Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

A few years ago, we might’ve said that the quickest way to develop an online premise was to start blogging. One could use a free WordPress or Blogger blog and they’d be up and running within minutes, free of charge. Some might have advocated the creation of a simple static site with a contact page using a template and some cheap hosting.

Today, there’s a new answer and it’s better than the old ones in a lot of ways. It’s Twitter. Twitter, as you undoubtedly know, can be classified as a micro-blogging platform.

It takes about five minutes to set up a free account and you’re up and running. You can quick develop a following of interested parties, it’s easy to promote your Twitter URL and the short-burst style of posting (140 characters or less) makes it ideal for those who don’t have the time, patience or material to be regular bloggers.

If you’re reading this, you don’t need to figure out how to get online fast. You have your answers. The fact of the matter, however, is that many people are going make their first connections via Twitter because it’s so easy. And that, if you think about it, can have some very profound ramifications on the way you market your products or services.

If you want people to see your Tweets on Twitter, you gotta have followers. Obviously, that can drive a person to commit himself or herself to building up the biggest follower base possible as quickly as possible.

One of the most popular techniques to get those followers in place is to start following others. There’s a tendency out there in Twitterland for those who’ve been followed to follow in return. That generous reciprocity can make it easy to build a follower list that will really turn heads.

That’s why following as many people as you can without setting off the “you’re probably a spammer or a bot” alarm is such a popular technique for new Twitter marketers.

There’s a problem with that strategy, though. It doesn’t work very well.

Yes, you get the followers. The problem is that you get a bunch of followers who aren’t really interested in anything you’re saying. They followed out of kindness, ignorance or because they’re not really a human being an they’re programmed to follow when followed.

When it comes time to market to that motley crew, you can guess just how effective it is. It’s like cold-calling the first set of numbers in the phone book or emailing random addresses. It’s not targeted and It doesn’t convert.

You best bet is to focus on building a truly interested and targeted social network. The results will be a lot better than what you get with the “big follow” technique.

Here’s something you should know about the average Twitter user if you’re in the Internet marketing business: The run-of-the-mill member of the Twitter community doesn’t like you very much.

Sorry, but it’s true. And who can blame those folks for feeling that way? They’ve seen their completely legit, commerce-free social networking venue attacked by some of the lousiest spammers in history.

You have the guys with the direct messages featuring affiliate links. You have the robot accounts that work around the clock pounding anyone who was silly enough to follow with link after link after link. You have goons who self-promote to the point of nausea, balancing self-congratulatory Tweets with their sales page links. Ick.

So, unless you’re marketing to other marketers via Twitter, you are going to have to come up with a much better and far more trustworthy approach than the spammers and clowns who’ve already started to poison the pond.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s very possible to do just that. If you’re using Twitter the “right” way, you can overcome a built-in bias against marketers.

There are two ways to approach Twitter from an Internet marketing standpoint.  You can either try to figure out how to really get involved and to parlay that into improved business or you can try to find the shortcuts and secrets that will dump a pile of cash in your lap overnight.

Here’s the scoop.  The people trying for a quick score aren’t making money.

The only way to really use Twitter to your advantage is to use it the “right” way.  You need to be a real user an a legitimate member of your (and others’) social networks.  You need to contribute and you need to interact.  If you’re there looking for a quick buck, everyone will smell you coming from a mile away and they’ll lock down their wallets before you get near.

Let’s say it again to make it clear:  Real users make more money with Twitter.

That’s ugly news for the get-rich-quick crowd, but it’s great news for marketers with enough perspective and understanding to recognize a good thing when it’s staring them in the eyes.

Have you figured out how you can really use Twitter?  Do you understand how that usage can lead to real business improvements?  If you still have questions, you need to learn more about Twitter.  Otherwise, you’re wasting your time.

Twitter marketing is gaining in popularity.  That makes sense.  Twitter is huge, growing and provides a fantastic way of getting in touch with a lot of people quickly and easily.

Not everyone is doing it the right way, however.  In fact, some people seem to be bending over backwards to make sure they don’t make a dime via Twitter.  Here are three of their “methods” that anyone who’s interesting in turning a buck should ignore.

The automatic “thanks for following” message with an affiliate link strategy is a complete disaster.  Those automatic direct messages are one of the most hated aspects of Twitter and only a handful of users will even bother to click on them.

The people who think that following a billion people is the best way to go because it can get them a ton of reciprocal followers just don’t get it.  The magic of Twitter is its ability to help you find a targeted audience.  The scattershot approach doesn’t pay off worth a hoot.

Pounding your followers with your links every ten minutes like clockwork?  I bet you’re not too happy with your sales, are you?   You have to understand the mindset of Twitter users and why that technique can’t get the best results.

Those are just three of the ways people are wasting time and not making money.  There are others.  If you don’t know what works and what fails, you need to learn more about Twitter.