OK, so what can I say, I've been trying to figure out Twitter (for business) for a few months now. Of course, you're familiar with Twitter. Who isn't? But most folks get up and running, then peter out and fall off the Twittersphere. Those that remain are a mix between celebrities (and their ghost tweeters), spammers, get-rich-quick-by-being-an-affiliate Tweeters, groupies, gamers, and average everyday Joes.
Let's break them down and determine just who they are and whether or not there's any benefit to the medium.
Celebs: Personalities who most of us recognize, from actors and athletes to business gurus and reality TV divas. It's possible to attain a certain B-status celebrity by obtaining 100,000+ followers (to which we'll address below). Ashton Kutcher may be most famous of the actual celebs, making the cover of Fast Company because of his 3,000,000+ followers.
Spammers: The bain of Twitter and one of the key reasons that folks dump the whole lot. Just inundations of product come-ons sent out by automated programs with the hope of clicks by the shear volume of their Tweets. Percentage of success is low and the builds exactly -1,352 points on the Goodwill meter.
Affiliate Tweeters: These are the folks who tempt you with Tiny URLs affiliate links that are "sure to earn you over $3000/mo." Too bad almost none of them are actually succeeding at this. Lots of ways to make a buck out there - but the truth is... there's no such thing as a free lunch. Oh, we click the link from time to time, but we seldom buy the $79 e-book and revolutionary system it describes. Maybe we should? Maybe I would be an instant millionaire, as well?
Groupies: Those that profess that they are the real Tweeters because they only have a few followers and friends. You can't get in their group unless you truly know the person. What a concept... a real conversation amongst equals. Great for closed networks of folks who find Twitter to be their cell phone tool preference, but that's not most of us. And, these people never get insight from outside sources. Good if you work for ESPN, maybe not so good if you're actually looking for traffic to your post.
Gamers: As alluded to in "celebs", gamers are those everyday folks who have amassed 50,000 to 100,000 or more followers. Twitter is game to see who can get the most followers. The process isn't unlike any good Arcade gamer. You just keep putting in your time on the machine until you can post your 3 letter acronym for all to see. The difference between Celebs and Gamers is in how many friends they follow. Celebs follow under 1,000, Gamers will have an amount equal to their followers.
Average Joes: That's the rest of us, trying to figure out if we should use this medium or not and if 140 characters is helping or hurting our ability to communicate and make further connections.
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Want to benefit from my 10,000 clicks? Do not try unless you are game...
Here's what you should do in "3-steps" to improve your chances:
1. Use Twitter to grow connections to the world and improve the likelihood for various folks to get to your web page, blog or transactional tool. Understand, they're not going to come by the truckload... just a small trickle to start. But, like any little snowball, it gets bigger and easier the larger and longer it rolls down the mountain. The question is, how high is the mountain? (see point 3 - but do not skip point 2).
2. Understand who you are and what you are "selling". Your website or blog or end destination for those that will follow you needs to be clear in your mind - so that you can articulate what benefit you bring to anyone who will listen. Too many of us sort of skimp on this part. Frankly, it's the most important part of the equation. You don't have to be handsome or pretty, thin or even rich. You just need to be genuine and smart about one particular topic that you have mastery of. (I suspect there is something you master - a hobby, a skill, TV show trivia perhaps?) Whatever it is, there are others in this world who share your love, but not necessarily your particular talents. That's what you're selling.
3. Get the traffic by becoming a Gamer to start. Not completely, mind you, always put out good content. Don't worry about directing too much traffic back to your site. Maybe 1 in 4 Tweets. The rest are to show that you really do know something or can at least spot something worth sharing on the Net. What you need to do is click and click and click on "following" and "unfollowing" to acquire 10,000 followers. That's how high the mountain is. Once there, your snowball is ready to move down hill. From there, you can continue your Gamer status, or you could begin to develop a Groupie mentality - cultivating your group into like minded folks who share your passion. Let's put it this way: if you could have only 1,000 "devoted" fans, you can make a healthy living for the rest of your life!
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There are a whole host of strategies to generate web traffic, but for $0, this is one that anyone can do. Keep Twitter in your Social Media package? Yup... but you may wish to work on Point No.2 pretty hard. Becoming unique in this world is available to anyone. There are lots of mountains and hills to "plant your flag". Most of us never do because we are afraid to get knocked off. Some will try, but hey, that's the difference between winning and losing...
Besides, you said you were game!
Become a follower of JacksonSpencer and we'll follow you back!
* Special promo for reading this: link to our fan page on Facebook and you could win a new Flip camera.
** Super secret promo for reading this: connect to my LinkedIn page (and join the Big Ideas Group) and I'll see that you get a free customized Twitter background like the one I use. (that's a $79 value - I just made that up, but you be the judge!)
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