If you’re in internet marketing and you want half a chance to succeed on Twitter, pay attention. I don’t know who you’ve been listening to telling you how to make it on Twitter, but if they’re telling you to do these five things, then they don’t understand social media, and you shouldn’t listen to them.
- Follow thousands of people when no one follows you back (except auto-follows). Nothing screams “spammer” like this one. Take it easy, cowboy. Add people at a normal pace. It’ll ensure you get more “organic” or “manual” follow-backs, which is what you want when you’re marketing on Twitter: you want reach.
- Auto-Followback/auto-direct message immediately upon being followed. Nothing tells people you don’t care quite like this move does. Eliminate it immediately from your TweetLater settings (better yet, don’t use TweetLater). You are not so fabulous that you simply must automate this. You want to be seen as a “real” person on Twitter, not as a spammer. Manually follow people back. Do not auto-anything. People especially do not care about your “free gift”. That’s not why people use Twitter. You’re missing the point.
- URL-stuffing in your Twitter bio and in your profile page background image. Everybody has a website. Put your URL where it’s supposed to go just like everyone else does (are you starting to pick up on a pattern, here? I hope so). If you’re worth anybody’s time, they will click through to your site, and from there they can access your other properties and social media profiles. If you’re not providing value on Twitter, nobody is going to make use of your URL-fest.
- Bio pitching. The bio on twitter is so that people can learn a little bit about you. Give them that. Don’t pitch them in the bio. That drives people away. If nobody knows you yet, nobody cares what you’re pitching. Social media is about the social, not the selling. And speaking of…
- Selling in tweets. Yes, I know: ironic, isn’t it? Isn’t that what you’re there for? The answer is a resounding NO. That’s not why you’re on Twitter. You’re on Twitter to network and build relationships by providing value, which leads to sales indirectly. You can let people know a product is available (I certainly do it myself) but only if you’re providing value in between, and the ratio of selling to value has to be extremely skewed towards value, not selling.
If I could distill these five points down to one main message it would be this: act like a normal person as much as you possibly can. Providing value to your followers instead of sales pitches is the best marketing you can engage in on Twitter (or in any social media environment).
Joel Comm was soundly bashed by commenters on this ProBlogger post about affiliate marketing on Twitter, and it was basically because what he did removed the warm, personal, human element. The most successful internet marketers on Twitter are, for the most part, not doing any of the these five things. Learn from them.
If you’re not following me on Twitter yet, you’ll find me here: http://twitter.com/remarkablogger
PS – My Growing blog traffic teleseminar is at 3pm Eastern today. You can still sign up if you want. Head on over to the blog and see the home page blurb about it.
Michael,
Liked all your points on Twitter – valid and intuitively smart. However, then I was hit with a teleseminar tout at the bottom of your message, litany of “go here buttons” on the top and side of your blog and pop up ad for something when I came into your site. Then I noticed you have twice as many followers as people you follow. Hmmmm…
Let’s remember – respect for the customer/reader, balancing pushy sales and pully content and appearing genuine, interested and human and not broadcasting is not only a Twitter thing.
Great information for a newbie like me! I really appreciate your insight and that of your “followers”. I hope you don’t mind me “following” you to try and pick up more insight….
Thanks!
Just like all social networks — no one should accept every invitation that comes or automatically follow back. I don’t follow back twitters with 1,000+ followers and 100 following. That screams spammer.
I unsubscribe to those who do nothing but link to their own stuff.
Also don’t like public tweets thanking people to following them or private tweets after I follow someone “Thanks for following me. Check out my blog at … and such.” That’s what the Bio is for.
Yes, people really click on your tweetID to see your bio. I do it all the time. So let your tweets speak for themselves not promote things.
Wow, great comments, everyone! When I check my analytics, most of the traffic I get from Twitter is from my profile page. Provide value and engage with people and they will check out your profile page.
HINT: make sure your profile page doesn’t look spammy, either, with tons of background image text. Stay normal!
Awesome info Michael. I hope we don’t starting getting Tweet sellers. They’ll bugger it up.
Call me stupid but how does a teleseminar work? Do you talk to lots of people on the phone at once?
@Cath – The tweet sellers are already here. Google something called magpie, and you’ll see.
Teleseminars are basically giant conference calls, except that for the most part only the presenters speak. Audience members are muted unless the presenters want to unmute them for a Q&A session. The service I use also records the seminars as mp3s. You can create your own at http://freeconference.com.
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I’ve just started to use Twitter for my business and it’s good to read a post like this. As many have said, it’s mostly common sense but it’s good to know there are good examples out there of bad things to do as well.
Michael – Such good tips to follow. I have never tried to sell my services on Twitter and yet I have already had one request for a CMA from a woman who was following me. I know I am not tapping Twitter to it’s full potential but I would rather figure it out slowly than go crazy and tick everyone off.
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Thank you so much for putting this together. I signed up on twitter a while ago, but never used it because I didn’t understand it. I knew that everyone was using it, but didn’t know how. Then I started using it like crazy the last few days and I BROKE EVERY RULE that you set up here. DUMB, but hey, better late than never.
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Great article. All to true! maybe you should post this again so that the people who missed it the first time have a chance to read it this time.
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