Twitter marketing thoughts?

[MSGeek]

I noticed that everybody pitching Twitter marketing says something like "Today marketing is not just one way, it's a two way conversation..." And here is my problem with that. That's simply not true. There were always types of marketing that were two-way communications:

• Telemarketing services
• Door-to-door sales
• Bible and Encyclopedia salesmen

You see the tendency? There were marketing geniuses in the past, who made millions in marketing, but they did it mostly one way and strategic two way. And there were always those doing two way mass marketing -- poor souls hired at the minimum wage or scrapping to get to the next day...

So, two way marketing is not new. It was always available to those without startup means. Is it what we are pitching speaking of Twitter Marketing? Selling encyclopedias door to door and telemarketing sweatshops?

Does it mean that those who will make a lot of money on Twitter will have a bunch of low-paid folks sitting in crowded rooms with computers twitting and building relationships with their followers?

[AffiliateTraining]

I think you're right, in some ways, but these days it's "pull technology" (the Internet) rather than "push technology" (Television, for example) and people are making their own choices on how they allow marketing into their lives.

That's different from the examples you mention, but then the examples you mention were pretty much about "push" anyway. A two-way conversation, indeed, but not - probably - through choice on the part of the potential customer

I think the only people who are, and who will in the future (if the big T even exists in a year or two), make any money from Twitter will be those who have REAL two-way conversations. That's what makes the world go around after all.

~ Paul

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by MSGeek

Does it mean that those who will make a lot of money on Twitter will have a bunch of low-paid folks sitting in crowded rooms with computers twitting and building relationships with their followers?

My guess is not, seeing how keen Twitter are to ban people's accounts at the moment for "marketing".

I won't be very surprised if the general phenomenon of "Twitter marketing" turns out soon to be a declining one, to be honest: one need only look around various other forums to see many accounts of people being banned there for such tricks as following hundreds of people and then un-following all the ones who don't follow them back, sending out spammy tweets, and so on. Good for Twitter, really, I think, if they can make it a bit more sociable and fit for its original purpose?

[AffiliateTraining]

Yeah, totally agree with you Alexa.

I've got something ridiculous like 120,000 followers on Twitter, across 4-5 accounts, and quite honestly I've probably got about 30-40 people I speak to regularly.

I thought it was great to start with, and I still check in daily to get news on various things, but it's the poor relation to Facebook. FB is so much better, for almost everything, so I'd be surprised if T don't have to change their entire business model at some point soon.

[goldmind123]

Twitter Marketing isn't about followers..

It's indeed about FINDING people who want your offer and asking for it....

[AffiliateTraining]

"It's indeed about FINDING people who want your offer and asking for it...."

Doh! That's so wrong. If you're trying to sell directly through Twitter, you're doing everything back to front. The first rule of Twitter is "I'm not on here looking to be offered anything". The quicker you get that, the better you'll do ;-)

[MSGeek]

Paul, that's exactly what I suspect may happen: sweatshops (or "work from home" versions) where minimum wage workers build real two way conversations after provided with some training how to do that. I even can see a sad picture, where "social media account associate" handles several "virtual identities" and proudly puts it on resume.

The problem is, Internet age or not, you only can sustain a reasonable income in two way communications if you sell some big ticket items. With TV and other mass media gone, industrialization of smaller items is on one hand inevitable, on another hand it's likely to end up like this.

Alexa: I agree, Twitter definitely is going to change. For too many people the main attraction of the Twitter is how many people follow them. To achieve that they follow a lot of people. That exposes growth of the demand on Twitter servers that's technically impossible to match in the long run. I suspect they will try to put harder stops on the number of "friends" (like Facebook did) while replacing number of followers with some other attractive metrics. IMHO, it could be how many times you are retweeted or what percent of your tweets got retweeted. That model will be sustainable. I've noticed they already put emphasis on retweets.

As to driving marketing out, that's a Red Queen race, it will never be stopped, as it was never welcome there in the first place. Did you see Perry Belcher launch video? That's technically undetectable marketing. Sales letters are 2-4 links removed from the tweets.

[AffiliateTraining]

Jeez, yeah, I saw Perry Belcher's thing. Erm, I'll choose not to comment on that

I think, like with almost every other communication outlet (let's forget about marketing, because it's all about communication at the end of the day) that Twitter is cool if you're there to build relationships with people. If you're only there to sell your stuff, then you're in the wrong place and anyone who says otherwise is wrong.

It's cool to be cool. Doesn't matter if you're on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else, people are interested in people and if all they're trying to do is sell them stuff then it's immediately obvious that they've got no long term plan for their business. Selling straight off the bat on Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, or whatever, is simply a one-hit wonder type of strategy. "One Hit" being the best you can expect.

I hear what you're saying about big ticket items too.... I'm OK in the casino/poker type industry these days (as an affiliate, come speaker, come consultant... whatever you want to call it) and I've got the funnel process pretty well nailed. Low-cost lead ins, upsells and downsells, then into proper seminars where the people we teach walk away with a website come franchise opportunity.

I couldn't possibly do that just from T though. That's just one little thing in the bigger picture.

[goldmind123]

Originally Posted by AffiliateTraining

"It's indeed about FINDING people who want your offer and asking for it...."

Doh! That's so wrong. If you're trying to sell directly through Twitter, you're doing everything back to front. The first rule of Twitter is "I'm not on here looking to be offered anything". The quicker you get that, the better you'll do ;-)

Who said you'll start selling directly on twitter?!!

Who is the dump a**s who go to a platform like twitter and screams"come'n guys.. buy my stuff" and expect to get results?

That's actually what most marketers are doing on Twitter, and that's why they are miserably failing...
Again, twitter has many "hidden" features that a clever marketer can use to make a profit without abusing the system, and without annoying people, and again, without chasing thousands of followers...

[scarcius121]

I hate Twitter for all those reasons. I hate getting emails saying that "so and so" is following me on Twitter just to find out its some bot trying to sell me something. I don't have any personal friends I talk to on Twitter right now, but I use FB regularly.

I wish I could find a use for Twitter...

[MSGeek]

Originally Posted by AffiliateTraining

I think, like with almost every other communication outlet (let's forget about marketing, because it's all about communication at the end of the day) that Twitter is cool if you're there to build relationships with people. If you're only there to sell your stuff, then you're in the wrong place and anyone who says otherwise is wrong.

I suspect that's what Alexander Graham Bell said when he heard of the first unsolicited telemarketing call over his telephone. I don't like marketing on Twitter either, I am just saying that it's presence there seems to be inevitable.

Originally Posted by goldmind123

... twitter has many "hidden" features that a clever marketer can use to make a profit without abusing the system...

"TwitterMethod"?

Originally Posted by AffiliateTraining

I couldn't possibly do that just from T though.

I believe most Twitter Marketing apologists use it mostly for list building first, or, alternatively, one time sales without a proper funnel at all (the second thing also makes me think that the whole thing should be not sustainable without a scale and cheap labor)