Response to 'Time for a Twitter Reality Check'

In response to a question around 'Time for a Twitter Reality Check' asked in LinkedIn I wrote the following (you may want to have a look at the original article first):

I look at Twitter as a startup with huge potential, like Google or Facebook were a few years ago. Personally I use Twitter as a marketing channel to bring people to my website and blog. Some make direct money of this by generating enough traffic to their blogs to be attractive for AdSense to place ads. Others are looking for jobs and find offerings, or they can attract recruiters to their CV / LinkedIn / Xing / Viadeo / Hi5 webpage. Still others get user feedback and support requests (like Dell). Or they distribute coupons, 'secret passwords', promotions like Starbucks and generate massive physical traffic to their outlets. Some use it to attract people to their Craigslist ad extending reach. CNN and many other media bring traffic to their websites and news channels. The British and Swiss Government use it to distribute information about events, politics and legislation. Churches distribute bible verses. etc. etc. So there are many faces and uses of Twitter.

You can't really say that users are only interesting if they're active. It is the normal business model for broadcasters to have passive users and still they make money out of the business model (news or entertainment against suffering commercials). Similar for 'gurus' and celebrities who give some little stuff or nice words to their fans. The user activity lies in consuming the information, just like reading a newspaper. Listening to the global chat. And sometimes this becomes very active like during the Iran elections, where even the White House asked Twitter not to interrupt the service, as it gave voice to the Iranian opposition (and channels to CIA and NSA, probably).

Is no one 'using' (what do you mean by 'using') it? Have a look at Alexa stats: yesterday 3.45% of Internet visitors (most from US) used Twitter (Google: 34.35%; MSN: 11.69% sinking; Facebook: 21.93%; AOL: 2.34%). With this Twitter is on rank 15 of the top sites accoring to Alexa. Not bad. No one??

'Using' for evil? NO. Most 'users' are listeners, spectators, consumers. Personally I've found huge value and insights from using Twitter. I found stuff and made connections with interesting people I didn't know about 5 months ago, and I'm a rather senior guy.

Numbers lie? You trust Nielsen? Have a look here http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/june/time_on_facebook . 3712 pc year on year growth in the top 10 social networking and blog sites list.

And just thin of the combination potential if Twitter did join forces with Amazon, Goole, CNN, Facebook or whatever. Does Twitter as a company have a value? Yes? Well, the founders already founded Blogger and sold it to Google. Why would anyone want to buy it? Think.

Ok, nuf 4 now. Sure, I do agree with some of what you say, BUT, I'd advise not to underestimate the power of Twitter. I think it will become or already is a major force on the web. And the potential is by far not exploited. Creative firms and users have found and will find ways to build new businesses, marketing approaches, distribution models based on Twitter.

What do you think?

How to get the right followers on Twitter (1)

The question I get asked most often since I joined Twitter is: how do I get more followers on Twitter? Obviously it was my first question, too, when I started in Twitter. Probably most of us go through a first phase just trying out the possibilities and some reactions of other Twitterati (power users of Twitter). In this phase we normally are unfocused and we start to 'collect' followers in some kind of a numbers game: get as many as possible. But soon everyone will realise that they should have some kind of a strategy.

A few questions to be asked are then:
* what do you want to achieve with Twitter?
* do you already have significant numbers of selected or mass followers on other platforms or social networks (your Blogs, websites, in Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing)?
* are you a celebrity and do you want to allow your fans to follow you and to have an easy way of broadcasting to or interacting with them?
* are you an expert and do you want to build and promote your profile as an industry or subject matter expert?
* are you a marketeer and making money online through click dependant ad payments or through selling electronic or print content, so do you want to generate traffic to your blog or website?
* do you want to create more group interaction and use Twitter to network with others who share your interests in a niche?
* do you want to be a multiplier of broadcast messages (on industry, economic, professional, political, social, commercial or whatever issues) which are authored by others (news channels, firms, NGOs, opinion leaders, academics)?

You will get the best out of your Twitter presence and your tweets if you are pretty clear about what you want to achieve. Depending on how you answer the above questions you will
* either be very selective and only try to get a few followers of importance for you (but remember that anyone can follow you unless you block them, which is considered not to be very cool in Twitter)
* or go for the mass follower scheme, which is typically a good strategy for the mass marketeers, MLM and click advertisors
* or finally go the middle way of having a substantial amount of followers but rather those interested in your specific subject matter expertise.

I would like to kill one misconception on Twitter right now. Twitter will not make you money. Yet, should you wish to build an online presence helping to earn some or even very substantial money, you will have to go a more elaborated path. Not difficult, but you have to do a few things more than just tweet. It's just like with the birds: tweeting is not the ultimate goal, but it helps to attract (or keep away) 'followers' who could then contribute to work towards the goals (like keeping away predators, finding more food, building a nest, and you can certainly imagine some other things). You need to consider at least three elements fora succesful money making presence in the web:
- you need a blog in which you build, grow, maintain and distribute some insights, thoughts, intellectual capital over the time. It's like writing your book, after a few weeks or months you will find some substantial assets in your blog which can be interesting for others. In this rather short term communication platform you will publish pretty frequently, daily or weekly / monthly. You will add links to your website, your Twitter timeline, to favourite videos on Youtube or elsewhere, to your pictures, videos, white papers etc.
- you need a website over which you build your brand and offer your goods or services, in electronic, print or material form. This is the stable, long term platform (the 'mothership' of your online presence, especially if you are online professionally) which you maintain and update in the medium term, every few weeks or months and to which you can add prospectus, white papers, leaflets etc.
- and finally you can and should use Twitter for driving traffic to both your blog and your website. I recommend to show your blog address in Twitter and to announce your new blogs in Twitter.

Obviously you will make sure that your blog, website and Twitter account as well as your other social network memberships are interconnected by publishing corresponding links.

Think about this but be aware that your intentions may change over time and as you get more insight into Twitter. In my next blog I will show you how to get more and the right followers.