I’ve been using Twitter for a few weeks now and although I’m not a ‘pro’ at using the tool by any means, I’ve made some observations that have raised a number of questions about its usefulness and I’d really like to get other’s opinions and experiences before I determine that Twitter, like much of the other highly touted ‘social media,’ is a lot of hype and little practical application.
Here’s what I noticed about Twitter:
Preaching to the Choir: I’ve spent a bit of time looking at the followers of a number of people who are obviously seeking to use Twitter as a marketing tool and I’ve noticed a pattern-the overwhelming majority, often in the area of 85 to 90% of the followers, are not prospects for the person’s company but are instead friends, competitors, or co-workers.
The Numbers Don’t Add Up: Assuming that their message is getting a broader play from being ‘retweeted,’ I chose three people and followed their followers to see how often a tweet would be disseminated through being retweeted. The results, I’m sure, would be very disappointing to these three Twitter users if they knew the numbers. Although they did have several of their tweets retweeted, most of the retweets were of tweets that promoted an article the person had read that had been written by someone else and was posted on the article author’s website or blog.
One of the primary uses of tweets is to post things that are helpful to one’s followers and letting them know of a useful article is one of the most common forms of this. The problem is if you’re trying to get yourself out to as many people as possible, being retweeted doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job-other than letting people know what you read and then sending them to that author’s site. It appears being the author of the article is far more beneficial than being the tweeter of the article.
Inane Information: The content of tweets is often ridiculous. From ‘tips’ that are either so obvious or trite as to be silly, to the minutia of someone’s existence, the content often leaves one wondering whether or not the posters of these tweets really have a meaningful job-or are capable of meaningful thought. Twitter sometimes borders on a 140 character version of the theater of the absurd.
Hyper Promotion: Some, by no means all–just the most obnoxious, use Twitter to shamelessly name drop, unrelentingly promote their newsletter or blog, continually proclaim their own guru status, or repeatedly tweet about their latest article.
Where most would post a tweet about their latest article or newsletter, these hyper self promoters will post the same tweet about their article or newsletter four, five, six times a day, day in and day out until they’ve written another article and then they start the cycle over again. Where most will mention the new edition of their newsletter, hyper promoters will post tweet after tweet after tweet encouraging readers to go sign up for the newsletter, thinking, I guess, that if you didn’t do it the first 19 times they told you to, you’ll do it the 20th time they mention it.
Not only is this hyper self-promotion annoying, it makes the person doing it appears desperate.
Twitter appears to be a great way to maintain contact with family and friends. If you want to create a casual network of co-workers and acquaintances-or even others within your industry-Twitter seems quite the tool.
But for serious business promotion? I’m far from convinced.
To be fair, I’ve spoken to one gentleman who is a firm believer in using Twitter to promote his business. He says that since he has been using twitter his website traffic has really increased. Unfortunately, his sales haven’t, his newsletter subscribers haven’t increased that much, and his repeat traffic to his site hasn’t increased that much. Has Twitter really helped him? I don’t know, but he believes it has.
I have another friend who is certain that Twitter is helping him get the word out about himself. He points to the fact that he has over 2,200 followers (he dismisses the fact he follows over 2,000 of them), and that he regularly has his tweets retweeted. A cursor y look at his followers–it doesn’t appear that his message is getting out to many viable prospects.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I’m very skeptical of Twitter’s usefulness as a business tool, but I’d really like to get other’s experiences and opinions. The floor’s yours.
[...] All Climbing added an interesting post on Twitter for Businessâ [...]
Pingback by Topics about People-search » Twitter for Business—Why Is Everyone all Atwitter? — April 28, 2009 @ 10:59 am |
I was and still am a little hesitant about Twitter. In my opinion Twitter is good for polling audiences, checking on things and other aspects, but as a sales driving tool I don’t know. Is 140 characters enough to create a satisfied customer? I don’t think so. While I wont stop twitter about some interesting articles I see or send the occasional shout out. I won’t be basing my entire business on it either. Just my two cents. Keep up the great work!
Comment by Chris Brooks — April 28, 2009 @ 9:04 pm |
Chris,
Thanks for your thoughts. I don’t really see Twitter as a sales tool either. I think it can be used as an image builder, to get your name out, to connect with some people you might not otherwise meet, and to investigate some potential sales opportunities. I can certainly see where these can be valuable, but time consuming. The time issue vs. return on time invested is one of my biggest concerns.
Comment by Paul McCord — April 29, 2009 @ 8:06 am |
I’m not sold on the long term sustainability of Twitter, yet. It certainly has a lot of momentum and is creating connections that may not have been there otherwise.
I view Twitter as a tool and the effectiveness of that tool depends on how you use it. If it is being used as a sales tool, results will be poor for those using it in some of the ways you highlight above – for posting inane information or hyper-promotion. The reason being there is no value provided to the reader. This mirrors results a sales person receives if doing the same thing with a prospect outside of the Twitter platform. Giving the prospect inane information or hyper-promotion will yield poor results for that sales person.
The potential I see to use Twitter effectively is to provide value to prospects by generating useful content that generates initial engagement with prospects. This engagement should be the beginning of the relationship, not the end, or replacement of a defined sales process.
It will be interesting to see how the sales field uses this tool.
Comment by David Criswell — April 29, 2009 @ 12:31 pm |
Hi Paul,
I like your idea about the time invested vs. the return on investment. I know that there are people who swear that twitter has helped like you mentioned and others that use it for more social aspects, so I guess it is up to the individual. Right now it is more time vs return, but we’ll see.
Comment by Chris Brooks — April 29, 2009 @ 1:28 pm |
I just started using Twitter a few weeks ago. I write about using cell phones in education. When I write an article, I tweet the link. I don’t self promote in the sense that I talk about my posts. I also set a rule that I would not invite my friends to Twitter. I want to see how many followers my tweets get on their own.
I’ve gotten 5 in about a month. While the number is small, I found an interesting bit of relevant data. I look at each follower’s profile to see the types of people who find my writing interesting. An author, a professor, and people involved with cell phone technology follow my work. I don’t have the data yet to see if Twitter has increased my revenue (I get paid on royalties that my work generates) but I am getting a better idea about who my readers are.
Comment by Alan — May 4, 2009 @ 11:28 am |
[...] or misuse of twitterfeed, and there is certainly a time and place to tell quasi-spammers and hyperpromoters to shut their tweethole, but there is also a time to give people a chance, and maybe even a second chance if they do [...]
Pingback by Educate, don’t Intimidate « Marenated — June 15, 2009 @ 11:50 am |