MAKE MONEY WITH TWITTER

A few days ago Twitter
announced on their status
blog that all Twitter users
are only allowed to follow
a maximum of 1000 people
a day. This rule was
designed to cut down on
‘follow spam’, the act of
following many Twitter
users in order to get them
to follow you back or click
on your links.
When combined with the
already existing limit based
on follow ratios, this
means that it will be more
difficult for marketers or
self-promoters to rapidly
increase their Twitter
follower count by
following many people.
The old days of following
thousands of users a day to
get thousands of followers
back are gone.
That’s not to say the
strategy of mass following
users to increase your
Twitter followers doesn ’t
work anymore. It does.
Why? Because many people
use tools to auto-follow
anyone who follows them.
And there are new users
who think its only polite to
reciprocate. So you can
easily get tens of thousands
of followers from this
strategy over time.
I see quite a few people
still practicing this method.
Some are social media
enthusiasts or consultants,
some are internet
marketers or bloggers. All
of them are people who
want to get something in
return. They want to:
1. Make money. The
goal is to monetize
Twitter users by
linking and
recommending
products or services,
either their own or
others if they are an
affiliate. They do this
by tweeting out links
and sending
automated direct
messages with the
same offers when
someone follows
them back.
2. Improve their
reputation . They
amass followers with
the aim of improving
their reputation in a
specific field like
marketing or social
media. They also use
their followers to
boost their
prominence on other
social arenas like
Digg or Facebook.
3. Get more visitor
traffic . More
followers means
more visitors to their
websites so they can
get more subscribers,
readers and
members. They also
want the ability to
make specific
content go ‘viral’ and
become popular by
sharing it with their
followers.
Many people think that to
achieve all of the above,
they need to build a large
list of Twitter followers
and broadcast links to get
free traffic. It ’s a simple
strategy. The more
followers you have, the
more people listen to you,
and the easier it is to
spread your messages.
But do you really need a
large number of followers
to promote yourself
successfully on Twitter? The
answer is no. Not at all. But
many people still persist in
mass following users. Let’s
look at some of the
reasons why you don’t
need to use this marketing
tactic.
Low-Value Followers:
Automatons, Spammers
and Self-Promoters
Image Credit:
ittybittiesforyou
Many products on Twitter
marketing have been
released by internet
marketers looking to profit
from the growing interest
in Twitter. These products
give you the same
blueprint: just get more
twitter followers. All you
need to do is to follow
many users everyday,
drop non-mutuals and
then follow more. Repeat
until you get a ton of
followers and look like a
social media rockstar. If
people follow you, you
must be awesome, right?
The only problem is that
these are low-value
followers. Not because
they are dumb or socially
inferior but because a good
amount of these followers
are not ultra-targeted,
active or responsive. Many
of them are self-
promoters, spammers or
automated feed accounts.
These people aren ’t
interested in you. They
don ’t care about you. They
didn’t REALLY opt-in. They
even followed you
automatically, didn’t they?
If we were to draw
comparisons to a email list
or newsletter, these types
of people are the ones
who would use a
temporary email address to
sign up so they can get
your freebie and disappear.
Most of them aren ’t going
to end up retweeting your
stuff, most of them don ’t
even read your tweets.
Most of them don ’t give a
damn about your ideas.
It’s not about the follower
count, its about
conversions. A carefully
cultivated list of 1000
followers can beat a list of
10,000 twitter followers
anytime when it comes to
spreading content or
getting traffic/sales. A
social media strategy that
only involves mass
following all sorts of
people and shooting out
links in order to hook
buyers or readers is quite
inadequate.
Low-value followers are
incredibly easy to get and
the only positive thing
about them is that they ’ll
make you look good.
Judging influence by the
follower count is
something that people do.
It ’s social proof. So you
have 80,000 followers. You
can probably start a social
media consulting business
and tell everyone that
you ’re an expert. Or write
that ebook and flaunt your
follower count on the sales
page. You can fool a lot of
people and you ’ll make
money too.
So play the Twitter game
of mass adding and
dropping users for a few
months. You may even
meet some cool people
but don ’t assume that you
have 50,000 users who
actually read your tweets
or are interested in you.
They aren ’t. And you’re
irrelevant to them.
Remember, you’re not
getting natural opt-in
follows preempted by
interest . All you have is an
inflated number. Maybe
you think that ’s something
to be proud of but if a 7
year old kid can press a
auto-follow button and
get 500 followers in 24 hrs,
you ’re not that impressive.
Twitter Marketing is
More Than Just Getting
Followers
Image Credit: badjonni
Unless you are a celebrity
or a famous brand, you will
never get hundreds of
thousands of natural
follows from people who
are interested in what you
have to say. If you want to
look like a VIP, you can
fake it by manipulating
follower counts like most
self-promoters.
But do you really think
that ’s effective Twitter
marketing? Sometimes I
feel that marketers should
stop this obsession with
volume and carefully think
about cultivating a better
follower list as well as
other more effective ways
of using Twitter for
marketing.
I don’t want to blindly
label all mass-following
users as spammers. Some
are not malicious nor are
they aggressive self-
promoters. I ’m just
questioning the
overwhelming focus on this
tactic, as if its the only way
to accumulate influence or
market yourself on Twitter.
It ’s not.
This isn’t an attack on
anyone. If you think that
mass following many users
to boost your follower
count is great, keep doing
it. I ’ve got no problems
with that. I’m just offering
my opinion on why I think
its flawed. This comes from
having actually
experimented with this
strategy, so it ’s not just
theoretical postulations.
In my opinion, while having
a large number of Twitter
followers is not a bad
thing, there are some other
key factors you should
consider if you ’re want to
use Twitter to market
yourself or your website/
brand. These are points
which I think are quite
important even if your
ONLY reason for using
Twitter is to make money
or get traffic.
The most important thing
you should remember: It ’s
not about the number of
Twitter followers you have,
its about who follows you
and the responsiveness of
your audience.
Who Follows You: The
People Who Give You
Their Attention
It matters who reads your
tweets. Are these people
interested in you or your
business ? An interested
follower is naturally more
engaged with whatever you
put out on Twitter. People
who automatically follow
you do not count as
interested followers.
Are your followers active?
Active users share your
links, they give you
feedback, they talk to you.
Automated or semi-
automated users are not
active users that will
interact with you.
And do the people who
follow you have influence?
Would you rather get 50
retweets from users with 10
to 100 random followers?
Or you rather get 10
retweets from influencers
in same niche, with all of
them having 1000 to 10,000
very relevant followers?
How about tweeting out a
link or idea and having
someone with a blog in the
same niche write about it
and link to you? Can your
army of auto-followers
offer the same? Not every
Twitter user has the same
audience size. Some users
can reach more people
much faster and these are
the ones that can help you.
This is not to suggest that
the average twitterer is
useless but to highlight the
unequal influence of each
user. Who follows you
matters a great deal
because powerful Twitter
marketing involves not just
link-blasting but
networking and
relationship development.
Responsiveness of Your
Audience: Are They
Engaged?
Image Credit: seizetheday
Responsiveness is the
degree to which your
Twitter audience is engaged
with whatever messages
you put out on Twitter. A
responsive audience
connects with you,
retweeting your links and
answering your questions.
They interact with your
Twitter stream.
When we talk about a
responsive email list, we’re
talking about subscribers
who are willing to buy or
take action on your offers.
Responsive Twitter
followers are similar: they
take action on your
tweets by spreading them
or talking back to you.
An easy way to measure
responsiveness is to ask a
question and see how
many people respond. The
no. of link clicks and
retweets are other factors
as well but anyone can
click on a random link: it
just shows that they ’re
interested in the link title
or story. But are they
interested in you? Actual
responses to your queries
are a good measure of
that.
A responsive Twitter
audience naturally
develops when people are
interested in you, what you
do and who you are.
Celebrities have the
most responsive
followers , many of their
subscribers even sign up for
a Twitter account just to
interact with their tweets.
They ’re actively looking
forward to reading new
tweets from their favorite
personality. This
anticipation and interest
makes them a perfect
audience for conversions
and call-to-actions.
If you’re not already
famous, you will have a
tougher time building a
responsive audience
because you don ’t get
natural interest in you
from the start. One way to
generate this interest is to
develop a reputation in
your field so that your
name or brand is known.
This means you shouldn’t
just spend your whole day
following/unfollowing,
tweeting links and chit-
chatting. You have to work
at your brand away from
Twitter. If you put out an
interesting tool or piece of
content, you ’ll get interest.
If you’re selling a product
that solves a problem,
you ’ll get interest. As you
become more known
online, you will get people
following you.
When on Twitter itself, you
can develop responsiveness
through reciprocation. By
actively interacting with
other users, you will induce
them to pay more
attention to your updates.
But don ’t just send out
updates and only talk to
people who reply to your
tweets. Actively monitor
and engage users. Over
time they will warm up to
you and responsiveness will
increase.
Remember, you don’t just
want a large follower
count. You want a
responsive group of
followers . People who are
genuinely interested in you
and people who will click
on your links, retweet you
or respond to your queries.
Ultimately this group of
Twitter followers can help
you popularize your
website or grow your
business.
My Follow Strategy for
Twitter Marketing
Image Credit:
fotographix.ca
Instead of autofollowing a
ton of people and rinsing
them out to get mutual
followers who are either
not interested or very
poorly interested in you, go
for ultra-relevant Twitter
users.
There are two types of
twitter users you can
target: people who have
the power to help your
business grow and the
average user who is a
potential customer.
Whichever type you choose
depends on your goals and
what you want to get from
Twitter.
Generally I’m more in favor
in targeting twitter users
who can best promote
my business interests so
you can get customers/
buyers/readers through
their efforts instead of your
own. Potential end-users/
customers are equally
important although you ’ll
have a tougher time trying
to determine their level of
interest in your website/
product.
Yes, you can use keywords
to track tweets and find
prospects on Twitter
directories but interacting
with each and every
prospect (there are
thousands out there) takes
a lot of time and energy. I
would prefer networking
with influencers who can
promote my site/brand in
and outside of Twitter
because they have a built-
in audience and a
platform.
Mass following can get you
followers. But it doesn ’t
drastically improve your
reputation, no matter how
attractive a high follower
count looks. A mass
follower tweeting out a
link is very different from
an authority in the field
endorsing a link by
putting it in a tweet. The
influencer is followed by a
targeted list of other taste-
makers.
The core of influence will
spiral outwards based on
the initial endorsement.
This is more powerful than
a link sent out to an auto-
follow audience. Sure, you
can easily get traffic but
your tweets are not as
effective as a voice that is
respected by your target
market.
So who should you
network with? Not just
end-users with your
keyword in their bio. But
bloggers, webmasters,
publishers, journalists and
business owners. People
who work in your field and
own web sites that can
send you links and traffic.
You can focus on
networking with the
superstars in your field but
don ’t ever forget about less
famous people. This article
by Brett Borders offers a
good explanation of why
you shouldn’t ignore the
average Twitter user
.
So in essence, you should
use Twitter as a
relationship building tool
to extract benefits from a
core group of influencers
who are relevant to your
business/website. Network
actively with the right
Twitter users, talk to them,
spread their links, give
them feedback, support
their content. Be a
participant in their
Twitter experience.
If you do this long enough,
you will eventually make
them comfortable with
helping you or promoting
your stuff either on Twitter
or away from it.
If someone talks to me very
often on Twitter, shares my
content or points me to
good resources, I ’m more
than willing to retweet
their stuff. Especially if its
great content. I wouldn ’t
think twice about it. The
desire to reciprocate is a
very powerful instinct.
Image Credit: Erica_
Marshall
And if you want to talk
about ‘going viral’, just a
few retweets from several
users with responsive
audiences and your link
will get all the momentum
it needs. You don ’t need to
build up an account with
tens of thousands of users
only to send your message
out to people who aren ’t
even half-interested in your
content.
You will gradually grow
your business or website by
getting more readers,
clients or buyers through
the help of that core
group. And after you ’ve
achieved some success,
people will naturally start
to follow you on Twitter.
And these are the best
kinds of Twitter followers
to have, people who opt-in
because they are interested
in you or your work.
Then you can concentrate
on these new batch of
followers and by
interacting with them, turn
them into people who will
actively support your
content or initiatives. Many
of them might be site
owners or bloggers as well
so this is a great way to
network and learn if you ’re
looking for some help to
improve your core business
offerings.
In terms of making money
indirectly or directly
through Twitter, I ’ve
realized that the no. of
Twitter followers you have
is not always
proportional to the
income you’ll make.
It’s not necessary to inflate
your Twitter follow count
through an automated
game of mass following.
But I understand why
people do it. It ’s the same
old strategy used on
Myspace, Facebook and
pretty much any social site
where people can ‘friend’
each other and capture
attention. The mentality is
go for maximum volume
and hook the few that will
listen.
You can go down that
route if you want but I
think you can easily achieve
the same results and more
by cultivating a high quality
list of followers and
networking smartly with
the right people. Marketing
on Twitter does not just
involve getting as many
followers as you can.
Think beyond that. If you
want followers, you should
get them to come to you.
You don ’t have to chase
after them. It’s
devastatingly easy once you
learn how to leverage
other users with
established audiences and
create bait that entices
people to opt-in because
of interest.
What do you think? Feel
free to leave a comment
below or talk to me on
Twitter!
Written by Maki
Social Media Marketing,
Twitter
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