Twitter is gaining steam as one of the more popular social media networks on the web. It’s holding fast at position 3 and I wouldn’t be surprised if it tried to take Facebook in turn 3 on the outside.
The ease of use and how simplistic the service is makes it ideal for marketing by those who have little experience with the web provided they don’t get trapped in the “Hi I’m a car salesman, buy my sh*t” mentality. Twitter gained most of its esteem from the fast, effective way people can let the world know that they just at a sandwich and now they’re picking their toes.
It boggles my mind, but it’s popular and there’s another reason it’s kabooming – it’s unprecedented power for leveraging content marketing in a cost-effective manner.
You really can’t beat free.
The snags that marketers keep running into is with the accumulation of contacts. Many focus too heavily on the actual quantity of followers they have and they pay no heed to the actual quality of those followers.
This coming from the guy who has a few thousands followers right? The difference here is that the followers on my account are all added based on specific keyword searches. I can attest that about 95% of my followers are relevant to the content I share and the rambling I do.
Save for when I talk about my feet or something like that.
When you use broad spectrum methods however and you’re just gaining followers and following people just do it, all you’re doing is wasting time and valuable resources – mainly time because those people generally won’t care about you. It also paints an ugly, negative image about you.
That you’re desperate.
Most of the people you’ll target won’t be interested in anything you’re saying or doing; your content, your products, your services, your company – they don’t care. They shouldn’t, with mass follows of random people you’re just a spammer in a suit. If you don’t think so, start filling inboxes with direct messages about your content and product links and see how people respond.
It’s a good way to get banned from Twitter.
Don’t get me wrong. A long list of followers doesn’t have to come across as something that’s bad. Ideally, you want people following you that are going to be interested in everything you have to say, or at least most of it. There should already be some interest in your company and your products that will be built up by the content you offer. This way, when you do start sharing that content it’s more likely to be passed around among your followers
Imagine if you had a few thousand followers but you only connected with about 2-4% of them. The conversion rates and info sharing would like be pretty pitiful. You might as well buy email lists that aren’t relevant either since you’re already talking to people who don’t care.
Your efforts need to be effective – that’s what business is all about. You want to get something back for the work you’re putting in.
If all you’re doing is piling on followers, then you’re just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Too many marketers are taking this approach and its costing them a lot with their clients, with their products and with their bottom line.
In order to connect and engage followers, you have to know them and you have to provide some obvious value. You just can’t do that with random people and marketing without engagement if a good way to send your entire business right down the toilet.
Practical reference.
To Your Success,
Joerg Weishaupt
P.s. Get more information on social media and marketing in my free primer "Building A Successful Marketing Strategy". Sign up for your free copy today.
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Joerg Weishaupt is a 48 year old entrepreneur, software architect, search engine optimization and social media expert. Joerg has been building a lot of profitable Internet businesses since he put his first website online in 1995. He is also one of the founders and partners of Social Media Science LLC, where he launched a content syndication network called SYNND.
Joerg resides in a small, quiet community about 100 miles outside of Munich, Germany. If you ever seek to find him, look for where the cows gather.
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