Greetings from Bucharest, where I’m sitting with a couple of colleagues in what I guess must be the penthouse flat, since we’re on the top floor. Shame about the hot water system.
Anyhow I just stuck this picture up because it explains exactly why most people do the things they do.
Years ago when the dotcom euphoria was raging I used to ask audiences how many of them had websites.
Most would raise their hands. Then I would ask two more questions. First, could they tell me why they had a website; and second, what exactly their website was doing for them in the way of business.
This used to get a lot of blank looks. The answers, of course were: 1. “because everyone else has one” and 2. “I have no idea.”
This is still largely true, and applies to most things marketers do. They institute CRM programmes without the vaguest idea what they will do for them – or even what the initials stand for; they decide “digital” is the thing – and for a glorious few, golden years from which I profited, direct marketing was all the rage.
All this was prompted by a very funny and perceptive piece from the estimable Ken McCarthy called “How to get big numbers on Twitter (or anything else)” from which I quote here
As soon as people see numbers, a few things happen to their brains.
1. They marvel at people with REALLY BIG NUMBERS
2. They look at their own puny numbers and despair
3. They look for ways to get more numbers
It seems like there are a few tried and true ways to get big numbers on Twitter.
1. Be on TV (or be an already fantastically well known brand.)
2. Have a big list from some other source and relentlessly ask your list members to follow you
3. Be a Twitter, social media and/or tech expert who spends a big chunk of his or her time in front of audiences that have super high densities of Twitter users flashing their Twitter address and relentlessly ask your list members to follow you.
There may be some exceptions to this rule, but I don’t see them in the upper listings.
Why people follow
People seem to follow for five reasons:
1. They’re collectors (a nice word for “pack rats”) and if it’s free, they want a lot of them
2. They’re followers and like having icons of their favorite celebrities on their profile page
3. They’re status seekers and want to be seen following “cool” people
4. They’ve been guilt tripped into following a friend or acquaintance (usually by their own minds)
5. They’d like to guilt-trip someone else into following them (to increase their own number of followers.)
It’s these last two that I find really interesting: “Please follow me.” “Thanks for following me.”
We’ve left the land of the rational and gone deep into the social brain on this one (i.e. back to high school.)
There’s a bit of the old MLM mentality in play too:
“You follow me and I’ll follow you and we’ll both have one more follower and that will make us more attractive so we’ll both be more likely to get more followers who will do the same…and somehow this will all end up with all of us making money.”
What really made me laugh in Ken’s piece is a line he repeats three times:
Follow Ken on Twitter:http://www.Twitter.com/kenmccarthy
Don’t follow me, though. I’m just as lost as you are.
Love the pic, Drayton! However, the whole idea of Twitter isn't to get as many followers as fast as you can…the idea is to STRATEGICALLY follow those of influence in your niche, and be helpful to those who could be your prospects that follow you.
Get an idea what people are talking about and what their concerns are (via search tools), consistently give out good information to those who follow you. It's not really so much about making money as it is about building relationships that turn profitable down the line.
Rather than think in terms of push-marketing to “make money” in Twitter, you're better off starting up conversations and interacting with those who could either be prospects or joint venture partners.
There IS an art to being successful on Twitter, but it's like any other medium–if the majority of your market isn't using it, you're wasting your time in the “Twittershpere.”
A lot of my prospects ARE using it, so I'm there, too. I do have an auto-follow application, but I also “vet” my followers, and periodically go in and clean out the MLM'ers or others that aren't helpful to either me or my market.
I also interweave all my social media platforms so they feed one another, and use them to point people back to my main information hub of blog/website.
I know, I know–it sounds Greek to a lot of folks. But that's why I'm getting certified by the experts in how to fit the whole Social Media thing into traditional marketing plans.
Hopefully, by early December I'll have my ISMA certification and have a better idea of what's out there that's NOT a fad–and a plan for incorporating it into the mix.
Cheers,
Apryl
All makes good sense, and I know you've clearly thought about it a lot … but it begs the question: when do you find time to work? I have an uneasy feeling that if I really got involved I would lose what little focus I have. The other big question is this: how many tweets have you read that made you think “Hmmm. I should do something as a result of that”? Most of it's just laundromat talk.
I thought that Twitter really was a load of bollocks. Then someone did a little research and found out that it is people over 40 who are the main users. Well that's probably correct as most of them have been fired and can't get another job due to ageism and so have the time to tweet. It's still bollocks, except that these people should be old enough to know better.
However, I've just seen a video by some students at Stanford University who think that Twitter is so yesterday. They’ve come up with Flutter. The same sort of crap only it’s restricted to just 26 characters, or as the presenter comments, one whole English alphabet.
Wait for it. I’ve not even finished digesting this idiocy before another juvenile jerk tells me that they are developing Shutter which is Flutter without the vowels. Well Shutter has two so how do they get round that one?
Well I’ve got the jump on these smart arses. I’ve gone one further and developed Fucker. There are absolutely no characters. The speed of sending absolutely fuck all is terrifying and the subliminal advertising opportunities are massive.
Very funny post.
There is a filter in place for selecting participants:
(Twit)ter will obviously appeal to twits.
Well, Drayton, there are ways to automate and delegate certain portions of your social media strategy. Applications such as SocialOomph.com and Tweetdeck help make Tweeting and interacting less time consuming.
I carve out a bit of time every day in my calendar to see what my “sphere of influence” is talking about, find articles to tweet or re-tweet really good stuff I've found from others (if it fits my market's needs). Some of the automation and search I can hand off to my virtual assistant–but I don't spend hours and hours tweeting.
Search tools allow you to aggregate tweets with keyword content and take action when you have time. For instance, I have a twitter keyword alert set up for “white papers” because I write them and want to know if there are folks out there who could use me. Once a day I scan that. If nothing's there, I move on. If someone's asking for help, I follow up with a direct message or reply. Takes 3 minutes to scan the search file, another 2-4 to send an inquiry.
My blog posts are automatically fed to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, so I don't have to go to each application and post them.
As for the laundromat talk, you can segment your followers into sets so you don't have to be distracted by the inane babble of the masses.
You can share videos, photos…disseminate white papers or special reports–there are tons of ways to use it. Lots of companies are successful at using it for monitoring brand reputation and being more proactive about customer service.