To Tweet or Not To Tweet Is the Question
Some serious marketers are dubious about using Twitter for marketing and traffic; yet there are many, like Ewen Chia, who swear by it.
If you do decide to use this strategy, the first thing to do is ensure that you know Twitters rules thoroughly about tweeting and spamming. They will dump you like a hot rock if all you do is plug your products.
Twitter, is in their opinion, for social communication – so they like to maintain that – but, they don’t mind marketing, if it is proportionate to social interaction.
Proportionate is a key word here – in other words, don’t over do it. It would be disastrous, let alone discouraging, to build up 5000 followers and then lose them through a breach of Twitter’s rules.
An example of how to tweet reasonably as suggested by Ewen Chia – it goes like this:
1. Make a general comment
2. Put in a joke or quote
3. Comment again – politics, events etc
4. A re-tweet – someone’s tweet you liked
5. Joke again
6. The, only then, make your sales pitch – directing readers to your squeeze page.
Somewhere between 5-8 tweets – repeated am, pm, and evening.
You can get thousands of followers without using techniques that get you into trouble. I have nearly 11,000 (2 accounts) and I only tweet once or twice a week – in a good week!
And, you don’t have to pay to get good information and ideas about effective Twittering. Also, be prepared for a bit of trial and error – as that is a good way to learn.
When you Tweet – be interesting – be a bit different – boring tweets and tweeters soon get unfollowed.
Give away good stuff – information, e-books and so on that are actually worthwhile.
Sometimes do it through a squeeze page so you can get them onto your list, at other times just give it. This will help build your reputation.
Followers and Following
Your “followers” numbers can be much higher than your “following” number, but not the other way around. Following – folks you follow and Followers – folks that follow you.
