Posts Tagged ‘Many People’

Your Twitter reach is defined, in large measure, by the number of followers you have. That means you want people to seek you out and to follow you whenever they have interests that overlap with your own.

Unfortunately, many people are unwittingly decreasing their follower counts. Here are two ways people are limiting their Twitter effectiveness.

No photo. If you don’t upload a photo, Twitter gives you that default avatar. You know who else ends up with that default avatar? Lousy spammers. Most robot accounts and spamming accounts feature that image because the folks behind them were too lazy to upload a picture. If you don’t have a picture, people will assume the worst about you.

Bad username. If your username is bad, you won’t get as many followers. There are two main instances of bad usernames that I see regularly. First, there are those with the long number sequence in the name. These are also the kind of handles that spammers end up with, so when I see one, I sort of assume that the owner is a spammer. If your handle is Bob199938, be prepared to be unpopular.

The other “bad name” is the one that makes it perfectly clear to the reader that you’re not very serious. This includes the profane usernames an silly ones like “ILuvMyKittyCats”. Get a good username.

Once you have a decent name, add a picture. These two “little things” can make a huge difference.

The critics are having a heyday with Twitter.  If you’re not listening to someone go on and on about how great it is, you’re probably listening to someone who’s making fun of it.

You’ve heard the criticisms.  It’s narcissistic volunteer voyeurism at its worse.  It’s nothing more than gobs of self-important people sharing the mundane details of their not-so-exciting lives.  How can Twitter be the next big thing?  Are there really that many people who care what everyone else is making for supper?

Hey, there’s a lot of truth to the criticisms.  There’s a part of the Twitter community that is droning on and on about the minutiae of every day existence.  It would be a mistake, however, to think that’s what the whole thing is really all about.
We’re talking about millions of users and millions more to come.  People with defined interests creating social networks with one another and communicating together.

If you’re a marketer and you’re laughing at Twitter with the critics, the joke is on you.  Beyond the silliness lies a great deal of potential.  There are few ways to reach as many people so easily with a well-targeted marketing message.

When you’re done laughing, start making some money!