In the world of new technology, you will always get the ‘nay sayers’ or the people who don’t believe that its going to work, or evolve into any kind of worthwhile practice.
Courtesy of misstechie.wordpress.com
That’s what its like for Twitter, a lot of the time. Because Twitter is so time consuming, and let’s be honest – difficult to use as an effective sales tool – we get people putting it down, writing it off and bleating about how rubbish it is every chance they get. This is obviously because they have tried, and failed to make money off the platform, or worse – just can’t stand how it works.
The Delicious Truth About Twitter
This is mostly because people have unrealistic expectations when they start to use the platform. Recent statistics suggest that the most active Twitter accounts are celebrities, large corporations, famous businessmen and other marketers.
As the months roll by, more and more ‘real’ people are signing onto Twitter, for recreational reasons. There is this false perception that because there are 14 million US users alone, that most of these people are ‘real’ people, or a primed market waiting to buy something.
Being Active About Your Community
The real truth of the matter is that many Twitter accounts that are the most active, and therefore have the highest potential for relationship development and sales – are other marketers. Too many marketers dismiss this fact, and alienate themselves from a growing community of ‘other marketers who also like to buy things.’ Marketers on Twitter are not the enemy. They need to be viewed as a potential sales base.
The only problem is, that because Twitter is still a newborn on the internet – most of these marketers have no idea how to use it properly. They spend hours sending out promotional material about themselves or their businesses, and they don’t truly make the relationship connections they should.
As this changes (and it will change) more and more marketers will begin to see the value in JV partnerships, sales and relationships made on Twitter with other marketers.
Your Primary Goals Revealed
If the goal on Twitter is to gather a community of interested ‘potential consumers,’ then other business people will surely have to be a large part of that. They have the most reason to spend time on Twitter, and are more likely to read your feed than ‘real’ people.
As more sign ups happen everyday, and mobile technology spreads the Twitter bug around the globe, we will see a shift to more ‘real’ people with active accounts. Eventually and hopefully, Twitter will become as active as Facebook.
So when you are marketing on Twitter, keep in mind that many of the people who read your feed are also trying to sell something to you. If you can interest them in what you’re selling, there’s hope for your services or product.
In the meantime, keep building your community and trying to connect with people any way you can. Reach out to other marketers and make friends. Stimulate a genuine Twitter community that goes beyond sales, competition and frivolous posting of random nonsense.
What do you think about the ‘real’ users of Twitter? Let us know!
January 21, 2011 at 4:48 am
Highlighting your connections (ie, Twitter) is a great way to display social proof
January 21, 2011 at 8:41 am
@ Kathrine – We agree, and that gets you more interaction in the long run!