By Chris Johnson of Guerrilla.me – Follow him @genuinechris
One reason alone is why I’m on twitter. To make money. I don’t mean to give Lara the willies. But it’s true. I also post stuff about my kids. I also have made great friends from twitter. I’ve also learned a ton about the world. Still, at the end of the day, twitter is about earning customers for me. Or, should I say, helping people. It’s working. I’m doing enough business to support my family of 4, just from Twitter.
[Honesty Box: We live in the Midwest and are radically cheap.]
This is the ethos you need to have starting out:
1.) Value And Honor Every Relationship Possible. Twitter is about relationships. It’s about small communities, ideas bouncing around. You’re there to help everyone possible. You’re there to be of service. Get it? You have to help people. Let’s get specific: be of maximum service to 100 people at and around your level. Get to know them. Go out of your way to help. For free. If you need to, put a spreadsheet down to remind yourself to interact with them and encourage them.
2.) Stop Broadcasting & Automating. OK, you can repeat stuff. And you should. You can use Twuffer. And you should. But if you’re gonna roll with the “Hey, here’s a widget that gives you 9,000,000 indifferent followers in 5 minutes,” you’re not giving anything good. You’re not adding value, you’re the guy at the wedding trying to hook you into MLM. You’re also marking yourself as a newbie. Use search.twitter.com to follow keywords as I mentioned in this post.
3.) Stop begging for love from the big names. I see people trying to get attention from “name brand” blogger with 25,000 followers with nothing more to give than “Hey check out my site, what do you think.” You don’t make it big by getting a @mrskutcher to notice you. You make it big by giving value to someone with 500 followers, and having him get so happy he refers his friends to you, on and off twitter. Help people first and you’ll win.
4.) Get Local, dog gone it. Probably the biggest mistake I made was to eschew the local market to chase other business. That was dumb. It’s something I’m correcting, but I’ve lost the first mover advantage in Columbus, OH. I’ve just started reaching out. What I’ve learned? Twitter provides instant rapport when you call on them. Twitter + your local area makes it even better. Had I done this a year or more ago, I would have had results much sooner.
5.) Don’t Follow So Many People. Following is a promise. To care, to watch, even if intermittently. To link, to help. I “follow” 1800 and that’s far too many. I can only watch about 300-400. I am representing that I care about people I don’t know, and that, I find deceitful. Your mileage may vary depending on how you use twitter, but following people you don’t watch isn’t my thing. I’m in it and about relationships. True fans, true friends. Not mass numbers.
@sizzler_chetan
Awesome point mentioned under the title=
“Stop begging for love from the big names”
A good read
And its true.. Following many people isn’t hard but catching up with every tweet of theirs is impossible.
@tweeminence
Good read! We mostly agree, but there are a couple points I disagree with:
3. I agree that people need to stop with the “hey please mention my site” garbage. You’re just going to annoy people. However, I don’t think that means you shouldn’t try to connect with big names. There’s no reason you can’t connect with the little guys and the big guys. Both serve their purpose IMO. Either way, offering to solve a problem of some kind, or referring them to a useful article or service in their niche is much more likely to get you noticed than “hey look at me!”
5. I think its common courtesy to follow someone back. I don’t think it means you have an obligation to read every tweet. As you say, Twitter is about relationships, and I like channels of communication to be as open as possible. Following back allows people to send DMs (obviously) which is one more way they can contact you. IMO that’s not a bad thing and it doesn’t take away from your ability to connect with those 300-400 core tweeters.
Just my opinions! Thanks for the article!
@spidersandmilk
2.) Complete agreement with the automation issue. I have “unfollowed” several who automate the same 10 – 12 tweets per day whilst dropping in the occasional tweet every now and then. To begin with the tweets seemed useful but due to the automation I end up viewing it as spam.
They’re not trying to build relationships just follower numbers – why?
I agree with Adam Baird on point 3.
As a result of my feelings on point 2, I have become fairly selective on who I follow back – if they are not providing useful information to me, then I won’t follow. It’s the filter I use because I do scan most tweets I receive.
As a result I have begun to find the ‘key influencers’ I’m interested in and can focus my time on them, both giving and receiving locally and further afield.
@genuinechris
@adam I don’t think it’s common courtesy. I believe that when I follow people it’s a promise from me to them. I believe that my word is sacred. I believe that representing engagement must be followed with actual engagement. I don’t really need any DMs. it’s all about @ for me. I’ve sent ~200 DMs mostly in response to others, I prefer total transparency in the way I do everything, and having to negotiate publicly shows others what I do.
@sallyleecandles
As always – great points, and very honest! I love the honesty you put in your posts. I wish I had learned #5 sooner, ‘caust it’s true that you can’t really follow thousands upon thousands of followers and be able to realistically keep up with all of them. I’m going to take your advice and shoot for 100 good solid contacts to nuture. I have quite a few that I offer support too, however need to branch out a bit more.
Again, thanks for the great article & keep up the great work.
Marie – Owner
Sally Lee Candle Co.
@AuctionSecrets
I started automating again after the recent eBay shutdown with a new method. I will let you know how the readership goes and the eBay income.
@moniquepowell
@Adam, I (like Chris) don’t see an “automatic follow-back” as common courtesy. Actually I tend to think less of those that do it. It doesn’t make me feel good/special to have someone ‘follow-back’ out of a feeling of obligation. I prefer to be followed by persons who are genuinely interested in what I have to say, and also prefer to only follow those I’m interested in as well.
@nursery boutique
I think you’ve nailed it. It’s all about relationship building. That’s what makes the world go round and our lives full and rich.
@steveborgman
Thanks for making a lot of sense regarding the auto follow back. I heard a great podcast by @ed_dale and @lynnterry regarding this. I am going to need to work to be more selective in my follows so that I can drill down and be more effective in the people I interact with online. Thanks for the great info!
@ryrobes
Excellent. Agree 100% – its all about ‘Relationships’, we’re hardwired to love them regardless of what medium they come from – Twitter, Blog Comments, a Handshake, Phone call or some Beers at Happy Hour.
Giving people “warm fuzzies” has worked for thousands of years. Twitter and other social media tools are just extensions of our “human” social norms and patterns. Relationships will always beat cheap tricks (even if the cheap trick actually works occasionally).
I also agree with the “stop begging” idea too – as you say in another post, its all about “what can I do for YOU” not what “can YOU do for ME”, help others and they’ll help you down the line. Even if its just a simple “Thank you” play.
Being followed by 10,000 spambots is not a “community” – being followed by 10 people who actually care what you say IS.
Cheers all.
@CarlaRose
I agree with #4. I have connected with more people in my local area (Bay Area) than tweeters who are thousands of miles away.
I don’t know if I agree with doing auto tweets. To me that’s almost on the same par as those annoying auto DMs. Twitter is about relationships and being a real person, not using a machine to do your work.
You know so many interesting infomation. You might be very wise. I like such people. Don’t top writing.
@debohobo.com
I like the tip about Twuffer, I’m definitely using that now.
I was under the impression that one should follow as many as follow them, don’t want to look like a taker and not a giver. However I completely understand what you are saying about only following those that you actually intend to follow. Don’t just follow to reciprocate. There are clearly two distinct schools of thought on this subject, both very compelling.
@bloggingbistro
I’m a little confused, Chris. You say that valuing relationships and providing value to your followers are your two main goals. You advise us not to follow so many people, and in the next breath, you say that you follow 1800 but can only watch about 300-400.
If you can only track 300, why don’t you follow only 300? If Twitter is truly about valuing relationships, why don’t you unfollow the 1400-1500 people you don’t relate to? Or is Twitter truly a popularity contest/numbers game, cloaked in the guise of relationship-building?
I’m not trying to judge you here; I’m just curious. It irks me that so many people follow thousands, or even tens of thousands of people, but rarely interact with any of them and rarely post updates. What’s the point? Is it just about making yourself feel more special because you have so many followers?
I, too, have been paring down the list of those I follow (I still follow close to 700) because I hate my own hypocrisy of following people and not having time to interact with them all. I think I did a better job when I followed 50 people!
I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts on this issue.
@genuinechris
Sure. I think what I’m doing is wrong. I’m admitting that. I don’t want to be rude and suddenly unfollow people en masse. I don’t wnat to cause harm, and I’m a bit lazy. I have pared down when I can, but I’m not doing a mass unfollow.
When you say things like “in the same breath” well, its nice verbal judo, but there’s only hypocrisy where you look for it.
@carazoo
Nice article. Thanks for the information.
@marketlikeachik
I love it when people say that Twitter is not a popularity contest. No, it’s not…but to have a large following you are broadening your reach and opening the arena to actually have something go viral. I follow quite few people, closely follow a few less…but regularly look for interesting posts by all my followers that I can retweet and talk to. Communication is easy when there is a two way street and you can reply to @ replies to keep the conversation going. TweetDeck also allows to form groups that make it easier to keep track of different people that you have a standing relationship with.
I look at it this way…In everyday life I have many friends & family. Some I talk to several times a day, others I talk to once a week, then there are those that I don’t talk to for weeks or even months. But I don’t take them out of my address book or ever delete them. They all hold their own special place and we all know we can call on each other whenever we have something to share.