Is Twitter Still Worth Our Time (Business Wise)?

36 replies
Hi guys,

After hearing some well-known IM gurus closing down their Twitter accounts so they can focus on the "real" profitable methods of promotion, it makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time using Twitter for my business.

Anyone else thinking the same thing?

Thanks,
Michael
#business #time #twitter #wise #worth
  • Profile picture of the author Irnes Jakupovic
    From what I've read on various forums and blogs it's really a 50-50 thing. For some it helps spread their content which will bring more prospects to you. While some others claim tweets get buried by other peoples tweets which in turn makes them useless. I highly suggest you try it out yourself and see how it goes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    Originally Posted by Michael Lee View Post

    After hearing some well-known IM gurus closing down their Twitter accounts so they can focus on the "real" profitable methods of promotion, it makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time using Twitter for my business.
    Who are these gurus? Maybe they're the ones that didn't get Twitter to begin with.
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    • Profile picture of the author lacraiger
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      Who are these gurus? Maybe they're the ones that didn't get Twitter to begin with.
      yup exactly!
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  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    I use Twitter for Web Traffic, List Building and Joint Ventures. Having a large amount of Followers has been a key to my success with Twitter.
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  • Profile picture of the author ~kev~
    If you set things up right, there is no way it would be a waste of time - because it would be automatic.

    Example - my youtube account and my twitter account are linked. When I post a new video on youtube, a link to it is posted on my twitter account automatically.

    I hardly see how that is a waste of time?

    Twitter has a lot of uses - your only limited by your imagination.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rockmanfl
      I've started using Twitter, and have some good opt-ins and and a few coversions, I think the key is too make sure you put up more than just your links and offers. I try to get know to people and make some kind of a connection, to show that I'm a real person instead of just a machine pushing a product. So I think it's worth it, if you do it right.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by Michael Lee View Post

    Hi guys,

    After hearing some well-known IM gurus closing down their Twitter accounts so they can focus on the "real" profitable methods of promotion, it makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time using Twitter for my business.

    Anyone else thinking the same thing?

    Thanks,
    Michael
    First of all, never listen to guru's.. they only tell you what will benefit them.. and it all depends on how your using twitter
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Douglas
    Twitter is still great for building a targeted niche following. For example, if you specialized in selling to real estate agents, you could simply follow all the real estate agents you can find. Over time, many of the real estate agents and their followers would follow you as well. Before you know it, you have a targeted list of real estate agents. From there you can give them free content that will help to establish yourself as the expert and build a relationship with your followers.
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    • Profile picture of the author reapr
      I guess some self professed gurus don't get it.

      For branding and list building it is good.

      For selling products and services I guess it would depend in the product or service.
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    • Profile picture of the author reapr
      Originally Posted by Ron Douglas View Post

      Twitter is still great for building a targeted niche following. For example, if you specialized in selling to real estate agents, you could simply follow all the real estate agents you can find. Over time, many of the real estate agents and their followers would follow you as well. Before you know it, you have a targeted list of real estate agents. From there you can give them free content that will help to establish yourself as the expert and build a relationship with your followers.
      You have an interesting point ,, I have heard some agents say posting open houses work well on twitter.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cringer
      Originally Posted by Ron Douglas View Post

      Twitter is still great for building a targeted niche following. For example, if you specialized in selling to real estate agents, you could simply follow all the real estate agents you can find. Over time, many of the real estate agents and their followers would follow you as well. Before you know it, you have a targeted list of real estate agents. From there you can give them free content that will help to establish yourself as the expert and build a relationship with your followers.

      Ron is spot on. Twitter is so useful you can use it to HELP YOU find new business that really all it takes is an angle to work with.

      Taking Ron's example further - imagine if you could find a list of all the real estate agencies in, say, New York. It would be useful to follow all of them in one go and then wait and see if they follow you back.

      This link should serve as an example.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbode
    If you interact with people and partially automate twitter, then yes it can be worth your time...

    I don't think it's that effective in the internet marketing niche anymore because of too many spammers
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  • Profile picture of the author Dalun
    dont spam links and build relationships with people.

    i use twitter for getting sites indexed and building backlinks
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  • Profile picture of the author Online Bliss
    Don't give up anything that gets your name
    out to the public. Branding and traffic is important!
    The ones that use hard selling tactics are what many avoid.
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  • Profile picture of the author cpa-money
    twitter people are cheap - meaning they will not spend money so fast and they like free stuff like coupons
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  • Profile picture of the author PCRoger
    I have heard of Twitter shutting down accounts that only post with blog tools, etc. - no real confirmation of that.

    Onlywire usually fails at posting to twitter because the sites over capacity and when I try to login manually I often have to try multiple times because it's "over capacity".

    Real pain.

    Regards,
    PCRoger.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan D
    Banned
    The gurus are so dramatic. Instead of just not posting to their twitter accounts, they just shut them down completely to make a point.

    At least keep the thing open if you wanted to promote something for charity.

    But yeah, it's good for relationship building..and it doesn't have to take too much time.
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  • Profile picture of the author bhopkins
    Twitter is good for driving a little traffic, but you have to strike a balance between self promotion and providing good content. Its a social site and should be used as such.
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    Bruce

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    • Profile picture of the author Cringer
      Twitter is a dark horse. If leveraged properly you can make your local biz clients thousands of dollars. On Friday my system alerted me that a person was looking for a tiling company in my area.

      a) I have a tiler as a client

      b) I put that person in touch with my client

      c) Average job for my client $2500

      d) Time it took me to set this up: 30 second
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      • Profile picture of the author nextebizguy
        Originally Posted by Cringer View Post

        Twitter is a dark horse. If leveraged properly you can make your local biz clients thousands of dollars. On Friday my system alerted me that a person was looking for a tiling company in my area.

        a) I have a tiler as a client

        b) I put that person in touch with my client

        c) Average job for my client $2500

        d) Time it took me to set this up: 30 second
        Can you elaborate more about your system? Is this something you are automating? Does your client pay you for doing this? Definitely sounds interesting.
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        • Profile picture of the author Cringer
          Originally Posted by nextebizguy View Post

          Can you elaborate more about your system? Is this something you are automating? Does your client pay you for doing this? Definitely sounds interesting.
          Hi nextbizguy,

          Yes, it's part automated, and I get paid for doing it too. it's a nice bolt-on to my offline consultancy.

          I created a report about it actually, as I know people prefer to see real examples of it. So it's attached for all to see. I was going to make it into a WSO but in the end decided to offer it as a freebie.

          It's attached to this post
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  • Profile picture of the author webstrategistpk
    Twitter is real traffic booster but its usefulness depends on its use. If you use it just dropping your afiliate links, you are for sure wasting your time. Just build a follower base and you will see a massive surge of targeted traffic on your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hesaidblissfully
    Originally Posted by Michael Lee View Post

    Hi guys,

    After hearing some well-known IM gurus closing down their Twitter accounts so they can focus on the "real" profitable methods of promotion, it makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time using Twitter for my business.
    You should use yourself as the frame of reference, not the gurus.

    Is Twitter producing results for you? If not, then why use it? If so, then why stop just because some "guru" says that they're going to stop using it?

    Remember, just because someone has some business sense or is well known doesn't mean they automatically know what's best for YOUR business. They may have a different business model, different objectives, etc. What makes sense for them might not make sense for you, and vice versa.

    Go by the results you're getting and not what someone else is saying is or isn't the next big thing.
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  • The money is not in the list the money is in the relationship you have with that list. There are people who have Twitter list of over 100K I just hit 10K I have been privileged to be ranked by Wefollow as #2 most influential in my industry.

    I build relationships with the members of my list. Use @twitterscrrenname instead of just blasting messages then once you have a built a relationship when you blast your message these people will read them. The same is also true with Facebook.
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    • Profile picture of the author webdelux
      In short yes. As search engines evolve they are including more real-time results. Tweets are getting indexed, in other words, and will increasingly get indexed more and more moving forward.
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      • Profile picture of the author Vogin
        Don't believe gurus, try it out yourself. Find a report called Twitter Up Your Business on Rockable press...
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        • Profile picture of the author abednego
          Originally Posted by Vogin View Post

          Don't believe gurus, try it out yourself. Find a report called Twitter Up Your Business on Rockable press...
          Don't believe the gurus? Hell, this place is hype central, take what everyone says with a grain of salt ...

          I agree 100%. Try it out yourself.

          But keep in mind Twitter (just like other things SHOULD be) is about building relationships. Add value and communicate. Selling your product in every tweet will be useless.
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    There seems to be some disagreement among IM "gurus" about auto following followers. I know Dan Raine and Ed ? (brain fart!) don't auto follow, and they tell people in the 30DC not to auto follow. They have thousands of followers but they're following fewer than 100 themselves. What does that say? "We want you to see what we have to say (and see what we have to sell), but we're not interested in what YOU have to say." Talk about a cyber snub!

    At least the ones who auto follow are giving you a boost, even if they don't ever interact.

    Whether or not Twitter works for IMers depends on what you use it for; what you use it for will determine HOW you use it.

    I find I get the best results from Twitter if I spend some time every week - not much - looking to see if there are any @ to my account, responding to them, thanking retweeters, and retweeting a couple tweets myself. The rest is automated - posts from my content sites and comments get auto tweeted and bring in a lot of traffic. I actually have one website where the domain name is exact match for the keywords and the Twitter account for the site outranks it for those keywords.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Twitter usefulness has gone beyond just how you use it.

      I always used it to provide my followers with relevant content on my blog
      and almost never dropped a sales link...if ever.

      But that's not good enough anymore. Now that automatic following has
      been killed, you need to promote in order to get followers just like with
      anything else.

      I had built up a following of close to 7,000 just from following a few people
      with large followings and using the automated follow feature of one of the
      third party developers. That site went belly up and since, I don't think I've
      had a follower in months...simply because I don't go out of my way to get
      them.

      So if you're not going to put the effort in to get followers, Twitter is
      pretty much a waste of time these days as they won't just come to you.

      Having said that, IF you put in the effort and provide your followers with
      something similar to a newsletter experience, you can do very well with
      Twitter.

      I know because I used to. Not so much anymore.
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      • Profile picture of the author txconx
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        <snip> Now that automatic following has been killed, <snip>
        Say what? :confused:
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  • Profile picture of the author iDevesh
    Twitter is really great for me. I'm using it to build my list and to increase my blog traffic.
    And i don't think twitter is useless in anyway.

    Thanks,
    ~Dev
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  • Profile picture of the author Fabian Tan
    If you asked me a year ago, I would say definitely 'no'.

    Now, if you ask me, I would say it's subjective, since there are many ways to use Twitter, just as there are many ways to use Facebook, Google, Skype, YouTube and all these other social networking platforms.

    These are some of the ways that Twitter is used:

    - Stream of consciousness posting (what most non-marketing people use it for)
    - Branding
    - Promotions/deals
    - Interaction with clients/customers/fans
    - Re-tweeting
    - Asking for syndication of your content
    - Market research
    - Sponsored tweets

    Sponsored tweets is definitely what I'm looking into more deeply. This involves buying a tweet from a popular personality in your market. The popular person with a lot of real followers will then send the tweet out.

    You can re-direct traffic to an opt-in page to build your list that way. It's definitely one of the more measurable ways for using Twitter, where you can measure in hard dollars and cents how much each click and lead is worth to you.

    Fabian
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  • Profile picture of the author createyouwealth
    Twitter is very profitable. The fact is that most of the marketers that market on twitter don't market the right way. There is a right way and there is a wrong way, once the right way is properly implemented, they will definitely be biting their tongues..lol
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Twitter is what you make of it.

    Tweet content, follow influential people, promote their stuff as much as you promote yours. That's helped me immeasurably.

    Ryan Biddulph
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