Social media has become an integral part of daily life, but some business owners are still not using this marketing channel to its full potential.  Posting inconsistently, sharing too many promotional messages and allowing accounts to become inactive can hurt your results.

The hashtag frenzy continues with no sign of abatement, from the mom posting those adorable pictures of the kids, to the millennial sharing every second and aspect of his or her daily life, to the small or large business trying to connect with new or existing audiences.

We all have our own pet peeves when it comes to Twitter. And they’re usually pretty subjective: after all, someone’s annoying Twitter spam is another person’s hashtag chat!

This week at AllTwitter HQ we sat down (well, more like we started an email chain) and vented about what really irks us when it comes to what people write in their Twitter bios. And here’s the result: a master list of 25 things you absolutely should never, ever include in your 160-character-or-less bio.

Now, the items on this list are what annoy us – they might be perfectly acceptable to a large portion of the Twitter population, and we’re just bitter! But we don’t think so, because they really do annoy us.

Without further ado, the 25 worst things you can include in your Twitter bio (in no particular order of annoying-ness):

1. The phrase “social media guru/social media maven/social media ninja” or similar, which, in most cases, shows that you don’t really know what you’re talking about
2. An over-the-top sales pitch
3. Cutesy emoticon strings (unless you’re a pre-teen): ~*~*~*~ or ^-^-^-^
4. “#TeamFollowback”. Ugh.
5. Calling yourself an “anything” junkie. You know: a tech junkie, fitness junkie, movie junkie…
6. Likewise, but replace “junkie” with “buff”, “aficionado”, “geek” or any one of a dozen worn words that just means you like something. We get it. You like coffee. Big deal. What does that tell us about how you’re using Twitter?
7. A #list of #words you #think #deserve to be #hashtagged. #TheyDont
8. Inside jokes that fewer than 1% of your followers will understand
9. Spelling mistakes
10. Grammar mistakes
11. Punctuation mistakes
12. Anything that’s cliché (OK, this one might be hard to avoid, but just try to be original, please!)
13. Writing that you have a “kooky sense of humor” or pointing out that you’re funny at all. If you have to tell us you’re funny, you’re not.
14. Dishonesty. Seriously, you’re gonna lie about yourself in 160 characters?
15. Writing “thoughts are my own”, thinking that these four words actually protect you or your company from damage
16. Curse words (unless that’s who you #*$&in’ are!)
17. The words “please”, “follow” and “me” together. Even though you’re being polite, asking for followers is a turn-off.
18. A “laundry list” of things you like, things you find interesting, or just, well, things
19. keyword-stuffing
20. Ambiguous and semi-motivational descriptors like “We work to inspire and we inspire good work” – can you be more vague?
21. Calling yourself a foodie
22. Excessively quoting someone else. Come on, we want to hear from you in your bio!
23. Thinking that some part of your bio IS SO IMPORTANT THAT IT DESERVES TO BE CAPS LOCKED
24. Referring to an accomplishment from two years ago. Have you really done nothing since?
25. Using “resume-speak” and resorting to a deadly dull, predicable and safe description of yourself – honestly, make any other mistake on this list, but not this one!

What do you think? Do you have any Twitter bio “do nots” to add to this list?
 

(Courtesy of SocialTimes)

Image source: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/social.media_.jpg

I often hear from clients "I don't do social networks" or "I don't get that social stuff - everyone is obsessed with it". Five years ago, that probably would have been fine. However, if you have a business today, it's almost imperitive.

It's precisely because everyone is so connected to their devices and their social networks that you need to jump in and join the mix. "Viral" is a good thing for spreading the word - and that's just what you want.

More than seven in 10 employed people are now active social networkers as social networking has become the number one use of the internet.  Overall, we know that 94% of people use social networking to learn, 78% to share knowledge and 49% to access needed expertise.  We are witnessing the emergence of the “human face” of data and the unprecedented creation and sharing of knowledge.

Imagine how one item you share on social media can be spread to hundreds or thousands of faces in a matter of hours. Remember, sharing goes outside your own network of customers or followers and has the potential to be shared with all of the networks of those people.

Some of the simple benefits of using Social Media include:

Provide great customer service

• Connect with customers directly
• Update clients and suppliers with news about your business or products
• Encourage feedback
• Respond to feedback
• Keep an eye on the competition
• Hear and monitor what your customers want

Boost your business marketing efforts

• An easy way to learn about your audience through built in demographic data
• Increase website traffic and search ranking
• Helps generate leads for a third of the cost
• Increase brand awareness and image with no budget

It doesn't have to be hard... or expensive.

You can set up your social networks to update automatically when you update just one source (like your website) with software and scripting. You can also take a bit of training from your marketing manager or webmaster then do it yourself. You can also pay a maketing expert, copywriter or someone in your company to keep your social networks up to date.

Now remember, there is no such thing as effective social media marketing without content. As we've said for years, "Content is King". It's great content that gets people to share, and that sharing widens your audience to world of potential customers, fans and friends.

Whether you're a large corporation or a small business entrepreneur, social media marketing can be the most inexpensive and powerful marketing tool in your arsenal to build the trust and authority that helps exponentially grow your business.

Learn more about marketing strategies and social media marketing online at our website, dotLaunch.com.

Oh... and don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.