Active participation on the Twitter social networking platform is a time management black hole if you don't have a well-defined strategy and the discipline to execute it. Since joining the Twitter community in 2008, I've tested multiple strategies from being a twitterholic to a ghost. There have been lessons along the way. The biggest one is that Twitter is a great tool for sharing content and increasing website traffic if you avoid the black hole. If you don't, the traffic may still come but the investment outweighs the return.
Corporate culture and community expectations have a direct effect on the results from social media marketing. What works for one company will fail another. In sharing a few of the strategies and results from my participation, it is my hope that it will help you find the sweet spot for your business. If you are using Twitter to hang out with your gang and improve your Klout score, nothing in this post will help because my focus is, as always, increasing sales, improving company/customer relationships, and reducing costs.
Strategy: Tweet links to new blog posts
When I first started on Twitter, the only time I tweeted was when I had a new blog post. This strategy picked up a few followers and sent some traffic to my blog but the benefits were minimal. Twitter purists would respond to this with a resounding "Duh! Only sharing links doesn't work" but they would be wrong. Woot! created a great community using link sharing as the primary vehicle. The difference is in the link - my links were simply content; Woot's links were to great deals.
Observation: Link sharing can work as a stand alone strategy when the links are to great deals.
Strategy: Engage with others to increase the number of followers
The second strategy I tested was engaging with others to increase the size of my community. This was my dark period because it was when I first started seeing the discrepancy between the Twitter elite's words and actions. Seeing people in leadership positions misleading others to benefit themselves saddened me. Following the "Jump into conversations" advice, I started responding to the people recommending the strategy. Most of the time, my tweets were ignored. (For those who like the numbers, 97% of my reply tweets were ignored during the months that I tested this strategy.)
The time invested didn't expand my network. It left me wondering what I was doing wrong until I reviewed tweet streams and found that the people I reached out to rarely chat with anyone outside their inner circle. My personal policy has always been to respond to everyone who mentions me because I appreciate them. The reward is a stronger, more engaged community. Many of our conversations have moved from the public forum to private emails. It's a shame that many of the Twitter elite miss this opportunity.
Observation: Responding to people that invest their time in mentioning you and expanding your reach is more than common courtesy. It is an opportunity to connect with others.
Strategy: Provide quality content on a regular basis
In January 2009, I launched #wecEtips and ran them for approximately two years. The hashtag was created for tweets that provided marketing and management tips for growing companies. A variety of schedules were tested. On average, eight to ten tips were posted daily. The time investment in creating and posting the tip was extensive and the return was minimal. Followers increased a bit, people responded some, but there was nothing to justify the time requirement. The missing link was...links. The tweets didn't provide a call-to-action or path for the readers to follow. When #wecEtips was discontinued, I received dozens of emails asking "why?" The answer was simple - no return on investment.
Observation: Posting quality content has no value for the provider unless there is a path for the readers to follow that move them towards the marketing funnel.
Strategy: Combine link sharing with conversation
The current strategy I'm using is a combination of link sharing and conversation. The links shared are content from a variety of sources including my blog. The time required includes reading the content, scheduling the tweets, and following up on mentions. When I have free time, I'll jump into to some conversations. This strategy requires the least amount of time and drives more traffic to my blog and website than any of the others. One of the keys to its effectiveness is using tools to monitor mentions, show tweets from the wonderful people who are active in my community, and shield me from the psychopathic drama that sucks the life out of the day and me.
Observation: Putting the right tools and processes in place changed Twitter from a ti
me management black hole to a communication and marketing tool.
Lessons Learned:
- Test different strategies to find what works for your business.
- Ignore the Twitter elite and focus on the people who matter to you.
- Only share content that you have read and trust.
- Give people a place to go.
- Be grateful for everything.
- Always keep one eye on the return from your investment.
- Ignore people making rules for others to follow.
- Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.
- Build a wall between you and the ugliness created by negative self-serving people.
- Don't take yourself or others too seriously.