Teens tweet. Teens don’t tweet. Sobering Twitter stats. Great Twitter stats. How to make money. How to auto tweet. How to be a chump and get unfollowed immediately.
These are just a few of the many posts I’ve seen recently talking about Twitter. But so what? Here’s my ten cents on all things Twitter. I’d welcome your thoughts, ideas even your disagreements.
1. To enable face to face conversations. Sounds like industry jargon to you? Don’t buy it? Too bad. Thanks to the search functions (and my ability to precision stalk) I have been able to find, follow, make brilliant connections for others as well as develop relationships with some of the smartest, brightest minds in my industry. I’d even say that I’ve made a couple of really good industry friends, thanks to twitter.
2. You don’t have to search for it. It can find you. I used to monitor content, conversations and topics by simply using the search function or # tag function within Twitter. That works but isn’t nearly as effective as using the search function on TweetDeck – A great friend of mine @KeithBurtis <yes. we did discover each other via twitter. Yes we are great mates. Yes we have face 2 face convos, and even meet for drinks when we can> pointed this out to me recently. I’ve never looked back. Looking for a job? Imagine if every tweet that has the word “Job” in it came directly to your Tweet Deck section?
3. Change the world! Yes - I am crazy enough to believe that I can change the world for the better. I do it in a lot of ways, but I also do it through twitter. My @kilos4kids project raised awareness for Rodney Stafford. It was an experiment where I could only control one variable. @dannybrown <Yes. I met him on twitter. Yes he is a great friend. Yes we have had several face to face convos and even meet for drinks when we can. PS! He lives 15 minutes drive from me too!> Anyway, @DannyBrown has been featured in Marketing Profs for his brilliant mind that is helping to change the planet for the better. Check out @12for12k
4. Follow me or else! What a load of bollocks! This is such a chumpy thing to say, tweet about or do. Honest to goodness people! I follow a lot of people that don’t follow me back but I don’t get my knickers in a knot over it. Why? Because they’re smart people and I get value from their thought process, links, tweets, or conflicting opinions on something. Furthermore, did you ever consider why they haven’t followed you back? It’s not always about you my friend. Mind you, if you’re tweeting up a storm threatening to unfollow those who don’t follow you back… well…
5. Listening in on live events. Hashtags people! Get to know them. Get to love them. Make them your friend.
6. Spammers! MLMers! Affiliate Marketers and any other chumps on twitter broadcasting your crap all over the place. Stop it! Stop it! STOP! The Successful people in this space all live by the law of sewing and reaping. <this rule doesn’t apply to celebrites… and I’m pretty sure there may be another exception out there> PS – @Spam finds the spammers and other chumps annoying the rest of us on twitter and disables their accounts. If you come across a twitter handle that needs to be outed… do us all a favor and tweet an introduction to @Spam. Eg. “@spam – meet @Spammer”
We will respond if we think you actually give a damn. I am one of those people who absolutely gets the law of sewing and reaping. I live by it. I work by it. It’s manifest in all that I do. I think I have a tendency to expect the same in return. My friend @keithBurtis has articulated a golden rule for this space. Wanna know what it is? Check it out here.
7. Auto Tweeting! (sigh) there are definitely two trains of thought here. I clearly support only one of these. Here we go – I believe this space is successful because it’s real. It’s human. Therefore, I do not auto anything on twitter. I don’t autofollow because I don’t know if your tweets are going to just stream me garbage or not. So I’ll go to your profile and check three things: 1. You have a profile pic. 2. Scan your last five or so tweets to get a sense of who you are. 3. Your profile/ web link / blog link etc. This all takes time. When I do follow you… it’s because I think you’re smart and that we are likeminded and perhaps that I could somehow support your effort, work, profile. If I don’t follow you… and you choose to unfollow me. Great! I’m not in it for the numbers. @BrandBuilder and @kethBurtis we’re tweeting about this very thing. It’s quality not quantity. 30,000 chumpy followers means squat. 1,000 smart, good quality followers is far more valuable. If you follow someone and want to get on their radar faster? DM them. @ them or go to their links and read up on them… show them why they should stop everything and get to know you better. Some lousy affiliate marketing message broadcast or MLM scheme is not going to cut it!
8. Teens don’t tweet! So what? First of all the leading authority here is @Carol_phillips and her site www.millennialmarketing.com is brilliant. Teens use social to further bond their friendships. That’s why facebook is ideal for them. Twitter has a lot to do with promotion, networking, making connections and business. There are exceptions… and I personally follow a ridiculously smart group of children on Twitter. @PencilBugs is a smartypants.
9. Pareto’s Law! 80/20 people! Why does this surprise everyone… 80% of people on twitter may not be for you. So what!? 20% are. I don’t feel like I need to belabour this but seriously. My 20% on Twitter? I’ve been able to get them jobs, introduce them to business partners who have since gone on to do great things. Helped someone set up his own gig. Found a publisher in San Fran for my mate in England – guess what I got a few months later? A copy of his published book… although not with original publisher. But my point is this. You don’t need 30,000 chumpy followers to be able to achieve great things. My modest 1000 and some followers allows me to change the worlds of many of my twitter connections which by default – enables me to change my world. HAH! You see how I just brought that round?
10. I get to learn! Lots! This space is in the midst of a massive evolution. I learn loads from the people I follow, their shared links, their thought processes and profiles… but I also continue to learn about technology, social everything and more. If you can make a point of following the virtual cookie crumb trails you can discover worlds you never knew existed.
Twitter is valuable if you know how to use it! I leave you with this visual I first discovered in a ZigZiglar book – I believe it was called… See You At The Top. A gentlemen gets a brand new car but no key. He is later seen cruising through the town sittig on top of the roof of his car… being pulled by multiple horses. The point is this… the car works fine. He just didn’t have the key to turn it on.
Sep 01st by Shannon
If you were seeing a computer for the first time… would you fully understand what it could do for you? What value it could bring you? Why it may be worth having one? No! You wouldn’t!
