Twitter’s new ‘mute’ function has been launched and will be rolled out to all users soon. Like being able to remove an annoying Facebook ‘friend’ from your newsfeed without actually publicly ‘unfriending’ them, Twitter users can now subtly ignore you whilst parading as a loyal follower. How rude!
Here are three sure fire ways for brands to get ‘muted’ on Twitter:
1. Try to ‘buy’ followers
Competitions and ‘follow-back’ promises are a great way to build an army of 1000s followers – who can now claim their ‘winnings’ and then switch you off. Oh no, what will you do without all of these highly engaged, genuine potential customers who previously hung on your every word?! Let’s face it, this kind of bad practice was always about ‘collecting’ pointless numbers and didn’t give you any outcomes for your business anyway. Even if you pull in new followers with an initial offer and then start sharing really useful, engaging content on an ongoing basis, the chances are they’ll no longer see it having already ‘muted’ you.
2. Spam your followers’ newsfeeds
It can be very difficult to stand out amongst the 200 million tweets that are posted every day. Even your most engaged fans aren’t going to see everything you publish so it makes sense to share particularly useful content in various different forms more than once (perhaps at different times of the day/week and using different keywords). However, being constantly in someone’s newsfeed is only the way to get noticed for all the wrong reasons. The first people/brands to be ‘muted’ using the new function will be those that just won’t shut up! Unless you’re an A List celebrity, nobody wants to know your every move – and they certainly don’t need to be told the same thing 100 times.
3. Ignore the agenda
The best way to show that you’re only interested in broadcasting and not engaging on Twitter? Don’t listen! Don’t keep on top of what’s trending in your sector or what’s in the news that your customers need to be updated on or what your stakeholders are talking about. Be sure to get ‘muted’ if you’re firing out sales messages, oblivious to a huge breaking story that everyone around you is deep in conversation about.
So, like Facebook, Twitter is making it harder for you to reach your audiences without paying to get in front of them through sponsored posts. How dare they?! Brands should see this as an opportunity and not a threat. If you can’t get through to the few people you really want to talk to, it’s likely to be because your content is rubbish. Your mission, should you choose to accept it (and you’ll be seriously wasting your time if you don’t), is to stop chasing the big numbers and start focusing on having meaningful conversations with your ‘VIPs’. If you go the extra mile to engage them, they’ll do the job of spreading the word for you!
Here’s Peer Index’s tips for getting muted vs getting tweeted:
