When I started my business over a year ago, I built it on Twitter. I’ve yet to spend more than $40 on advertising (and that $40 was for business cards that did diddly squat) and my practice is booming. When the company was in its infancy, I spent a lot of time different tactics for Twitter – especially since that was my first exposure to the micro-blog platform. The one thing I didn’t try – because quite honestly, I didn’t even consider it a strategy – was to follow a top-rated internet marketer.
Seriously.
Late last night, I tracked down Jeff Walker’s twitter account and followed him. I was (and still am) being flooded with new Twitter followers. In the short time it’s taken me to write the first paragraph and a half of this post, I’ve added another 17 Twitter followers to my account. I’m going to have to turn off the notifications of followers because my client email is getting pushed too far down my screen. If you’re wondering how many followers I’ve added since last night, the number is 130-ish. I really don’t know the exact number anymore because they just. aren’t. stopping.
Before you go off to follow Jeff Walker so you too can have a massive following, READ THIS.
There are a few types of people that follow Jeff, but I’m going to put everyone into two pots for simplicity sake: people that want to learn something and marketers that want to hit everyone with everything they have in the hopes that someone will buy what they’re peddling. If you’re following Jeff, and you don’t fit into those two very broad pots, feel free to leave a comment and let us know what led to your decision.
I live in the first pot. I have a client that wants to do some product launches a la Jeff Walker style. The majority (if not all) of my 130-ish new followers live in that second pot. Now before you go biting my head off about the wide brush I’m painting everyone with, let me give you a few examples. (and if you’re one of my two examples, and you’re reading this, know that I’m saying this with all the love in my heart)
My very first new friend was Raymond. Raymond is following 4,233 people and has 4,990 followers but only 27 tweets since early January. Those tweets though are a pretty good mix of conversation and promotion of his site.
My latest friend was Bob. Bob is following 7302 people and has 6922 followers but like Raymond, has only 45 tweets since late January. The major difference between Bob and Raymond is that Bob’s tweets are all marketing.
I get it. And probably more than most people since my business was initially built on Twitter. It’s a POWERFUL tool.
Why am I not jumping up and down at my now close to 200 new followers? Because it’s quantity over quality. The only benefit that I have from my new found stardom is that it inspired this post which is going to lead to some great exposure. The good news for you is that I’m about to give you some solid strategies that you can implement in your own social media platform.
10 STRATEGIES YOU WANT TO FOLLOW
1. Tweets are just a means to an end. Your goal with Twitter – or any social media really – is to create some type of relationship that will eventually end with you (or your company) having some type of benefit. That benefit is usually money. It’s about brand extension, not racking up a ton of people who don’t give a crap what you’re saying.
2. Don’t search out all your current friends on Twitter when you first sign up. There’s a step in the Twitter sign up procedure that allows you to find anyone who’s currently in your contact book so you can find them on Twitter. Don’t do it. At least not yet. There are a lot of steps that need to happen first – like getting your picture and bio set up. Getting your background in place (and yes, a background is more than just something to make your page look pretty). And getting some damn freaking tweets.
There were some new followers that had thousands of followers, yet only had 3 tweets. That screams spam. or the evil marketer.
3. Think about changing your bio to match what you’re trying to promote. Let’s tweak one of my old bio’s so you know what I mean.
Current Bio: I’m a Biz owner + Mom who provides a light at the end of the tunnel for busy entrepreneurs. Animal loving, true love believing, optimistic Virtual Assistant.
Updated Bio: I’m a Biz owner + Mom who provides a light at the end of the tunnel for busy entrepreneurs. Currently penning e-guide on how to launch an e-product.
Or down the road : I’m a Biz owner + Mom who provides a light at the end of the tunnel for busy entrepreneurs who’s in the midst of launching ‘name of my book’.
4. Use the ability to create a customized background wisely. Since you can only promote one website in your profile, use your background to list the other websites you want to promote or other social media platforms you use.
5. Create and send out content that is interesting. Useful. A bunch of links is not useful nor fun. A bunch of links to your affiliate page is not interesting.
6. Use keywords to search people who are interested in what you’ve got. PS: this is not the same as what’s happening above. While I’m interested in internet marketing and what Jeff Walker is thinking, my new band of followers are (from my past experience) only going to try to sell me. They aren’t going to interact with me. Or give me new information. If you can provide a fun, interesting, and all around useful stream of content that will get an expert to stop and look at you, you’re golden.
7. Stop taking and give back. Try this little experiment for a week or two. Stop selling anything on Twitter. Just talk. Retweet worthy content. Send useful links to information someone is looking for. Give away some of your knowledge.
8. Use Twitter to spread news from your blog. This is a really good way to get people to see what kind of great information you provide. Once there, you have a world of opportunity to show your style, peddle your goodies, and create a place for yourself in your new visitors mind and wallet. While we’re on the topic of blogs, make sure people that already love your blog can find you on Twitter. Mass of followers on blog = mass of followers on Twitter.
9. Ask questions. People really love being useful and it’s a good way to spark some conversation and interaction within your stream.
1 STRATEGY YOU DON’T WANT TO FOLLOW
1. Don’t be a Dick. Don’t follow a bunch of people in the hopes they’ll follow you just so you can send out a bunch of mindless marketing tweets. I must say, that this is one of the easiest ways to get a mass of followers but easy doesn’t necessarily mean best – or even marginally better.
Will the Dick’s of the world make sales? Sure. Since there are plenty of Dicks in the world, some people will buy what you’re selling, but if you want something to be long term start making real connections.
PS – while this post was written a number of years ago, I just checked out my old friends Bob and Raymond. Neither of them have posted anything on their Twitter account since the beginning of 2012. It’s safe to say that they didn’t make it big.