11 BIG TWITTER MISTAKES YOU MIGHT BE MAKING (+ HOW TO FIX THEM)

What’s the one thing we all want to do on Twitter? That’s right...grow our community and engagement.

Twitter is my favourite social media platform out there for lots of different reasons. It’s one one of the best ways that bloggers and entrepreneurs can market themselves - without a lot of extra money and effort.

Obviously Twitter’s unique proposition is that you have a limited character count of 140, which is actually increasing to 280. But that still means you have to think carefully about each tweet.

You’ve got the power to make the structure of your tweet the best it can be, by doing things like adding hashtags. These are great for grouping tweets together around the same topic (e.g. #BlogTip or #MondayMotivation).

You can also retweet people, take part in Twitter chats and follow as many people as you want. All of these are really great ways to grow your following on Twitter.

But what if no one is hitting the follow button?

If you’ve got a bit of a following on Twitter already, then I’m guessing you’ve implemented some social media strategies. Maybe even some you’ve read on this blog.

You’ve taken notes from other bloggers, business owners and influencers that you admire. You retweet other content quite regularly and you even tweet a few times throughout the day yourself.

But when you look at your profile, you’re a bit concerned. You either a), think your follower count and engagement should be way higher for the effort you’re putting in. Or b), you can see the number of followers you have is a lot lower than those whom you are following

You start to question yourself. But surely I’m doing all the right things?

Possibly. So what could be the problem? Here are 11 of the biggest mistakes that you might be making on Twitter - and how to fix them.

#1 | YOU’RE NOT POSTING AT OPTIMAL TIMES

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked about this on my blog.

The main purpose of your tweets is to get as many eyes on them as possible, so people will click and engage. This relies really heavily on the time you post your tweets.

No blogger or business owner ever saw success by guessing their way through the game. They implemented, analysed and adapted.

How to fix it: Follow this tutorial and find out when your Twitter followers are most active online. Then start scheduling tweets out at those optimal times.

#2 | YOU’RE NOT USING HASHTAGS

Or, you’re using way too many hashtags in your tweets. Either way, this isn’t going to be a surefire way of getting you results.

When it comes to hashtags on Twitter you want to be using them, but no more than two per tweet. It’s even better if you can one of them into your tweet, rather than just adding them on the end, like this:

How to fix it: Hashtags increase the visibility of your tweets on Twitter. Start trying to use two per tweet whenever you can.

#3 | YOUR PROFILE ISN’T FILLED OUT

If you’ve still got an egg as a profile picture, you need to go and change that right now.

I’m serious.

As an active Twitter user, you should be responsible for making sure your profile is completely filled out and branded too. Use your brand colours and include your logo or headshot. A complete profile can go a really long way.

How to fix it: Go and look over your profile to make sure everything is filled in. If not, complete it!

#4 | YOUR TWEETS ARE TOO LONG

Bet you’re wondering how that’s possible with a character limit, right?

Twitter is designed for people on-the-go. It’s all about accessing bite-sized information. If tweets are too long, people will skip past them. That’s just how it is.

At the moment, tweets that are 103 characters long have the best performance, but we’ll see what happens when the new 280 character limit is rolled out to everyone. According to Social Media Examiner, shorter tweets get 17% more engagement, so this is what to aim for.

How to fix it: Start paying more attention to how many characters your tweets are. Shorter tweets definitely allow for more conversation.

#5 | YOU DON’T ASK FOR RETWEETS

It’s surprising how few people ask for retweets from their followers. You’re essentially just asking for support, so there’s no reason to be shy about it!

Asking for retweets is a huge opportunity that a lot of bloggers and business owners miss out on. Why? Well, if you ask for retweets, reports have shown that this results in 12+ the amount of retweets. And if you use the abbreviation RT, make that 23 times more. Just be careful you’re not doing it too much.

How to fix it: Start asking for retweets when you put out a new blog post or publish a new video. Make sure you give more retweets than you receive.

#6 | YOU TWEET TOO MUCH

No one likes to lose followers, especially when we’re all working towards similar goals! The more you tweet, the more followers you’re likely to get. But tweet too much and you’ll start to put people off.

A good balance for increasing your visibility is between 10-15 times a day,

How to fix it: Review how frequently you tweet each day and see if you need to increase it. On the other hand, you might not be tweeting enough, so take this into account too.

#7 | YOU FOLLOW EVERYBODY

Yep, you read that right. Following everyone and their best friend is not a guaranteed way to increase your own following.

Just like with your blog, you also want to make sure that your social media platforms have a target audience, as this will help you leverage your visibility.

When people follow you, take a good look at their profile before you decide to follow them back. Use Twitter’s sidebar for recommendations on how to follow based on your industry. It’s important to make sure you’re following the right people.

How to fix it: Follow with a strategy in mind. Take a look at the content they share, along with the balance between the followers and following numbers before you make a decision.

#8 | YOUR TWEETS AREN’T ENGAGING ENOUGH

While it’s important to make sure you’re tweeting at optimal times to get your content seen by as many people as possible, you’ve also got to make sure that your tweets are of a high quality.

The actual content of your tweet is what’s going to increase your engagement. Think short, catchy and relatable. By tweeting high quality content, you’re going to get much more attention which will definitely get you more followers.

How to fix it: Each time you’re putting a tweet together, think about how you would react if you saw that tweet in your feed. Try different ways of formatting your tweet such as asking a question, or including a call to action.

#9 | YOU DON’T INTERACT WITH YOUR FOLLOWERS

Interaction is the one thing that’s going to really determine the success of your Twitter profile.

Getting more followers in just about the content of your tweets or the frequency of them. People will want to see how you engage with your followers too.

How to fix it: Pay attention to what people in your target audience are talking about on Twitter and create tweets and other content around those conversations. That way, you’re interacting with your followers using terms that they use.

#10 | YOU INCLUDE BAD LINKS TO YOUR POSTS

If you click on a link and it doesn’t work, it’s not great is it?

Having errors within your tweets, including links, means followers will start to lose interest in your page. And that’s what you definitely don’t want!

When you market yourself on any social platform, it shouldn’t be with the aim of getting new followers. It’s about creating and sharing content that has both quality and credibility.

How to fix it: Instead of just worrying about your follower count, concentrate more on the actual content you’re publishing and sharing to your Twitter feed.

#11 | YOU DON’T USE IMAGES WITH YOUR TWEETS

Oh boy.

I know Twitter isn’t necessarily a visually driven platform. But images are still important. Tweets that include images have 150% more chance of being shared. Just by adding an image, graphic or video.

Need I say more?

You can find out how I create graphics for Twitter here.

Your marketing strategies should differ for each social platform, because each one has unique features and advantages. One thing is for sure - along with working through the tips listed above, be sure to measure your efforts so you know what’s working and how you need to improve.


Has this helped you decide how to move forward with Twitter? Go ahead and if you resolve these issues, you might see the success with your Twitter account that you’ve always wanted!

Everyday Blogging TipsHolly Suttonsocial media, twitter tipsComment