Maybe there’s another method to Twitter
I have a new follower this evening, this is no surprise since the masses of marketers have found another medium I receive now an average of 8 followers per day. Many, I am not following back or declining based on who they are, this one grabbed my curiosity. What is the strategy behind this agenda?
I receive the request from you to follow me.
So I click over to the account to check you out.
hmm… No profile picture, no background, no website or blog.
- 1288 folowing
- 127 followers
- 3 updates
That information tells me all that I need to know, yet I’m still curious. So about those 3 updates.
- “Hey, everyone! check out my blog post.” — OK, it’s the guy from the Flip TV show. I’ve seen the show, I know this guy and it looks like he has a legitimate sight and a sincere business practice. Not the best way to start a twitter stream, but then again I started with “Hey, I have insomnia“, so who am I too judge?
- “Hey, everyone! Go ahead and check out my newly updated Squidoo page” — Too much, too fast would be an understatement. In the world of twitter popularity, you have just branded yourself a spammer.
- “Just set up Ning Community. Come on over and join the discussion”. — Really, there’s a discussion going on somewhere? This I have to see.
So when I click on over I find two discussion topics posted with one reply. The reply is from the Virtual Assistant of the sites namesake. After putting two an two together, you can figure that the whole Twitter account has probably been set up by the VA for her client to help with promotion. So let’s backtrack.
If you are going to set up a white label social network on Ning. Why not start with the follwing you already have and build it up to be a destination for new members to come check out? Then…. move to Twitter. Build a twitter stream of personality and interest and be a live person. You’re not really virtual, are you? Even @latimes get’s this right. Stop pitching your stuff.. it’s not the forum. I could be wrong about this, but I have yet to see it work for anyone but Guy Kawasaki and guess what, he’s doing it with a take it or leave it personality. Ford has even hired PR for Twitter and they are people havign conversation. People who “get it”.
I’ll hold at that since it seems that being new to something can be daunting, but how many bridges need to get burned before you actually establish a presence and build on a brand of trust and communications when it’s only other auto-responders speaking back?
Looking at Twitter as a marketing opportunity is not a problem. Forgetting that it’s an opt-in opportunity is. How many takers or conversations will this account yield if it remains on this path?
