Are you a twit to tweet

[bizwebman]

Is twitter a good social medium to sell to customers or is it really just another way of communicating that us marketers have muscled in on?

Much is made about getting a following by giving out information, answering questions and basically showing empathy hoping at some stage to surreptitiously get a sale of some sort from a small percentage of followers who want to hear what we have to sell.

I know it is just another tool in the marketers armory, but is it really worth the time and effort?

I would be very interested to know if anyone had any real success using twitter?

Grahame

[Robb43]

I think that it can be both if you are careful with how you treat you followers. meaning not spamming them. With that said you do have access to important people like Frank Kern and other of that sort. (if they are big Tweeters)

Rob

[freudianslip27]

The twitter crowd is certainly different than many other social avenues, in that the people are there mostly to network and explore interests online, compared to something like facebook where a large amount of people are just there hanging out.

Approach these people appropriately and they will be responsive for you, its certainly not a waste of time!

Matt

[vertabatim]

I have over 100 followers on twitter yet my Analytics account say I only have 2 clicks from Twitter. This is probably because I have no idea what is going on in the Twitter world but I would have thought that over 100 followers and daily tweets would get more traffic than 2.

[Paul Lear]

I would say no, people just don't go to Twitter to buy. They use it to socialize and they are not in the mood for buying.

If you want to find hungry buyers who practically have wallet in hand, then use ebay to advertise your goods or services. You can use their buy now format or classified ads which I believe you can list for free?

Me personally, I would never use Twitter to sell.

Paul.

[bizwebman]

Okay guys, generally you reckon its good for networking, but not for selling.

I hear much about celebrities and well know individuals gaining mass followers, like Ashton Kutcher in the US and Stephen Fry in the UK. Great if that's all you want and people can't wait to hear what time you blow dried your hair.

What I was trying to determine is whether anyone has actually had any success because they have used twitter i.e promoting your own website or whatever and if it is worth the effort with this particular medium?

Grahame

[chrisgarrett]

I have sold product and services via tweets, and driven a lot of traffic. Just like email expect a CTR, not all of your twitter followers are going to even see your tweet when you send it so don't expect all of them to click. It's not a direct sales channel, when people have bought from me because of tweets it's because they have gotten to know, like and trust me first.

I built a list of over 1,000 subscribers using twitter alone, and that list converts nicely.

[John Cabral]

Here is my experience with Twitter over past 2 months. During this time I have been able to generate almost 3000 clicks per CB stats but have yet to get a sale. Thats with almost 5K following me.

Unless all the people you are following are following just a few people you are almost forced to send your tweets every few minutes or they will not appear on the front page.

To me twitters have just been clickers and not buyers so I am not using it as much.

[chrisgarrett]

Originally Posted by John Cabral

Here is my experience with Twitter over past 2 months. During this time I have been able to generate almost 3000 clicks per CB stats but have yet to get a sale. Thats with almost 5K following me.

How much of a relationship do you have with your followers?

Personally, I would send your followers to content, and use that content to get opt-in, with the email follow ups preparing the sale.

Yes I have converted twitter clicks directly to an offer, but I have worked very hard to build trust and a tightly knit group of followers.

[shaddai]

Guy Kawasaki seems to make it work just fine for promoting alltop...180,000 followers can't be wrong :-) There was an 10 min mp3 interview explaining his method, but do you think I can find it now? Nooooo....if you want it, PM me, I'll post the file on a server & let you grab it.

Anyway, this is my method with twitter & you can pick what you want if you like:

1.) Pick your niche. Figure out what you're selling, and who's most interested in it.
2.) Hit twitterholic.com and dig. Follow people that have a close to even follower to following count that are in your niche. Don't bother following barack obama or britney spears. They're more likely to score you untargetted followers anyway & waste your time cleaning your followers out.
3.) You'll start getting followers now, watch your followers for people in your niche. Follow them back. If they aren't in your niche, block them...new followers will keep coming anyway.
****Note: Be careful of followers that will 'bridge your niche'. I followed a guy who was marketing dating sites (oops!!) I followed him based on his being a real person and his feed being full of useful marketing tips. However, I wound up getting followed by 800 girlygirl19's who just dumped her BF in NYC & was looking for a new one. ****
4.) Dig through your followers, or the people you're following & look at their followers, again, follow those who will follow back. Send your new followers a quick little DM saying "Hey, thanks for the follow! Hope you're having a great day, happy twittering!"
5.) Get to friendfeed.com, create an account and hook your twitter feed to it. If there's a group that fits your niche, follow it, jump in it & let your twitter work grow you there too.
6.) Develop an auto post setup, write some php or get on twitterfeed.com or something...put out content that's INTERESTING to your niche. I'm still experimenting, but it seems 1 post about every 20 mins works well. Change the times (if you can) around a little to close the door on twitter thinking you're a bot. If you put links out, use bit.ly because it's pretty familiar on twitter, and it will let you know what's popular with your audience and what isn't.
7.) Keep tweaking your process till it works!

Anyway, I started an account last friday (10/30..10/31 or whatever), and today (11/8) I'm sitting with 590 followers that are 100% my target niche. Click through rates move from about 5%-20% of followers depending on what's posted & what time of day. I did hit a snag on gaining new followers Thursday night, but I'm not sure what happened. I was at 530 then, it got stuck there till last night, and I've gained 60 since. I think it may have been me stopping with the little DM thank you notes about then...

Happy twittering!
Todd

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by chrisgarrett

How much of a relationship do you have with your followers?

Personally, I would send your followers to content, and use that content to get opt-in, with the email follow ups preparing the sale.

Yes I have converted twitter clicks directly to an offer, but I have worked very hard to build trust and a tightly knit group of followers.

The problem with building relations is that is no longer as easy as most think. The problem lies withthe number of people your followers are following.

Say a person is following say 500 and those 500 each send out 5 tweets that's 2500 tweets and unless your tweet is on their first page guess what they will most likely never see yours.

So how do you build a relationship with these people? Almost impossible. Just image those that are following thousands.

Build relationship? Yes if all those that you are following are only following you otherwise its a hopeless case unless you are tweeting every minute.

[shaddai]

Those that use auto tweets are gone from my list (except my friends)

I should have clarified a little in my post above about that. The auto-poster is just there to keep some content rolling through...mine posts one liner jokes It's not there to take the place of a person.

You do need to make a personal connection with followers in any way possible. That's part of what the little hand written DM messages were about.

Todd

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by shaddai

I should have clarified a little in my post above about that. The auto-poster is just there to keep some content rolling through...mine posts one liner jokes It's not there to take the place of a person.

You do need to make a personal connection with followers in any way possible. That's part of what the little hand written DM messages were about.

Todd

I have received over 1500 DM's of which I have no desire to read as even those are being abused.

[shaddai]

With 1500, I wouldn't blame you!

However, if you get one from me, just know I wrote it :-)

[patjospehs]

Anyone want to share with us their ROI in terms of dollars earned on Twitter per hour spent marketing there? I don't have many followers, but compared to my blogs and e-mail marketing efforts, my twitter ROI is almost non-existent.

[Kevin_Hutto]

Originally Posted by Robb43

I think that it can be both if you are careful with how you treat you followers. meaning not spamming them. With that said you do have access to important people like Frank Kern and other of that sort. (if they are big Tweeters)

Rob

Frank Kern deleted his twitter account -- said he didnt see the ROI.

[808glass]

Q: Are you a twit to tweet?

A: YES

[chrisgarrett]

Originally Posted by Kevin_Hutto

Frank Kern deleted his twitter account -- said he didnt see the ROI.

That's fantastic

I hope lots of people follow him in that, will make it easier for those of us using the platform profitably

My advice (not that it was asked for, heh) is to test and see what works for you, and focus on the people behind the avatars rather than seeing it as yet another "feed".

But, you know, YMMV

There is enough stuff in this big old internet marketing world that nobody needs to agree on anything.

[ExtraB]

I am not totally sure on this one... but I know Frank Kern did have an account he stopped using.... but I'm sure he has another one... not sure of the exact name but I think it's called MassControl or something like that.

I actually heard a good story about what John Reese did with his Twitter account. He basically decided to do a mass unfollow of everyone. And he was very happy afterwards.

Bill Platt wrote a cool report (its free - no opt-in or upsells or anything to get it)... in the report he talks about gaining a lot of followers without using autofollow tools or following back. In the report he tells the story about John Reese. You can have a look over at:

How To Grow Your Twitter Followers - On Autopilot - FREE Download

Is there anyone out there who can confirm Frank Kern's new Twitter account name?

Thanks
Eric

[bizwebman]

Thanks guys I appreciate all the advice. It seems that if used properly twitter can be of good use.

I personally have not been using it relying more on conventional comms, like email, skype etc. Whether I am convinced that I need twitter is still in the melting pot.

G