate and offers no value to your followers.

Scheduling your tweets is fine because it is simply a tool for ensuring that you have a proper social media presence – without having to stay awake 24/7 to tweet every hour.  Also, you’ve put thought into the tweets and wrote them yourself. Allowing “others to contribute to your Twitter account” means that you’re rehashing information without any approval or consideration.

Imagine a Twitter in which everyone makes use of contributed services. Everyone will have loads of followers but no one will actually be reading anything on the platform, never mind anything that’s linked in tweets. Twitter will only grow because of automated action and everyone will retweet, but to what end? What would be the point of Twitter?

Earn Your Following

Contributed tweets are spammy, unoriginal and boring. I know which of my followers will instantly, without fail, retweet me whenever I use a certain hashtag, and they do - like clockwork. These followers don’t offer me anything; I never read their tweets because I know that everything has been automated and as such hasn't been checked for quality. I can guarantee that by just adding #SMM to this article will ensure it be retweeted by these followers.

Even comments on blog posts are now being automated, not that there’s much point. A recent article posted on our blog has the title How to Place Yourself in the Client’s Shoes. The article received a badly written comment from someone who normally only comments on articles about shoes and fashion. His automation system obviously didn’t work very well in this case as our article, believe it or not, has nothing at all to do with shoes. This is the perfect example of how automated comments and tweets can ruin your reputation.

The concept of earned media is important to mention because today’s customer wants quality content. They want to see proof of why your company stands out from the rest. Earned media means that you consistently publish quality content and systematically build a following, through blogging and social media.

Many people spend a lot of time on writing and publishing well-written and relevant tweets. Making sure that your Twitter account is regularly and consistently updated is a big job and there’s nothing wrong with making it easier on yourself by using scheduling services. Contributed tweets, however, will make you quickly lose credibility and eventually your quality followers.

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Sound Idea Digital specialises in Social Media. For more information, contact 012 66 44 227 or email to info@soundidea.co.za

Carina Claassens is a Writer for Sound Idea Digital l carina@soundidea.co.za l @soundidea | Sound Idea Digital l www.soundidea.co.za

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