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11 November 2009
As the Twitter-phenomenon takes over our social makeup, I get so many questions from professionals about how to utilize Twitter for their businesses. Like everything worthwhile in life, there is no real secret to Twitter. It’s challenging to get professionals to understand that you get what you give when it comes to social media. I think there is a big misconception about the Web 2.0 world. Your site can become popular very quickly, but maintaining that popularity and having the kind of conversion rate that will grow your business does take some effort on your part. It’s hard to schedule networking time into our already hectic lives.
Here is some advice from Vancouver’s most followed Twitter user (and one of my favorite social media gurus and bloggers) John Chow:
1. If You Want Someone To Follow You, Follow Them First
It’s all back to you get what you give in the social media world. But don’t go overboard and just start following every person you see. “You want followers who are interested in what you’re interested in,” suggests Chow. And it makes sense. You wouldn’t go to the Moose Lodge if your key audience are young mothers and teenagers. So find the people who are talking about what you have to offer on your site and in your business.
The best way to do this is to do a key word search in Twitter. For instance, I’m trying to build a twitter following of the worship community because I want to be plugged in to what others are doing in hopes to get some ideas, as well as be a part of the online support system for the efforts I’m involved in at my church. So I search worship at least once a week and follow the people who are involved in worship at their churches. Chow also suggests to engage the users you follow in conversations and maybe even give them the Twitter fist bump by retweeting a few of their tweets.
2. Unfollow The Users Who Don’t Follow Back
Not everyone you follow will return the favor, so Chow sets a time limit for the people he follows to follow him back. If they don’t follow him back, he just removes them from his list. It may sound a little heartless, but there is a good reason for it. You see, Twitter places a limit on the number of people you can follow. This limit raises as people follow you. This helps cut down on spammers.
There is actually a site you can go to that has a mass unfollow button to help clear your following list quickly. The site is: TwitterFollower.com. The site has a mass will unfollow everyone who’s not following you. There is also a a database on the site of users who will follow you if you follow them, so that’s a great tool to utilize to build your traffic quickly.
This is how Chow built over 50,000 followers. It is time consuming, but Chow used a a program call Hummingbird to automate the entire process. This is the first time I’ve heard of Hummingbird, so I’ll let Chow explain it to you. His review of the program is at johnchow.com/hummingbird-professional-marketing-tool-for-twitter/
It is a program you have to pay for, but you can get 15% off with the coupon code “RECESSION,” this option comes up during checkout. Chow makes as mush as $500 a day with his twitter list and credits Hummingbird for helping him build his following. So if you’re looking to spend a little money upfront, I’d say this is a great program to invest in.
Follow John Chow at twitter.com/JohnChow
Of course, share some love and follow UnscriptedLife at twitter.com/unscriptedlife
