Value of Twitter followers vs email subscribers.

20 replies
What is more valuable in the short term and long term, twitter followers or email subscribers? Right now I have not bothered with any email list building for my site because I really want to focus on content while growing traffic, but I have been focusing on growing a twitter following with the idea that it could have some serious value as it grows. I've managed to gather 1000 followers in around two weeks and I think I'll be able to keep on getting them. What kind of value do twitter followers have and not that I am looking to sell any time soon, but what do they mean to you for assets to the web presence? Like what would a 20,000 highly specific tweep following alonside a website with decent traffic be worth in dollars (Obviously there are a million variables, but I'm just looking for a discussion)
#email #followers #subscribers #twitter
  • Profile picture of the author bigbabol
    I tend to prefer email subscribers. why? because I see phenomena that twitter account is no longer a social network, but it was a promotional event. very difficult to get targeted customers, most are mutually promote their products. haha. maybe I'm wrong, but I really see this event. how other opinions?
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    • Profile picture of the author BenFromSoMo
      Originally Posted by bigbabol View Post

      I tend to prefer email subscribers. why? because I see phenomena that twitter account is no longer a social network, but it was a promotional event. very difficult to get targeted customers, most are mutually promote their products. haha. maybe I'm wrong, but I really see this event. how other opinions?
      Yeah I definitely could see that being the case in certain niches especially IM related ones. I'm dealing in a very consumer rich niche with lots of genuine followers, but obviously a good number of promoters as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author Zach Crawley
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      • Profile picture of the author paulie888
        Originally Posted by zachcrawley View Post

        I agree, at least in the IM niche that is the case for sure. I try to use twitter to connect with people and occasionally post my links .. but no one listens anymore. They're all too busy promoting their own crap.

        and like resale rights ninja said, it doesn't even compare to the quality and value a list could provide.
        In the IM niche, I think it can be unequivocally said that Twitter followers are pretty much going to be far less valuable than email subscribers. We have a whole slew of Twitter automation tool/software creators to thank for this, as everyone and his dog has been using them to spam the heck out of people in the IM niche.
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  • twitter followers are mostly useless. it does not even compare to having a list.
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    • Profile picture of the author SparringMind
      Originally Posted by Resale Rights Ninja View Post

      twitter followers are mostly useless. it does not even compare to having a list.
      I am going to quote this so anyone with the same question reads it again. Twitter is borderline useless when compared to an email list.
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  • Profile picture of the author mattjay
    BUYER email lists is the best thing since sliced bread.
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  • Although you know what? I can see immediate traffic when I tweet and also get more sales so as much as twitter isn't my favorite thing it does have value.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Twitter? Is that thing still around? Seriously, in my honest opinion, Twitter is an absolute waste of time. There are much better things you could spend your time on such as building an email list or a Facebook fanpage. These will be much more successful for you.

    Twitter is slowly following the same fate as MySpace. Someone has done the job better (Facebook) and they don't know what to do. They still haven't even figured out how to make money from it without pi**ing people off. The doors will close one day soon... you just wait and see.
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  • Profile picture of the author Giftys
    There's a big misconception about Twitter followers. You don't have to have them to market successfully. Regardless, your list is more valuable hands-down. It's more like having them in your back pocket.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Hooper
    What matters isn't whether it's Twitter, email, or (insert trendy site here). What matters is the CONNECTION you have with the people reading the message. Work on building that and they'll follow you wherever you go.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dzierba
    I feel like the value of twitter followers has been dramatically decreasing. There are more and more marketers on twitter and people are getting more and more used to the @ tweets thrown at them by spam accounts and the offers tweeted at them. Plus you only have less than 140 characters to convince your person to click through to whatever you're promoting. You also have the possibility of being banned by twitter which kills all of your twitter marketing in one shot unless you're managing multiple accounts. With email marketing you can send longer messages and have those subscribers forever or until they unsubscribe. Plus people never part with their email, but they may check twitter less and less often.
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    • Profile picture of the author bigbabol
      Originally Posted by Dzierba View Post

      I feel like the value of twitter followers has been dramatically decreasing. There are more and more marketers on twitter and people are getting more and more used to the @ tweets thrown at them by spam accounts and the offers tweeted at them. Plus you only have less than 140 characters to convince your person to click through to whatever you're promoting. You also have the possibility of being banned by twitter which kills all of your twitter marketing in one shot unless you're managing multiple accounts. With email marketing you can send longer messages and have those subscribers forever or until they unsubscribe. Plus people never part with their email, but they may check twitter less and less often.
      Right. Very unfortunate. probably same thing in other social networks. Email marketing strategy "no spam" over the long term. Simple logic: if you like it, subscribe. if you do not like to unsubscribe.
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  • Profile picture of the author alcymart
    I will reply on this one... I have both. A subs list and Twitter followers, and although some will prefer one to another, thus far, my personal experience shows that my twitter followers holds more value, however, please understand that one needs to write "Very" good Headlines to get a Tweeper to click a link. Without good headlines, the e-mail list then becomes more valuable.

    Some will argue that a good headline or body is also part of an e-mail. But bottom line is as of this writing, and considering I can write good Headlines within 140 characters or less, the twitter medium has proven more valuable to my business. I took me 12 days to reach 10,000 followers and I get 10 to 20 clicks a day yielding 1 to 3 sales a day. A 10k subs list would yield no sales most times. I admit this would be from a not so fresh list of subs. Results would be different if subs were fresh from less than a week.

    I'm still studying and fine tuning the twitter medium to my business as I think it holds more value long term.

    Bernard St-Pierre
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  • Profile picture of the author tmoby
    It depends, you could have a niche targeted email list and you could also have a niche targeted twitter account. In this case email marketing is better. You could also have a million untargeted scraped emails and a million twitter followers. In this case twitter is hands down better.

    Most people here are underestimating Twitter. I admit in some aspects it's not as good as it used to be, but it's more of a numbers game. You can achieve IMMENSE traffic and viral activity through the use of twitter through re-tweets. Not to mention pay per tweet programs are very lucrative depending on how large your following is.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Loop
    Double opt-in email subscribers that you've accumulated organically are 1,000 times more valuable that any Twitter follower. It's like building your own tribe if you know how to establish trust, liking, and build rapport.

    Too much noise on Twitter for most to be concerned with what you have to say. You can get good targeted leads from there, but it's not as easy as it used to be. Your time is best spent building an email list.
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  • Profile picture of the author DeadRooster
    I did a little experiment on Twitter. At the time, I had around 8K followers.

    I tweeted: "If you see this tweet, please let me know... I want to see if my tweets are being seen by anyone."

    I did this at various times of day. Guess how many people responded out of EIGHT THOUSAND followers?

    The MOST responses I ever got was 7. And this was back when EVERYONE and their brother was wasting their day on Twitter.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jack Bastide
      I have tested that as well with Similar Results

      Back in 2009 I would get 50 or 60 responses
      with 5k Followers

      Now I have 35K Followers and only get 1 or 2
      responses

      For "Mass Marketing" Twitter is pretty much dead

      Its still good for building relationships one on one though

      Jack

      Originally Posted by DeadRooster View Post

      I did a little experiment on Twitter. At the time, I had around 8K followers.

      I tweeted: "If you see this tweet, please let me know... I want to see if my tweets are being seen by anyone."

      I did this at various times of day. Guess how many people responded out of EIGHT THOUSAND followers?

      The MOST responses I ever got was 7. And this was back when EVERYONE and their brother was wasting their day on Twitter.
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