As someone who spends a fair amount of time using Twitter to search for jewelry designers and retailers, I’ve read hundreds of feeds and have seen many approaches to using Twitter for business.

You might feel confused by Twitter, and maybe you’re not sure how to plan a Twitter social media strategy. In this post, I’m going to share three mistakes that jewelry designers and retailers make on Twitter, why these mistakes can sabotage a social media marketing strategy, and how you can avoid making these same mistakes.

In order to use Twitter effectively, you do need to spend time with it daily: about 30 minutes. As someone who manages more than one Twitter account, I try to make posting and interacting fun, and I do it during down time, like when I’m riding my indoor exercise bike!

Your ultimate goal during those 30 minutes is to post interesting content that captures your brand’s voice and to interact and engage with other Twitter users. Few rules exist (you have license to be fully creative), but you should avoid the following Twitter mistakes:

1. Inconsistent posting schedule: Personally, I avoid following Twitter accounts that haven’t posted in more than a week, and I definitely won’t follow an account that hasn’t posted for a month or more. Why would I waste a follow on someone who doesn’t seem to enjoy participating? Furthermore, I can’t expect that account to follow me back if the person managing the account is hardly ever viewing the timeline.

I use the phrase “posting schedule” because it does help to maintain some sort of schedule, especially when you’re maintaining an account for business. By visiting Twitter at the same time each day, you’ll get in the habit of looking at your feed and engaging with other accounts. You should also try to stagger your postings (you can schedule tweets with a service like Hootsuite) so that you remain visible in your followers’ timelines.

2. Keeping to yourself: Too often I see Twitter accounts that simply tweet links to articles, product photos and promos, or information about the brand. However, the accounts never interact with any other user, and the person managing the account never retweets other posted content.

I tend to avoid following accounts that keep to themselves because I can be fairly certain that they will never interact with me. And that’s no fun! I want to meet and connect with people on Twitter, and you should want that too.

3. Using Twitter exclusively as a reposting service for your other social media accounts: Many social media account managers link other accounts – like Instagram and Facebook – so that the media they post on those platforms automatically posts to Twitter. In general, cross-posting media is a positive action that can encourage you followers from one social media platform to follow you on another social media platform.

However, too often I notice that one account’s feed is simply a reposting of Instagram photos. I definitely won’t follow accounts with feeds made exclusively of Instagram and Facebook reposts because I can be very certain that the account manager isn’t even checking the brand’s Twitter account. As a result, he or she is not interacting with anyone.

Have you been guilty of any of the above Twitter mistakes in your jewelry marketing campaign? Have you seen any other brands committing terrible Twitter mistakes?