I've been having a fun exchange with twitterers over at Twitter.You can see my posts there at...
Before I was "tweeting," I didn't see it as a useful adjunct for building business. I just didn't. But I kept hearing it, so the only way to really understand is to do it. Now that I've set up my own Twitter spot and am twitting (does that make me a twit?), I still don't see it.
I certainly don't see anything I can do there to help grow SiteSell. It's just not time-efficient, not compared to what I could otherwise be doing.
I can see the "fun" in it. But I'd rather socialize and help grow businesses here. Otherwise, I'd rather socialize offline, where I'm not typing!
But a mini-industry has grown up on the "secrets of using Twitter to grow your business." They include such great ideas as subscribing to 40,000 other twitterers so that they subscribe to you. Twitter spam. Everyone not reading someone else's tweets. Wow. That's going to work.
The response at Twitter has been...
1) "C'mon Ken... not everything is about business." And obviously, I know that. I can see how twittering gets fun and addictive, and I'm happy to agree with that. But I already spend enough time online and I get the most out of that time. I'm not going to waste time tweeting. But if you want to waste time "socializing" online (if 140 character bites with other folks doing the same can be called "socializing"), go for it. I'd rather go out to dinner with offline friends.
2) "You're wrong, Twitter is great for growing business." No one has given a single, solid example of how Twitter can be used to grow business in a time-efficient, real, sustainable way. So I'd like to hear if anyone has discovered any uses for Twitter, beyond fun.
Even if it's just that you cross paths with someone who wants to do business with you, I'd like to hear about it. That can be done offline, too. And we've found great people by searching for them online. That strikes me as a more efficient way to hire or otherwise do business with people you need.
But, at this stage, I'm desperate.
I'll take as many great examples, well documented, of using Twitter to grow your business as possible. And if you're interested in following me in my search for Twitter success (I won't be saying what I had for breakfast, although I do post the occasional mini-thought or two), you can follow by subscribing at...
Theory is fine, but I'm looking for hard, documented results.
I'm trying to take this out of the softie-toffee claim mode into the land of hard, documented results. Well-documented traffic gains, such as so many folks have claimed for SBI!'s Content 2.0, is the kind of thing I'm looking for.
And if Twitter is "just social," that's fine. I've had offline social relationships turn into business. It's not why I was doing them, of course. And they'd never be a business strategy.
So if tweeting is fun entertainment for you, that's great. Just don't count it as working on your business...
You only have x hours per day to build your online business. Every minute at Twitter distracts you from something better that you could be doing.
Compare that to the one-time effort of setting up SBI!'s Blog It!. And then Socialize It!. Not to mention Content 2.0, which takes a bit of time managing submissions, but really synergizes with Blog It! to drive real and sustained traffic. Now that is using Social Media Marketing.
I just find Twitter... so trivial. And repetitive. And obligatory (stop and you have instant drop-off).
I'm still open-minded... but the window is closing.
All the best,
P.S. When I compare Twitter to Content 2.0 or Ning, the difference is gigantic. Near-zero effort as people create content for you with C2 (instead of you creating content for Twitter)? No-brainer. If Ning is right for you, ditto!
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