It didn’t take long being at Underground 5 to see that my views on Twitter, which I’m sure you all know by now… were not popular.
I’m not kidding, hotel security staff diffused an attempt on my life at one point…
I heard some of the speakers on Twitter and was left with the pretty much left with the same conclusion… Great for business people or people in markets that actually go on Twitter – waste of time for others.
That’s until I met this guy:
The one on the right.
His name’s Scott Stratten, a speaker at the event and owner of un-marketing.com.
This guy is a die hard twitter-er.
He gets about 1000 new followers per day, posts about 1000 tweets a day, fills up coaching sessions and paid events with single tweets – you name it. He loves Twitter and he’s good at it.
After a couple of beers, I asked him the big question:
“Do you think Twitter has value for people outside the online business, techie kind of niches”.
To which his reply was both profound and insightful… (I just hope he forgives me for paraphrasing)
“Let me tell you something… I never went on Twitter to get business – period. I went on Twitter to meet people and keep in touch with my friends”
“Wow, so if you’re going on to Twitter with a purpose other than meeting people and keeping in touch with friends, you’re doing it wrong?”
“Absolutely”.
The analogy was made at the event that Twitter is like a party. It’s a place you go to meet people and catch up with friends. If you go to a party with the intention of selling people on your business, you’re like that annoying Amway friend who can be seen scribbling the “If you know 3 people, and they know 3 people” diagram on a napkin to the disgust of the onlooking guests.
But if you go to the party and start conversations, interesting conversations, you end up meeting interesting people, and as a result, sometimes, some of those people happen to become interested in what you do. And even then, selling them on your business isn’t what you do. You become friends with them, invite em to your place (your blog?) sometime, and then MAYBE, tell them about how they should use your business/product/service.
So lesson – if you’re thinking any of these…
“I’ll use Twitter to drive traffic to my website!”
“I’ll use Twitter to get leads to my business!”
“I’ll use Twitter even though none of my friends or people I’d like to be friends with use Twitter”
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz – you’ll fail at Twitter and waste a lot of time in the process.
Personally… and I have to say I still feel embarassed to say so, I’m going to be using Twitter alot more often now. I’m not going to be tracking the traffic it brings or looking for leads or sales from it, though it will be interesting to see if they result as a bonus.
If you want to learn what Twitter’s really about, follow Scott at twitter.com/unmarketing
Oh and you can follow me too if you want 
@AndrewHansen1
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Man Andrew,
Your friend and I are on the same page in regards to twitter. I think that most people are looking for some type of giant cure-all for their marketing plan and twitter seems to be the “golden goose” at the moment.
You’re right Lee,
And it’s interesting to notice that most people selling the Twitter courses are the ones with 5000 followers but not a single one cares about the person or what they do.
Craaazy world.
Hey Andrew, I also felt the same way about twitter. Takes alot of time and not alot of direct benefits. From now on, I’ll use it as a communication tool, to keep up with what others are doing and simply add tweets of stuff I’m doing, without trying to hard to market stuff. I think that is when you start to see benefits.
This guy sounds like he knows what he’s talking about
Glad I could get you to change your mind
Wow, great post. Simply loved it. I have told others that I made new friends on Twitter, but I also used it to promote my blog posts, selling affiliate stuff and other things. From now on focus will be on socialising and friendship.
Actually, Scott is dead wrong.
People don’t go on Twitter to meet friends. I can still here Perry’s video, “I want to be your friend.”
Scott is on Twitter for business. Period. You can mask it as “I want to be your friend” lingo, but only a fool would believe it. If Twitter did not add to his bottom line in one way or another, do you really think he would be on Twitter all day long? If Twitter is about friends, then take ALL LINKS of his Business off his profile, and never again add another tweet to a commercial link to gain business.
Come on. Here is Canada, we see it as it is. Gaining friends, simply to down the road get business from then, is called one thing, “using friends.”
Why not be upfront, and say, “I’m on Twitter, I have a service, and this is what it is, and I establish “business associates,” instead of saying you want friends, and the ulterior motive is, “I want more business.”
Give this topic to a Newfoundlander, and they will really tell you like it is. I am soft here. Those Newfies are straight, no b.s., people.
Mark, you are probably right in your assesment of the situation, but like all things there is a middle ground. Someone who just tweets what he has to offer will not get much success where as the guy who is “only” keeping up with 30,000 friends will also not gain much. What is important is to communicate who you are on more than one level. Social media means to me that you put yourself out there, so that if something you do, say or think resonates with others, they will go deeper, click on your links and maybe buy into your biz. Which is more or less what Scott does and obviously does gain from spending all that time socializing..
I agree with that Benoit. It is all about positioning.
I’m of the mindset though, whenever someone says, “I want to be your friend,” it means, “I want to suck every penny out of you.”
And when people have to say, “Trust me!” what they are really saying is, “I’m not to be trusted.” Weird how that works.
I think the situation as I see it for Social Media and marketing is this: Targeting and positioning, and to put yourself in front of people where they’re hanging out. But to say, “I’m your friend, come visit my blog,” is just pure carsalesmanship masked as social media marketing. Plain and simple.
Hey Mark,
I saw your tweets of this kind in relation to Perry’s video and thought they were fascinating.
Here’s my take;
Traditional marketing, SEO, PPC for example, you are looking for eyeballs, you need to get your product in front of those who are looking for it.
But the difference with social media is that no person goes on a social network to be sold to, they are not there looking for something they need. THEY (save certain B2B niches) are there to meet new people and keep in touch with their friends.
So rather than getting eyeballs, you’re trying to get relationships. You want it so that when these people do come to a time when they want something that you can provide, they know you and your company, they trust you, they like you, and they will ask YOU for it – or if not they’ll ask another person on the network and that person will recommend you.
And that’s positioning, like you said, right? Just in not in the traditional sense.
Let me know your thoughts.
Andrew
I feel like a misquoted politicion now. Fitting since it took place in Washington DC
What I actually said to Andrew was “I didn’t join Twitter to find customers, I went on Twitter to find other business owners who I could build relationships with, and some of them have even turned into friends.”
I own a business, I run a business. I believe business is built on reltionships.
Right, sorry Scott, my bad.
What do you think of generating “leads” on twitter versus “relationships”? re: above?
Andrew
P.S. I think the point there is important.
That the goal is relationships, not customers. And there’s a mindset that goes along with using Twitter to build relationships rather than to “get leads” or “get customers” and I’m sure Scott would agree.
This posting still has feet
I’ve actually been studying twitter, the behaviors of high profile people, as well rising stars.
There are FIVE major approaches to how Twitter is being used. Scott’s is just one of them. Dell uses Twitter to sell products to, and will put links to special discounts that is just on their Twitter profile.
It is bizarre, because I actually had a person who is a HUGE name on twitter subscribe to my list so they could get my email address. Then, they told me that Twitter is not about selling or capturing leads. I told him that he was dead wrong. I then showed him a couple of advanced Twitter tools that cost money. He liked the tool so much, that he asked me if he could sell it to make money too, and that he belongs to the “old boys Twitter club” and he was sure he could sell some and make money with it too. Funny how people’s perspectives change.
From what I can tell in my experience with Twitter, there are some big names on Twitter who got in early and have amassed a large following, and it is a small group. With this comes influence, and from what I can tell, this small group has tried to set the tone as to what Twitter is, and is not, saying it is about relationships, and not selling, not getting leads, etc.. This was particularly inferred by his email to me that there is “old boys camp.”
The problem is, Twitter is getting big, and the old school no longer rules the roost, as there is rising stars.
And, there are many ways that Twitter is being used.
I actually did a test for my product at http://twitterleadgeneration.com and studied different ways to do business on Twitter, and they are all documented in my product.
I have a profile at http://twitter.com/markdulisse and people who click on my link have the option to go into a 5 day bootcamp for free. That obviously works, and gives great value.
Willie C will routinely do a tweet, and on the other side of it is a big fat squeeze page.
I did a strictly product driven profile on the Stompernet Formula 5 launch, and I set up a profile at http://twitter.com/StompernetF5
This too worked, and I have it all on screen capture video, with tracking. In the little work I did, I had “1″ sale come directly from that profile. $800 is not bad for a couple hours of work.
Just people one person’s perspective says, “Twitter is about relationship, relationships,” does not mean that this is how it is everywhere on Twitter. This is only the perspective of this person. Only in this persons world. There are other worlds on Twitter, FIVE of them that I have seen.
I had a person DM me to say they joined Twitter to get leads for a non-profit organization that he heads up.
So you see, there are many different paths, but in the end, we are all after business.
I agree with Steve that we are after business relationships. At the same time, there is strickly “product driven” relationships, and many of them on Twitter (ie. Dell).
Mark
Mark,
Awesome info mate, thanks for sharing!
Here’s a question for you:
I can see from your post that there are many different ways of using Twitter and the “old boy” method you mentioned is one of them.
So when someone is coming on to twitter, totally new, relatively unknown in their market, (like a lot of newbies are right now?) is there one approach that will work better for them than another?
For example, if a lesser known brand as Dell had started using Twitter with such a product driven approach, I don’t imagine they would have been as successful.
What do you think?
Andrew
Heya Mark,
Many many ways to “use” Twitter, sure. Established brands all over the place use it as an extension of their customer service.
And anyone can use it anyway they want, and if they don’t like it, they can get their money back
However instead of just direct lead generation, which “success” can be tracked the same as any other old school sales tool, bulding relationships with other business owners that you can learn from, count on, possibly have JV’s with, get to speak at conferences etc… is the best route IMHO for someone that doesn’t already of an established large company.
Thanks Andrew.
This is a hard question. Personally, for product driven styles and your a new company, Twitter would be about Brand Image building. Yes, you’ll sell some products, but if you focus on Brand Building, you can sell a lot more.
Warrior even has a profile and all the WSO’s appear as a tweet. I’d say that is product driven, eh?
My approach is to use Twitter as a Personal Branding Tool, and it was interesting that it is possible to sell products. But, Twitter is not the best way to sell products, because Google won’t find you, and it takes a lot of time to get followers. And, I think those viral tweeter generators are for the birds (no pun intended).
That is my story, and I’m sticking to it.
And, did you notice how you can add a follow me on Twitter on other people’s blogs with pic? There is a lot more where that came from…lol.
Solid – is that just a Gravatar or something else?
Yes, I think Scott was bang on with his last comments. Thanks Scott.
This is a gravatar that i have on my blog.
great post!
people going to twitter to “sell” are called drunk networkers…
that’s what I call them!
have a great day!
Dbk
Well, I hate parties.
And I preferred the pre-twit Andrew
So no Twittering for me.
I suspect the word ‘twit’ doesn’t have the same meaning in the US that it has here in the UK … because Twitter just sounds so silly to me, I don’t think I could keep my self respect if I was so desperate that I had to base my business around something with a name like that
Dean
If twitter is the pain, than your using it the wrong way.
Here’s what I’ve got out of Twitter
JV Partner
Mastermind Group
1 Client who has referred two more clients that now use my services
$10 USD to my paypal for guessing a domain name’s value. (Competition)
It’s all about meeting people, and making connections that will help you either grow your business or grow you.