Archive

24. May 2009:

Marketing And Twitter Revisited

Twitter marketing, it's all the rage and since my last post on Tooting Your Twitter Horn I've come up with a bit more to add to my previous thoughts. Some of this has come from experience and some of it from the thoughts and observations of others.

No, I'm not going to retract what I have said previously, I still believe Twitter is a kind of love/hate thing for me, but I have learned a lot more since last writing and much of it is worth sharing. This is not a "do it my way" "do it this or that way" type of offering, just a few more things to share and disseminate to those struggling to find their Twitter comfort zone.

So many people are talking about Twitter that it is fairly easy to find answers to most of the questions you may have, and it seems there is always something new to learn.

My use of Twitter on a daily basis has seen my network grow steadily and there have been no real secrets to this happening. If you participate and seeek out like minded people it is almost inevitable. Yes, there are ways to accelerate the size of your network and I've tried a few of them. Like most new users my choices were not always wise when I first started out, but I have since discovered some very useful and powerful tools.

Hint, many of the scripts that require you to Tweet a message advertising the service are not well received by many but it's up to you regarding the use of individual programs.

However' learning as you go has always been my preferred method online and it will be the same for most new Tweeters. So, let's get onto a few gripes first...mostly everyday things on Twitter.

(These things irritate a lot of people but if you think they are things that will work for you I'm not going to stop you - the Twitterverse is a land of free speech to my mind).

I have come to agree with the overriding philosophy that Twitter is first and foremost about getting involved and interracting with your network. I have struck up some really cool conversations and met a lot of people by participating actively so as far as I'm concerned it was time well spent. By the same token, the mistakes that so many make, seem so blatant and obvious (and we're talking strictly marketing here).

An experienced eye can soon tell the people using services like TweetLater that queue messages and post them on a schedule set by the user who will doubtless be off doing other things with no intention of ever spending time on "social" Tweeting. For them it's just an advertising medium. The fact that their Tweets are monotonously uniformly spaced and are always the same sales messages every day is, I would suggest, guaranteed to turn people off. It's the good old scattergun approach, probably delivering the same old carnage in terms of results.

It's a sloppy tactic and it's probably doomed to failure.

Then we have the "liars". Yes there are lots of them, so let's be frank shall we? There are many examples of this type flowing through the stream of Twitter.

Affiliate links blatantly posted with accompanying false claims "I'm making XYZ a week with this crap and you can too...."usually followed by a hoplink. Alternatively, "I've suffered from XYZ infirmity for years but this cured me....(another hoplink).

Now, if you want people to trust you and buy something on your recommendation, lying is not a good start. Speaking in the first person when it is obvious you have never done anything more than troll your way through the Clickbank marketplace and grab a hoplink is marketing ineptitude at full throttle. And let's face it people, who believes someone who has made a fortune last month, reversed his balding, lost 500 pounds, given up smoking and perfected his golf swing all at once? That's some dude.

Then we have those promoting Twitter tools to explode your following. If you have only a small following yourself how do you think this looks? Be very careful with your reputation, because online, it's often all you have.  I know people are looking for simpler ways to build their accounts, but if you behave naturally and talk to others, your following will grow "organically". Be patient or spend lots of money on a pro tool like Hummingbird (see resources below).

Along the same lines are those who brag about success but forget that it is easy for someone to do five minutes of research and blow them out of the water. Prime example was a young lad (if his avatar is to be believed) pushing several sites promising marketing riches and the like. On inspection, each site was an early 90's cookie cutter template with a few PPC ads slapped on and content written by someone probably more accustomed to eating Farley's Rusks and peeing in their Huggies. What's more, the sites were receiving zero traffic, or as close to zero as you can get.

More disturbing however was the individual's fawning and retweeting of a so called "guru" by whom he has obviously been conned into parting with money probably better spent on a college fund, for information worth absolutely nothing. Said guru/marketer was also busy making claims for another of his devotees sites regarding levels of success, totally debunked by looking at the site's statistics.

Now, as I've said before, far be it from anyone to tell anyone that there is a correct way to behave on Twitter, that annoys me just as much, but there are right and wrong ways to behave in life and those should really carry through to what you do on the internet. Yeah, some hope I know but it's worth saying.

On the upside, I have also met some cool people on Twitter and have found some great uses for it. It can be fun, if time consuming, and from a marketing perspective it is certainly worth incorporating into your efforts.

Yesterday I posted a tweet that was picked up by SEO master AndyBeard and the resulting response by way of sales was quite remarkable. Not many high profile users will give you the time of day like Andy, but, if someone with a large and relevant following knows you and decides to press the right buttons, the benefits can be delivered very quickly on Twitter.

I've posted some interesting but by no means extensive, resource links below for further reading. Ultimately Twitter is rising in my list of priorities and I'm now suggesting that maybe it should in yours too.

Oh, and don't forget to follow me @Caymanhost and get to meet some other cool marketing Tweople

Useful Twitter Links

Creating Multiple Twitter Accounts With One Email Address

Learning Twitter (Hashtags, Whales etc)

HummingBird Pro Twitter Tool (expensive but powerful) Best For Those Wanting To Build Networks Fast

Brute Force Twitter - Another network building tool (untested)

Twitter Salvation - Twitter For Small Business Users

Tweeting Too Hard - Tweets and Tweople Lampooned 

Qwitter - Monitoring Twitter Unfollowers On Your Behalf

Exit Tweet Generator (For Webmasters Wishing To Promote A Specific Site)

MrTweet - recommend your friends to others

Twitter Business Cards

File Twitter - Easily Share Files With Twitter Friends and Followers

Twitter Grader - Find Out How You and Others Rank

Tweet Backup - If You Really Want To Backup Your Twittering

Twitter Graphics - Excellent Selection Of Free Twitter Buttons and Badges

Keeping Up With All Your Friends & Followers Try Seesmic Desktop or TweetDeck



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08. May 2009:

Tooting Your Twitter Horn

Much has been written and continues to be written about Twitter. I thought carefully before writing this post, wondering if it was worth adding even more noise to the Twitter craze and eventually decided to air my opinions on the whole Twitter gravy train.

Before going any further, please realize that this comes from an internet marketing perspective, and understand that Twitter is not solely an internet marketing tool, although many would have you believe that it is.

Having used Twitter for the past few months, I have plenty of observations, some of which will doubtless ruffle a few feathers and cause argument, but these are my honest opinions and conclusions as a Twitter user.

On Twitter you will find a large number of idiots, as well as a large number of insecure and opinionated people. Of all the social networking sites I have ever used, Twitter definitely takes the prize for having some of the most obnoxious internet policemen types. What makes me say this? It is the Twitter Horn Tooters, of which there seem to be an endless supply. The one thing that most of them have in common is an ulterior motive or an axe to grind.

By way of a few examples, here are some of the things that I find most unsavoury about some Tweeters.

The Rule Makers - these are the kind of people who feel they have a right to tell everybody else what they can or cannot do with Twitter. What is often noticeable about these types is their blatant "do as I say, not as I do" ethos. The world is full of them and so, alas, is Twitter. It is sorely tempting to tell them simply to **** off, something you would more than likely do in the real world.

These are the people who somehow believe that you can apply the word "spam" to anything and everything that they don't agree with. Newsflash, no Tweet can be considered spam, because you elected to "follow" the person who sent it. In effect you opted in and if you don't like it, you can opt-out just as quickly. On Twitter it's called "unfollow".

Another favorite pastime of the Rule Makers, is to belittle anyone whose follower numbers are less than theirs, somehow making the leap that they are superior in almost every way to whoever they are attacking based on this idiotic premise. Additionally of course, they will attack those who are not building their Twitter following the "right way" and throw out the tried and tested spam arguments, the holier than thou protestations against anyone who has the audacity to try and use Twitter for any kind of commercial or personal financial gain.

Of course, most of them have no intention of trying to open anyone's wallet, they are the picture perfect example of altruism and will often go as far as to tell you how they "value" their followers and dream of only good things for them, whilst extolling the virtues of their latest products and services, naturally, because they genuinely care about the thirty thousand people who follow them. You have to ask, why would anyone want a list of thousands of followers if it was not for business or commercial purposes? Have you ever known a person who had thousands of friends? Didn't think so.

While on that subject, do you really believe that someone with thousands and thousands of followers is even remotely interested in you and what you have to say? Do you think they are ever going to see one of your Tweets, let alone enter into any sort of dialogue with you? In short, are you their friend, their equal? Not in their eyes, which brings up an interesting point in the chosen terminology of Twitter.

"Followers", was the word chosen to describe your network of names on Twitter. Followers, think about that. You can see why it appeals to a certain type of person, and you could draw some pretty ugly comparisons had you a mind to. Those who obsess about the size of their following, those who believe that this somehow bestows upon them some kind of status and importance not enjoyed by the mere mortals who follow them (like sheep?).

Let's move on to another class of Twitter user, usually a bit cleverer than the rule makers, these are the kind who are selling the idea that Twitter is the next big marketing holy grail. Unfortunately, this is usually in an attempt to sell you the latest greatest Twitter fad, guaranteeing to "explode your following and therefore make you rich overnight.

Come on! This is obviously blatant hype and untruths - let me qualify however. I'm not saying that Twitter is useless as a marketing tool because there are plenty of people who have integrated it into their marketing and been very successful. My guess is that if you are in the right niche and target the right people it can work very well. I also think that just like any form of marketing you need to establish yourself with your audience and if they like and trust you they may eventually buy some of the things you recommend to them. However, if you think that just adding countless numbers to your follower count is going to make you a huge online success I'd think again.

People will lie to you online, particularly to try and sell you the latest, greatest guarantee of wealth and success. Think before opening your wallet.

Twitter also has some major flaws as far as I can see. Trying to keep up with even a few hundred people is virtually impossible. Using a service like TweetDeck or other third party applications will soon see you exceeding the flow of tweets allowed. These people with thousands of followers are extremely unlikely to be paying attention to what you are twittering about because it's not humanly possible to keep up with everything. I can fire up Tweetdeck and within a minute I've exceeded the API's allowable traffic and that means I see no new Tweets until an hour has passed.

I follow one or two people whose mailing lists I have been on or am still on, or bloggers whose prose I continue to read. Those kind of Twitter users, i.e. those with an already established base of customers/readers can continue with those relationships via Twitter and in that way it is another useful communication tool.

If you're starting from scratch though, don't expect miracles, that's all I'm saying.  

Image Credit:  Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten



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05. May 2009:

Blog Comment Spam (Again)

I've not been posting in the last few weeks for a variety of reasons but I needed to say something about blog comment spam and the dofollow status of this blog.

It's not often that you find yourself thanking a pathetic spammer but on this occasion one such individual did do me a favor.

He or she has been posting countless spam comments using the same IP and email addresses despite my attempts to block all comments from said IP. Today I log on to find a slew of offensive and identical comments the person had tried to post to my web hosting directory. The individual in question, and I hope you are reading this post, is obviously a moron and has not yet figured out that spamming blogs is a fruitless and damaging exercise, particularly on blogs that have comment moderation turned on.

I am glad that they decided to post on one of my Wordpress sites, giving me the opportunity to send all of them to Akismet, which, unfortunately I cannot do on this NucleusCMS blog.

Again, if you are reading, pea brain, you are now officially a spammer and Akismet will send your nonsense straight to the spam filter of any Wordpress blogs you decide to comment on in future. Way to go eh? You dummy.

However, I do need to thank you for pointing out that the comments on this blog had somehow reverted to nofollow, something I was unaware of until your vitriol landed in my inbox. It turns out that the plugin for Nucleus had ceased to work after updating my installation of the platform. It has now been fixed with a bit of manual coding, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. 

A polite email via my contact form would have been preferrable but you are obviously ignorant as well as stupid.

Anyway, apologies to my genuine commenters, your link love has been restored and I apologize for the error.

For the idiot spammer may I refer you to the following posts on this blog. Maybe you will learn something. If a blog has a comment policy, try reading it and if you want to participate here rather than try to use it as a link directory to your low rent sites, all you have to do is follow the suggestions right above the comment box. It ain't rocket science.

Blog Comment and Trackback Spam Part 1

Blog Comment and Trackback Spam Part 2

Blog Comment and Trackback Spam Part 3



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