Twitter can be a great help with your online marketing, but only if you use it right. Before we talk about how to use Twitter to its greatest effect, let’s talk about what Twitter is not.
Twitter is not…
- A traffic slot-machine.
- A place for spam.
- Useful at all if you don’t understand it.
Some people seem to think that Twitter is some magical solution to marketing, making it easier than ever to get their message in front of thousands of rabid, ready-to-buy viewers. To this group, all that counts is how many followers you have…the more, the better!…and then you send them affiliate link after product launch after upsell offer until you’re stuffing your mattress with hundred dollar bills.
None of that means a thing if you want to actually help your marketing efforts with Twitter.
Don’t approach Twitter as a confusing, hard-to-understand method to connect with your audience. Think of it as Autoresponder 2.0.
If you’ve been around online marketing for very long at all, you’ve already heard “The money’s in the list” a million times; that’s because it’s a fact. A targeted list of email subscribers is one of the most effective ways to generate money from your online marketing efforts.
No one that understands email marketing would ever tell you “It doesn’t matter if your subscriber list is targeted to your niche; the more the better!”. A small targeted list of 100 subscribers can be much more valuable than an untargeted list of 10,000.
Twitter is no different.
If you spend your time building your follower count to astronomical numbers, the most important thing about that group is still how targeted it is. If you have a list of 1,000 followers who found your Twitter feed from your signature link on the Hello Kitty Online forums, your “Make More Money Online NOW!” tweet isn’t going to bring you the traffic you want.
It’s quality, not quantity, in both email lists and Twitter followers.
Likewise, for your marketing messages to reach an effective audience, you have to provide quality content first. When setting up an autoresponder series, you want to send your list valuable information more often than you send them a call to action. Twitter is no different. If someone follows you, and all they get is ten affiliate links each day, they’ll unfollow you in a hurry, or just ignore you completely.
Don’t fall into the trap of “more is better” when it comes to Twitter; you wouldn’t build an email subscriber list full of random, untargeted people and expect it to do well for you. When using Twitter, follow the same rules that you would for building an autoresponder subscriber list; build a targeted list of followers, provide them valuable content on a regular basis… If you’re unfamiliar with the next steps I suggest you pick up Magnetic Sponsoring (www.MakeMeMagnetic.com) now and thank me later. Haha, seriously though…
When used correctly, Twitter can be your best friend. When used incorrectly, it can net you a worst enemy (or at least get you an un-follow real quick). So live long and tweet smart my friends…
To Your EPIC Successes (and Web 2.0),
PS Jonathan Budd & Mark Hoverson are re-releasing their PPC mastery intensive course for a short window of time beginning tomorrow… I’ve been in the program since before Day 1 and my head is still spinning from all the mad-scientist-in-his-labratory-esque PPC wisdom they bestow. Jonathan Budd reveals and breaks down the exact processes he used to set up an automated system that generates him over 450 leads EVERY DAY… and he did it before 26! Anyone interested can read up on the program here.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Thanks Garrett for explaining Twitter targeted followers so well and not spamming people.
You’re so right about the quality and not quantity on your list and followers too!
Thanks for sharing!
Daryl
Daryl Whicker´s last blog ..Child Internet Filter
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February 9th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Hi Garrett,
You make a great comparison between your twitter following and your e-mail list. People don’t realize that your twitter following in essence IS a highly targeted list and the same rules apply to social networking as they do to e-mail.
People want VALUE and that is what must be delivered if relationships are going to be created. Spam your links and people will be running away from you faster than you can submit a tweet. Thanks for the share!
~Fredric
Fredric´s last blog ..The Law Of Karma: What Comes Around Goes Around
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Garrett,
Buddy this is some great information. You are definitely right on that everything begins and ends with value. The more value you can bring to the marketplace the more the marketplace will bring to you. You’ve got a great head on your shoulders and are wise beyond your years.
Great post,
Aaron Wyssmann
Aaron Wyssmann´s last blog ..How To Use Article Writing Software To Get On the 1st Page of Google…
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February 10th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Garrett,
You bring to light one of the most important marketing concepts, and one that people most often forget: Targeting! I have failed to target correctly on several occasions, and I still do. The results are never pretty. Thanks for clearing up some confusion about Twitter!
Thank you,
Josh Lipovetsky.
Josh Lipovetsky´s last blog ..Tomorrow is Today – Uplifting Miracles
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February 11th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Twitter is such a wonderful way to meet people and to stay on top of everything that’s going on. However, people get so caught up in trying to “market” on twitter, that they overlook the fact that it’s actually a social network. So people should really learn to be more social and they would get so much more out of it.
Thanks for this awesome post Garrett and I look forward to coming back for more. Take Care.
~Angel
Angel Taylor´s last blog ..Moving From Blogger to WordPress the Easy Way
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February 12th, 2010 at 1:36 am
Garrett,
You nailed this one… value first and it’s quality over quantity. The power comes from the relationships. this takes time and patience.
It’s very easy to get all worked up over the potential. But if that’s the focus… it will never come.
Keep sharing the value that you bring to the table.
Ken Pickard
The Network Dad
Ken Pickard´s last blog ..My Top 3 Social Sites
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February 13th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Hi Garrett, I enjoyed reading your post. For someone who is new to twitter, I make it a point to follow people that have something valuable to share and I know they would want the same from me. I’m sure sharing a product/service you believe is a good thing every so often, but wow!… I’ve seen people on twitter that do nothing but SPAM. Maybe we should create a campaign to show them the way out of Spamville. Thanks for sharing
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February 15th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Twitter + Spamming = Annoying
Twitter + Relationship Building = Value
Great post Garrett. When I do live presentations I often use an analogy like this:
If you just met someone on the street who you didn’t know, would you rush up to them trying to sell your product or service?
Heck no, that person might call the cops on you! lol
So why do people think this will work online? It’s the same thing.
Ryan Yokome´s last blog ..Ever Wonder Why New Years Resolutions Don’t Work? Here’s Why…..
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February 18th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Hello-
Greetings from the island of Bali-
this is my first visit…
and i really love your articles..
i think i can get more lessons here..
thanks for sharing..
dont forget to visit me back…
http://andrysianipar.com
see you…
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February 18th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
You’ve got a good lookin’ blog there Andry! Amazing how Google is able to eliminate the language barrier in less than a second these days…
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March 2nd, 2010 at 5:31 am
Excellent comparison between Twitter and an email autoresponder. There are definitely some similarities. However, I think the greater point you made is the one about following people who share an interest in your product, service or niche. In other words, reaching out to like minded people. Using this approach to follow people gives one an opportunity to share their knowledge and casually offer their product or service to someone who is actually interested while at the same time learning from others.
There a lot of different free Twitter applications avaialable to help with finding targeted followers, but here is the one that’s help me hit the 10k mark on 4 different Twitter accounts in just 12 months: http://tweetspinner.com/7091707
Awesome post Garrett!
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Garrett Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:49 am
I love the tool I use for twitter presently, sorry… I’ve gotten 2.2k followers in a month with it and it’s crazy simple.
Thanks for reading!
Garrett
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