Finding the e-H2O to rehydrate and navigate Twitter’s multiplying flock.
Blake Bowyer
Media Program Analyst
Every morning I wake up to an inbox full of unread messages. If I sorted them by sender, 95% of them would fall under “T” and 100% of those would be from Twitter. I am greeted by the faces and logos of new followers and their generic welcome messages. Many come bearing gifts, others videos, and a few even make promises: “I will improve your experience on the Internet”, one proclaimed this morning. It’s possible, but how? Like any good marketing consultancy, EyeTraffic Media got started on Twitter a while ago, but has since built a tolerance for that initial giddiness a new follower brings.
Sigh. After so many tweets, the honeymoon period is over.
But that doesn’t mean the value is gone. In fact, with more experience, Twitter ages like a fine wine in the hands of the right tweeter. Most organizations experience the micro-blogging disenchantment after the initial Twitter-passion subsides. It’s natural. At first, Twitter is a shiny new toy and you ostensibly have access to the eyes, ears, and minds of everyone on the Internet. It’s free, it’s voyeuristic, and suddenly your audience has grown tenfold in two weeks. 400 followers?! That’s more than the number of MySpace friends, Facebook fans, and blog comments you’ve gotten in the last five years COMBINED!
It’s a shot of social media adrenaline that is addictive, inspiring, and fascinating. Suddenly you’re caught up in the whirlwind tweeting about things you never would have dared to put on your blog. A post about buying new pens for the office? Sure, why not. These people follow you because they want to follow you, right? Your organization’s most mundane activity fascinates them.
Probably not. It’s unlikely that you’re blowing people away with 140 characters about buying pens – unless they’re soy-based and you’re @algore. That’s when users hit a wall. The Twitter pen-talk isn’t increasing sales or driving users to a Web site. Twitter isn’t producing any results, but every morning you sit down to an inbox full of new faces eager to “learn more about you” and totally “looking forward to your tweets!” Suddenly, you feel like you’re being lied to. You’ll discover it’s mutual. You never asked two crucial questions:
- How do I use Twitter?
- What do I want out of Twitter?
But that’s fine. There is still unmined value, but it’s necessary to reciprocate with your own. Your organization might have to give out a few pearls of wisdom for free, but that will attract the eyes of people who actually want to read what you have to say. Best of all, you can benefit by the millions of others who are playing the Twitter karma game. You can’t decide who follows you, but, if you tweet it, they will come.
The number one rule: follow value and lead with value.
Get value from @eyetraffic and we’ll help you shake the Twitter hangover.
