Twitter Isn’t for Promotion. It’s For Rapport Building
Posted by abdul on 27 Jul 2009 at 6:32 pm | Tagged as: Entrepreneurship, Internett
I was reading this post on Idea Anglers called 6 Tips for Better tweets and I don’t seem to agree with anything Kim Murphy says in this post. With all due respect to his credentials and a long career as a copywriter, his take on tweeting is too, well, commercial.
The thing about social media marketing is that it can fall splat on your face if you “treat it like a marketing vehicle” as he suggests you do; you can’t treat twitter like “any other…” marketing vehicle. No, you just can’t.
Twitter goes way beyond TV and newspapers; it transcends magazines and even websites. It is, at first, incredibly interactive while none of your other marketing vehicles are not with an exception of a blog.
He also advocates the use of keywords in your tweets. Do this and prey your account won’t be kicked 6 feet deep because of rampant spamming and tweeting senselessly about anything pertaining to keywords. When you tweet, you aren’t doing something similar to SEO optimized writing; you are just tweeting and your tweets are not found in Search Engine Results Pages.
Finally, it’s the question of time and effort not to mention the return on the investment of time spent with regards to your efforts on socializing online. If you have to make different 140 character message versions and then tweet, you will end up spending more time than you usually do.
Twitter isn’t for marketing; it’s for building and establishing rapport. It is for socializing, contributing to the community, be a well-known expert in your niche and be well-respected.
If your prospects never liked being sold to, why then do you want to do just that and shoot yourself on your feet?
Hi Abdul,
I am glad an article on our site could serve as a catalyst for your own work. I agree with your post here about the usage of Twitter. However, I feel that you have been a little unfair to Kim (who is a she, not a he). If you read past the headlines in that post, I think you will find yourself agreeing more than disagreeing.
When Kim talks about using Twitter as any other marketing tool, she goes on to explain that she means that you should not use a scatter-shot approach. In other words, if you are a business, you should Twitter with a plan and stick to it until you see real results.
On keywords, Kim is not talking about SEO or creating spam with multiple variations of the same tweet. She is merely pointing out that you need to talk about your key areas, or key words, in your tweets. This will help people to discover you and join the conversation.
There are many people and businesses that use Twitter to spam. I feel that this post in largely in reaction to many of those folks. We oppose that kind of use of Twitter at Idea Anglers, and Kim had nothing like that in mind with this article.
Twitter does offer legitimate uses for businesses. But as a business, you need to have a planned approach and optimize your tweets so the right audience will see them and appreciate them. Kim also advocates knowing your audience, crafting your tweets with care, and other practical advice that all leads to a better experience for everyone on Twitter.
Again, thank you for this post. There needs to be an ongoing discussion about the use of Twitter, and we all have a different viewpoint. But nobody likes Twitter spam except the spammers.
Bradford Shimp
Co-Creator
Idea Anglers
Hi Brad,
Thank you so much taking time off to write a response. I would like to apologize to Kim and you — maybe I sounded a little too harsh; it wasn’t called for. I agree with what you said here. My reaction to that article on Idea Anglers has been a little over-arching so to speak.
Twitter has brought about some sort of mania here and I am so caught up and tight about the spamming thing that I reacted instinctively the moment Kim mentioned marketing and such
Twitter did a lot for businesses and I have been noticing that. I am sure you heard of #moonfruit, haven’t you? We could all see what happened once #moonfruit remained as a most trending topic for a week or two. It’s amazing what twitter can do when done right.
Thank you so much for the insightful and prompt response; it is very much appreciated. Needless to say, you got yourself a dedicated Idea Angler
Abdul