I just don't get Twitter

Some nasty little twitter "secrets":
- most accounts are dead/abandoned
- those who are not dead are dormant
- those who participate do it sporadically

Twitter is popular because popular people promote
it. It's great for their ego: they have a large number of
followers to show everybody.

The problem is that those followers don't feel as
excited about twitter.

Check this out:
TechCrunch (TechCrunch) on Twitter

One of the links they posted yesterday got a
whooping 673 clicks:
http://bit.ly/bWwEBm+

Techcrunch number of followers? 1,483,814
CTR: 0,045%

Tyrus

Social media marketing is all about providing value (content). You can't just promote your business, you have to give away some free content. To gain interest, I suggest you send out tips, facts, how-tos, etc. Free videos are great, post something on YouTube and promote it on Twitter.

Your observations are totally right, lot of marketer send out automated tweets and loads of them.

You can however get some quality followers who would be actually interested in what you are doing and tweeting but it would take so much time as you really have to be up close and personal and spend lot of time on twitter so you really have to think if you can maybe use your time more constructively.

I'm with you man. I have a few twitter accounts myself and I am trying to force myself to do more of it but I have shared many of your thoughts. It took me about 5 times of someone having to explain it to me before I even understood what the value of it was. I kept saying "That's it? That's all it does?". I have picked up some useful bits of information on there via tweets and maybe I'll fall in love with it more but as of now I'm a little skeptical of its longevity.

the idea behind twitter and even facebook is to promote conversation. HUman beings are naturally social creatures which is the reason for hte social media boom that we are no experiencing. So many people just post promotional ads and such or even just focus on giving out free info. Its not always about giving value or building a brand..its about building conversation and discussion about and around your brand. Using twitter in conjunction with facebook and other social media sites builds up a reason for people to talk about you..they see that you have multiple profiles and get the feeling that you will be around for a while..then when they see that your updates and tweets come off as actual discussions they choose to participate and that puts your brand on their mind everytime they have similar conversations

You are following too many people.

Twitter is not meant for internet marketing. Can it be used for internet marketing, sure, but following thousands of people to get thousands of followers in return isn't going to get you anywhere.

Successful twitter marketers have a following of people who care about what they have to tweet.

Here is a tip:

Promote your twitter account on your website or on your list or where ever you go to reach out to people and let them follow you by choice.

Let your twitter account grow organically. Don't force it, it's a waste of time.

Do not auto follow other marketers... you are already seeing the spammy results of this.

Twitter is very good tool for social people. If you subscribe to a hold bunch of business friends then that is what you will see a whole bunch of business ads. If you sign up to talk to your friends then you will get a whole bunch of personal messages from all your friends. Your job as marketer is to develop friends and let them know what you do. The business will come because you are branding yourself through a true friendship. Stop trying to send a sale message every 2 post. Send 2 ads out 20 post and you will get better friends. Send joke, send news, send what you are doing right now, etc....

Glad someone else posed the question and appreciate all the comments. I did not and still don't quite understand what all the fuss is about with twitter! Glad to know I am not the only one.

Twitter was amazing in its infancy. It was a great place to communicate, get to know people and drive traffic.

But, that has all pretty much fizzled out.... Now it's just kind of annoying and full of spammers.

Twitter makes it very easy to approach or get noticed by people who otherwise may ignore you.

Use it as a way to build up a relationship with your peers or your customers and work on it from there. Show interest in what they are tweeting and you'll be suprised at how easy it is to get them to show the same interest in you.

Networking is very powerful

Im the opposite, I think it's a terrific tool

I have to agree... I just don't get Twitter...

They better get their IPO out there before they implode...

If you use Twitter for networking with people it's more useful ... if you use it for blasting out commercial messages, it's less useful.

I just cleaned out my Twitter account. All commercial messages were unfollowed and now I'm seeing some real conversations going on and people that I enjoy following.

I used to follow a bunch of people and got tweeted to death. That was it for me. Also, the people who used the "follow everyone" method of getting followers also cannot see your tweets in the tidal wave of incessant noise.

TomG.

PS - I think it might have some linking value, though.

You have to take off your "Internet Marketer" hat and put on your "Typical Twitter User" hat.

People basically use Twitter for 3 reasons:

1. To follow famous people.

2. To promote themselves (businesses, internet marketers, bands, etc...)

3. To socialize with their friends (and in some cases to make new friends).

Twitter won't work for you unless you adapt your marketing to one of the 3 ways people use the site. If you're not famous, then that leaves options 2 & 3. People who are there mainly to promote themselves aren't interested in your offers, unless MAYBE your offer helps them promote themselves. And even then, they have to see your offer in the first place, and they may not if they're just there to promote themselves, because they're ignoring everyone else's Tweets.

So that leaves # 3: Socializing. You'll get better results by focusing on following a smaller number of people who actually USE Twitter regularly as a tool to socialize, and who may have a need for your product or service. Follow people who actually communicate and engage in conversations with other people on the site.

If you're following a bunch of internet marketers hoping that some of them will buy your internet marketing guide if you tweet about it enough, that's not going to work very well (Unless maybe you're a famous internet marketer).

On the other hand, if you're, say, a copywriter or a graphic designer and you follow a few active Twitter users who might need copywriting/graphic design services, and you engage them in a back and forth conversation and establish a bit of a relationship then they'll be more likely to check out what you have to offer.

Twitter is the ULTIMATE 'permission marketing' medium - if you
choose to use it that way!

If you 'follow' folks willy-nilly in the hope that they will
follow you back, and thus boost the size of your 'following',
then be prepared for the natural fall-out... a tweet-stream
that's crowded, cluttered and clueless.

But if you pick and choose the folks to follow and enagage
with, then Twitter is STILL one of the most amazing online
networking tools of all time.

I have a personal "Rule of FORTY" - which is the upper limit
of how many folks I follow on Twitter. It has enriched my
Twitter experience beyond all expectations, and I suggest it
to anyone who asks

All success

Dr.Mani
@drmani on Twitter
.

Other people have already said this, but I'd like to chip in anyway.

Twitter is not an advertising platform, it is a social network. Yet, for some strange reason, so many business people don't understand this concept.

People don't go to twitter to read "tweetvertisements", anymore than they watch tv to see the commercials. They go there to catch up with their friends, and update their status. It's facebook for those who have no time, or no life.

Forget about your product or service. You're the only one who cares about it. Just be a normal person and interact with your followers. Tweet about what you're doing, share a funny video. If you post a useful article on your site, tweet about it. From there, you can promote your product.

Or, you could tweet about a discount for a product you have that is already popular to begin with.

Think about it. You wouldn't go to a forum just to post ads, would you? Why? Because you would be banned. A forum is a community, not an advertising platform. Those people who interact like normal people and provide good, high quality information are the ones who get the most traffic. Why? Because they understand the simple concept of acceptable social behavior online, and they obey the rules of the community.

In return, the community rewards them by visiting their site.

If you act like a normal person on twitter, and consistently provide useful information, people will visit your site out of sheer curiosity.

If you just spam your ad on twitter hoping to make a quick buck, forget about it. You'll be lost in the crowd of marketers who just don't get it.

Twitter leaves me fazed as well! But as you said, it does provide a valuable link!

The owner of a bar near my place organises dinners and other events form time to time. He send the invites to his Facebook fans. Then on the day of the event he tweets last minute details. He is making good money.

There is life beyond IM.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who doesn't get Twitter. Everything moves so fast, I wonder how anyone gets their links clicked on, unless they are a celebrity of course.

Lesson learned

Having a huge follower base is no excuse for writing crappy headlines. What do I mean? The Techcrunch story in question was called "Vibrant Media May Be Annoying, But It’s A Money-Printing IPO Candidate". I wouldn't want to read that.

Best regards,
George

I hear ya! I just joined FaceBook but really dont get it either - twitter is beyone me! lol

I'm also a Twitter Lover! But I didn't get it at first either.

I Like ITS-V's response there are several great stories like her friends, but it is just like a gold rush lol because everyone hear's about a success and they think they can duplicate it by spamming.

A great example is @AJBombers in Milwaukee the restaurant is a total Twitter haven where there are Tweetup's held regularly.

Use sites like Twellow.com a Twitter Directory and connect with people locally. You can see if there are any tweetups in your city by visiting twtvite.com where you can create and find Tweetups in your town and go network.

This is where Twitter has been most beneficial to me. This Thursday I have a gig with @beathirsty girl for their Live Las Vegas Wine Tasting Event @SushiSambaVegas a cool $200 bucks for promoting and I got 5 tickets to give away to friends so free wine tasting and sushi for me because of Twitter.

But that is not the only benefit it is a great research tool, referral, testimonial, and a good way to monitor who is talking about your brand.

I love Hootsuite for scheduling and managing my accounts I have 2 and tend to get overwhelmed I would only recommend 1 twitter account for a newbie. If I had really been planning in the 1st place I'd only have one.

Follow topics that interest you and use their hashtags. I love Wordpress so I use #wordpress (I've found great plugins this way) and find your cities hashtag, start out slow formulate a 10-20 tweets to use over the week. Set aside 2 - 10 minute intervals during your day and then don't worry about who does or doesn't see your link believe me the important people will. Don't freak out if you miss a day no big!

I agree with letting your following grow organically, I have tested a couple of services and to my dismay I have never been happy with them, they are very spammy. I find the people that follow me that are of value do so because someone else recommended me that I have a relationship with on Twitter or they found me via a directory and liked my profile.

Another great experience I've had from Twitter started online withTwitter then went to a tweetup that I had left early from, and missed the representative from Crave Las Vegas had came in and my Tweeps that I interact with that knew me told her she had to meet me and I had to be in the book. So Twitter works for me online and offline.

I find my success with Twitter is because I have fun using it, I don't see it as my only bank account so to speak just a link back to my site that I use as an invitation to connect with me. Plus lol I will stop throwing up on all of you after this story, I have had success with affiliate links to in Twitter when promoting Blog World 2010 and they where moderately posted and I also publicly thanked people for clicking on them. Not to mention the connection I made before I attended the event so that dreaded cold contact was a warm one, once we met in real life.

Plus yeah I lied, I can give my friends props! k done ;0)

Difficult for me to understand it too. Replies above helped me a bit though.

In my opinion, I'd better spend the time doing something else productive instead of participating in Twitter. Similar to you, I just don't see the value and/or fun.

I do like Facebook though.

-Shaun

The only way I can manage to use twitter successfully is when I jump on a NEW keyword. Basically when a company just announces a new product, I will immediately look to buy a domain name, and start a twitter/facebook account with that keyword..
This way you can come up first when someone searches twitter for that name.

But just to start a twitter account with a highly competitive keyword... won't be as successful.

The whole idea is that when someone wants to follow a twitter account for a specific keyword.. they will join the first few users... so If you are on the 800th page.. you'll never get followed EVERRRRRRRRRR

Go for the low hanging fruit... low competition... Its like a game. Play it well.

I hate Twitter just as much as the other guy (cuz of all the spam)... But like everyone here's saying, it's GREAT for creating SUPER FAST new friends & partners...

I did a webinar on how to market on Twitter & actually do it effectively, and wrote a super info-packed 35 page e-work book handout to go along with it... I learned a lot about Twitter during that time...

* One TIP I would suggest to you, is if you're sick of the spam, like I am, create a list of the people you actually want to follow & learn more about, which you would keep track of...

And you can just ignore all the other crap going on there, outside of your list(s). Make sense?

If you're planning to market your biz, or sell stuff on it, you should also consider making private lists of your ideal prospects, which you would REALLY follow up with & connect with.

(remember, it's all about the relationships you build) - Your Net-worth is dependent on your Network... If you don't have the net-worth you desire, Improve the QUALITY of your Network.

Hope some of this helped you, and anyone else who needed to hear it.

And if anyone wants a copy of the webinar & ebook I put together, just reach out to me on facebook or twitter & let me know (in case you can't send PMs here yet)... I'll see if I can hook you up with a copy.

~Omar

twitter is great way for marketing, you have to follow targeted group of people for every niche, i have very good success to bring lots of traffic to my site from twitter, good way to make some money is using sponsored tweets, and growing your account using TA

Trust me, you're not the only one. I might see the point in Facebook (even though I don't use it much at all myself), but I dont see the point at all in Twitter.

Christ, is it so hard to understand?

Treat your followers with spam and you'll be treated like a spammer. Engage them in meaningful conversation and you'll be treated as a conversation partner.

You must invest more than just the price of an RSS feeder, you must build meaningful relations. Think of it as a typical ROI problem, only that the currency is different. And please remember, one genuine follower is worth more than 1000 autofollowers.

Regards,
George

Learn how to follow keywords instead of people.

In most cases, the customers of my company are able to understand the concept of Facebook and a Facebook fan page more quickly and easily than Twitter. We set up customized pages for our customers as part of the process of online branding. Often, customers will end up getting some type of automated system tied to their Twitter accounts. One customer told me that in her opinion, Twitter is gigantic telephone party line, where everyone talks at one and ignores almost every other conversation.

I feel like i need to put on a webinar for the forum peeps
twitter can be a dominate earner but there is a method to the madness
it's not a 1 link no content and make money kind of place
it is a build a reputation, follow non bots, and proper posting of your offers
to maximize the visability

I personally use twitter mainly to just post any kind of post I make to my blog, any brodcast e-mails from Aweber or when an article gets approved from ezine etc. I set a couple of my marketing tools to auto post to twitter.

I go on there about once every other day and throw out a tweet about what I am doing lately, or a link to something I am checking out... In all honesty, I have clicked on about two links of other peoples tweets and feel that the majority are spam comments.

It is the kind of thing that if you set up auto posts from certain tools it doesn't take you too much time. If it was to seriouslly take a couple hours a week it would certainly be a waste of time, but if you spend 5 minutes three times a week on there and throw in a couple autopost from articles etc it may be a good tool.

I actually recently (about two months ago) tried to do a full promotion only on twitter, to test how many clicks and sales I got. I made only one sale on this, so it is certainly not something that I want to really focus on.