04/07/2009
On January 3rd of 2008, I wrote a blog post entitled: Stop Twittering and Focus on Your Business
Well, I’m not issuing an official retraction of my stance on twitter… YET. But that day might be coming soon.
In the 16 months since I wrote that post, twitter has grown at a rapid pace, and has emerged to the forefront of the Internet’s attention.
While the principles of business building have not changed in that time period, twitter’s value as a business tool certainly has increased.
Take a look at the following chart from compete.com:
As you can see, twitter’s traffic has more than tripled in the past few months, and nearly doubled in the past month alone!
Within the past couple of weeks, twitter has reached a new point of critical mass. It was already hot, but now it’s the hottest thing on the web. It’s all over the news, it’s all over the blogosphere, and everyone’s talking about it.
Rats. I can no longer ignore it 😉
I make no apologies for not being an early adopter. There have been countless web 2.0 social networking sites launched in recent years (many of which are still bigger than twitter), and we’ve seen many of them fizzle.
I don’t want to waste my time on here-today-gone-tomorrow tactics, when I can focus on tried and true business building principles (at least as tried and true as you can get for the Internet).
But there comes a point when you have to adapt. You have to be flexible. You have to accept new technologies into your existing business structure.
When commerce started moving online, I’m sure there were plenty of old school businesses who said… we don’t need the Internet. We can keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. And those are the companies that are dying today.
The inability to adapt will cause you to be left in the dust… particularly in the online world.
Is that the case with twitter?
I don’t know yet. I’m not yet convinced, but it’s becoming more compelling by the day.
I’ve got some specific reasons why I think twitter is here to stay, and other reasons why I still think it’s totally overrated. But I’m going to save those thoughts for part 2 of this article. First I want to find out what YOU think…
I’ve set up a twitter survey to discover some current uses of and attitudes regarding twitter. This is for twitter users AND non-users.
To take the survey please go to:
You will receive a special gift just for participating in the survey. I will reveal ALL of the results in part 2 of this article here on my blog next week.
In the mean time, I’ve set up my first twitter account so I can start following and being followed 🙂
By the way, IF twitter IS going to be a long lasting business tool… it’s certainly not too late to join the game.
On December 16, 2007 (just a couple weeks before I made my “Stop Twittering” post), my friend Joel Comm made his first post about twitter on his blog. He announced that he had joined twitter, although he also said “I’m still not sure what the point is of Twitter… I’m not sure I get it.” The post went by with no fanfare, and even today it has zero comments (LOL, sorry Joel).
But he took a risk on it, and within a year he was writing the first mainstream book about twitter (Twitter Power), which went on to become a best-seller, and today he is one of the most sought-after twitter experts in the world. He has over 40,000 followers, and he’s adding about 1,000 per DAY at the moment.
And all of that happened just in the past year. If twitter continues to follow its upward curve of growth, the NEXT year will be much bigger than the last year, which means there’s still plenty of time to grow your own following as twitter grows.
What are your thoughts about twitter? Please take my survey and then leave your comments here on my blog.
Have a great day!
Eric…got to you on CL in Nashville…your affiliate web program that bring millions of people and has 25 or 30 different ways to do it…I want people to see this video and need to know which of those would work best…before I spend that kind of money…thanks Mark
I AM IN YOUR ERIC’S TIPS PROGRAM, BUT I AM SO NEW TO THIS EMAIL STUFF I AM NOT ON ANY SOCIAL SITES, I AM ENJOYING YOUR CLASS, BUT I STILL DONT GET IT. BEST TO YOU. BILL
P.S. I GUESS I JUST TWITTERED.
I think twitter is another tool to use if done correctly.
There is a lot of information now about using twitter including Joel’s book. I bought it and have read part of it.
There are only so much time in a day.
I think I will start to use Twitter in the near future.
Al
I have never used twitter. I really don’t know what it is about.
Hey Eric,
Welcome to Twitter land. I only joined a little while ago and I’m not using it to it’s fullest yet. I’ve used it to gain some traffic but no sales yet. I’ve even twitted or tweeted or whatever about Push Button Marketer.
I think it is worthwhile but I’ve seen many people just promoting products every couple of minutes without contributing anything to the conversation. It can get annoing.
I agree with you that our focus should be on our business but we cannot ignore this technology iether. I just hope people don’t take advantage to much. I guess we can always stop following. Anyway it’s nice that you’re now on board and looking forward to tweeting with you.
I discovered twitter following the 30Day Challenge by Ed Dale last year. I didn’t pay much attention then.
But by following more courses on social marketing, twitter became an issue. Since then I became a twitter fanatic, not so by twittering all day long, but trying to collect as much info as possible about twitter.
Regards,
Philippe
Eric:
1 – It has taken many marketers a long time to adopt twitter – so believe it or not you are in the majority, not the minority.
2 – I use it as a way to keep up on the people I follow both business and personal and not for marketing purposes. I know that many have used this medium for that purpose, but they would be better served using a blog.
As for making a change to your url – unless you plan to use twitter to market other items why bother.
However, using twitter, simply adds another dimension to explore.
I already completed your survey so you know I multiple ways of communication which do not include e-mails – the more the merrier.
Twitter is a waste of time. You could better spend your time on more important business matters. Twitter, IMO, is going to be a here today gone tomorrow flash in the pan and that is it. It’s a marketing joke to think that a serious marketer, intent on building a viable business, would reply on such a tool.
I originally signed up for a Twitter account with the intention of using it primarily for promoting my websites. However I’ve found that I use it more as a way of interacting with people with common interests and as a way of getting peoples perspectives on news, politics, religion and such. I have cut back on using it as a way of directly marketing products but hope that by building followers and relationships that people will occasionally be curious and click on my website. And I still once in a while slip in a plug for my website or something I’m selling.
It seems to me that it could be helpful. I am planning on testing the use of some twitter software and techniques soon.
Hi Eric,
I use Flock browser, so that I can get twitter and facebook updates in a panel on the left hand side of the screen. Which was good, but then I just found it all too distracting, so I turned it off again.
Now I only turn it on if I am wanting to get in on a launch, so I watch to see if there are any last minute announcements.
Maybe one day I will start watching it again, but it is just too distracting for me ATM.
– Tim
Twitter is simple and quick. If you cannot come to the point within few words – not even trigger my interest, well at least your message stops there.
Simplicity makes it for everybody. If twitter start making it complicated, something easier will take over. I am still considering how I will make se of it.
I’m in the 100Articles100Days challenge and ezinearticles.com automatically twitters when my new articles are approved. I believe it brings traffic to my articles. Cool!
HI ERIC!
LIKE YOU ASKED IN THE SURVEY!
I’M HERE TO BUILD A BUSINESS!
SO I WONT HAVE MUCH OF THE TIME FOR BIRDSONGS!
YET I’M STILL NEW ON ALL THOSE SERVICES!
SO I NEED BIG COACHING! I MEAN NOT EVEN A MONTH YET!
SO IF POSSIBLE TEACH ME HOW TO TWEET THE MONEY NOTES!
Oops. Forgot my info before.
Hi Eric,
Nice article.I was surprised you weren’t there in twitter and tweeted asking about your tweet id last week only.
I felt the same way as you felt initially about twitter as it consumes lot of time.
but i started using twitter primarily for one reason: I can communicate with my mentors in any field(like you in internet marketing) directly.Otherwise,it may not be possible because you guys are busiest and expensive in hourly consultation fees which i may not afford.
Another reason,which is again personal,it gives me an excellent association of successful people for free.(someone told ‘your growth is directly proportional to the books and associations’).
Thrid reason is,i am getting lot of ebooks,audios,videos,strategies,reports for free.
But i am not following everyone who follows me blindly,sorry,if it affends anyone,no hard feelings.I check their websites,their tweets,if i find them valuable for my time,then only i am following.
Thanks for your article and your survey.
Welcome to happy tweeting!
I am looking forward to your valuable tweets.
Thanks,
Kannan Viswagandhi
Eric, I follow each of your lessons in Eric’s Tips. I am not sure what is to be accomplished on twitter. But then I thought the same thing about Youtube. Now I have several videos on the site which lead me to Facebook and other Social Networks sites. I am thinking about trying it, if for no other reason than not to be left behind in the rapid growth of technology.
Al D
Eric,
I believe that Twitter is useful but has it limitations. I originally began using it to stay in touch with family around the US but it grew into a following??? Although I try to “tweet” more I have found that lately I have been to busy. HMMMM… I need an auto tweeter!!! 😉
Personally…I think it depends on your niche. I have more than one Twitter account. My IM Twitter account annoys the hell out of me. It’s one huge sell-fest, despite the fact that I attempted to cautiously add followers you cannot avoid the blatant “buy me” urls all over their posts.
On the other hand, my numbers of followers and those I’m following in my niche Twitter accounts are very small…but the conversations are fun, intriguing, useful and people in those smaller niches seem to be almost oblivious to the intent of selling. They’re all very passionate about the niche itself, and even though they have their website URLs and great backgrounds leading to their websites and products…they truly Tweet for the fun of it all…not to sell. And in the end the result is that the friendships developed in these smaller Twitter niches are much stronger, and relationships lead to sales and as Stephen Pierce would say “mo money”!
Summary—much more keen to the micro-niche Twittering than the IM Twitterers…Tweeters
I joined Twitter about 8 months to business network. I also joined Facebook at the same time. I now like Twitter better than Facebook! Lets face it Eric, everyone is on Twitter so if we want to be helpful and offer value to people, we must take part in it! There are so many good apps that you can use for Twitter that will save you time and also target your followers. Like any other social networking site, the objective of course is to build relationships, offer something helpful or of value to your followers first – not try and sell your product or business to them. Introduce them if you feel they have a need and if they do, they will buy or join you if you build that relationship first!
I have no opinion yet, I have just started using Twitter. I have been using it for about a week..
Hi Eric,
Just completed the survey and had to leave a few boxes blank – because there wasn’t an option for “hold in complete contempt” or “vacuous violation of time” or “everything I despise most about modern networking for people with a 5 second attention span” LOL! Guess that’s how I really feel about Twitter 🙂
I am in total agreement with you. It is the rage…and it is only getting stronger. With so many celebrities using it, and with people using it in emergency situations that have saved lives, the increase in use for business, and for all the great social network advantages for bringing people of like interests together…it will stay great for some time. I really do enjoy it although I am not smoothered with it.
Keep up your great work Eric…I really enjoy reading your tips, insights and suggestions.
I know that Twitter has become a phenomena. Every News Show is promoting Twitter, New People have Twitter accts, and tweet about the current events. Even the women from the view use Twitter. I think it is crazy though there has been a new language created because of this phenomena. The words are called twitterisms. I wrote a blog post about common twitterisms in the twittersphere. http://www.4urworld.com/30-twitterisms-even-your-mom-should-know/
I also see how business are using twitter to monitor what people are saying about their company, and possibly acting on complaints by customers, here is my blog post about that.
http://www.4urworld.com/why-do-you-twitter-why-dont-you-twitter/
It is a powerful tool, I am not sure where it will go or if it will die out from overuse. I don’t know. I liked your survey, I would like to see the results of what everyone else has to say.
Hi Eric,
I guess my opinion about Twitter is the same as your earlier opinion. I joined last year because it was a chance to network, but never willing knew what to do with it. I really didn’t like the main section asking “What are you doing now?” (Some things should be kept unsaid).
I see Twitter as I see the other popular social sites.
Hi Eric
Nice touch that survey..now i wonder when we will see you trying to sell me 10,000 followers ;-0 …i may just buy them …..
geoff Lord
Check your BMI on my BMI Calculator
Twitter to me seems like a bunch of people trying to impress themselves by saying things someone else has already said. I find very little value in something that was said much better by the person who originally said it. What a huge waste of time looking up all those quotes.
Eric:
I might be alone but I might be part of a group of people who are not quite ready for prime time. By that I mean I am finishing a book and other original material for Info. Marketing. I have been learning about marketing over the past months, reading and studying some, material and filing other material for investigation when I finish the content.
In your case, I read some of your first email reports and thought them excellent. I have been filing them all since and plan on a reading blitz soon.
I will have a blog, a main website, and several feeder websites in a few months so while I am learning about marketing I haven’t done any yet. That’s why I answered your questionnaire by saying I had no website, no blog etc. That doesn’t mean I don’t intend to have them. Same with the social media arsenal including Twitter.
I am saying this only because the Q. did did not allow us to indicate our level of enagement (or lack thereof at the moment)or the level I/we will be in soon.
Twitter sounds like it might be good for marketing; there are lots of favorable comments about it (from
marketers)
I do have a question, though. I thought that the point of Twitter was to answer the Question: What are you doing now? (At least that’s what it says on twitter’s home page–which is far as I ‘ve gotten so far)
Many marketers are saying that Twitter is great but unless they are announcing new products everyday I’m not sure how they fit that much marketing into that contraint.
Or are they just ignoring it and usuing twitter however they want to? And/or is anyone paying attention to the original function?
Or is the original question just like a red light in Italian cities–a suggestion?
Hope this helps.
Hi Eric…
I’ll share right up front that I LOVE twitter and find it to be a powerful tool. I also admit I joined last spring but forgot about it until the end of summer. THEN… I took another look and have had no regrets AT ALL!
I can tell from a couple of your questions on the survey that you don’t quite ‘grok’ the whole idea yet. For instance, the choices you give for responding to “Seriously, do you pay attention to the tweets of the people you’re following?” kind of miss the whole point.
You see… NO one can… or need, worry about reading EVERY tweet posted by every person they’re following. (Though of course, reading ‘none’ means you’re not even in the game)
Twitter is about connection… combined with the speed of life today. So… scanning your twitter feed 2 or 3 times daily and responding when you’re inspired is plenty for moving yourself into relationship with new, interesting people who can connect you with new, interesting things.
I can’t imagine anyone in business online today would depend on any one ‘tool’ for the various aspects required for success… and that said, twitter is one powerful tool to have in your toolbox IF you use it strategically while being authentic!
Thanks for the survey and the discussion 😉
~Mary K
Hi Eric,
I am not sure about Twitter’s value at this point. I have been Twittering a brief time and do not see any benefits at this point. I do enjoy occasionally submitting a message and sometimes pick up some valuable information from others.
Hi Eric,
I have completed your survey and look forward to what others think of Twitter as well. I personally enjoy Twitter. I think it is a great tool for marketing and socializing. BTW, I also followed you and tweeted your survey 😉
I have never joined Twitter, since there is already too much noise cluttering up the world. I could see its value for a narrowly focused niche if I had something of value to contribute. But, really, how many Twitterers can one Twit follow?
I just don’t get Twitter, even after 6 months trying to understand just what is the point. I think it is just sheep following sheep. It really does’nt do anything and does’nt seem to be going anywhere. I have even witnessed some big-time marketers stop using it now. That says something…
Hi Eric,
Here’s some advice that may be helpful to anyone just getting involved with social media for the first time. I believe that it’s important to build relationships first on Twitter. If you approach it strictly from a business perspective, you’re going to turn a lot of people off. People want to get to know you first. Another thing to watch out for is screwing up by ignoring people when they respond. Become a valued tweeter. Use your knowledge and skills to make people’s lives better. Give and add value. That goes a long way to building a massive list. Ask lots of open ended questions. The twitter system is viral by nature, so make use of that. Remember, all twitter lists are open source. Everyone’s list is public and you can follow them. Follow people who recently followed your mentors and colleagues. If you just do it for business reasons alone and just dive in, you’re starting at the wrong end and will have a hard time achieving your objectives. That’s why it’s called social media. If you don’t have the time or inclination to collaborate, listen, care and help people and be part of a larger community, then your approach to social networking needs some serious tweeking and you should revise your approach to it. If used right, Twitter can catapult your business to heights you can’t imagine.
I understand twitter to be with ceel phones, Ipods etc. I don’t use any of those those things. Thank you for the free gift though.
Eric, may have a bug in survey. With one submission I got message only one submission per user allowed. jm
Eric,
I took your “excellent” survey. Like you, the “jury is still out.” I just started using Twitter & have had minimal results marketing my business. As I learn how to use Twitter more effectively I anticipate positive results…that is what I am hoping for. I will be following you & look forward to your “tweets.” God Bless! David
it can be very addictive and its time spent away from your business. You can’t really follow alot of people but you could list your product.It would be better to grow your email list.I usually have to search to find the small group I am really following.There should be no auto unless it was part of the site for everyone.It can be a big time waster. Whatever happened to just emailing your friend. Flutter is starting and thats 26 characters.Everybody is looking for the buck.It would be better if people spent an extra 10 minutes at the dinner table with their family. No body wants to be left out as we discover what it can really do. Its more business than relationship. I have new followers that directmail me their ads. It wasn’t like that just a month ago.twitter will get clogged if everyone had massive followers. Its fun sometimes if I want to be on the laptop and I just want to check up on a few people. I think we get swept up quickly and you got to be on it but limit the time. I don’t have a business. I think it is miner but some people will use it to sell and I can see that. Will we all have to rush to flutter when is launches?There will be more things coming out and we’ll jump to that.People are building hoping to sell to google ex. twitter
Love twitter, have learned lots from fellow Twitters, 140 characters causes you to think about what you are going to “tweet”.
The bottom line is this….How can someone benefit from twittering. I have yet to hear or read about anyone making substantial money by twittering. From a Internet Marketing stand point it is worthless…(average user only)…but from the social aspect It seems to work.
As of now, I cannot see any value in the time spent Twittering.
I see more value in blogs and email.
Thank you.
I took the survey, but I am not familiar with Twitter. I do think it has great potential tho. I just read about the exchanges on Demi Moore’s twitter page that helped save a woman’s life.I think there is a valuable potential for both a social network to make new friends, AND to help grow a business. It would be a way to attract people of a like mind, whatever your business is. I plan on looking into it more. I have become curious about it now.
Hi Eric,
I’ve been following your Eric’s Tips from the beginning. Re. Twitter. I haven’t used it as a marketing tool. I do have a pet peeve. Because of the 140 character limitation, it is aggravating when someone monopolizes a whole page in order to make small talk. It would be good if number of tweets could be limited, as well. As a matter of courtesy, I limit number of tweets in one sitting no more that 2.
You’re someone special, Eric, among the overwhelming crowd of Twittermaniacs (not only according to compete.com analytics) -showing your critical thoughts, dealing with them honestly and open mindedly .
This will certainly be something a lot of your readers (and ‘followers’!) appreciate of -come what will. I for my sake do.
Till now I’ve been hesitating not only to adopt and practice Twitter but to make use of it aiming at certain business results.
English from the basics of it’s historical development has many structural aspects that enable the resulting language to apply short words (mainly four to six letters in the everyday vocabulary), the sequence of wording according to elementary rules of sentence structures (S-P-O-), the use of infinitives for nouns, of gerunds, positioning of adverbs or adverbial phrases -and other parts of the grammmar that became necessary on early stages of the development of UK-English as a national means of identity which later helped the American people during the 19th and 20th century to become one nation out of so many in a country they invaded and took for their own by force from the natives.
And IF e.g. terms from an elaborate code get down to the ‘lingo’-level they appear within that specific context (mainly derived from the Greek or Latin – sometimes even from the French-Normanic vocabulary) outstanding from the rest like jewels in the grass.
Those characteristics cannot easily be transferred to other languages. My mother tongue being German is pretty unapt for that technique and I’m sure French or Spanish are not as easily bent to those short forms either (I’m, you’re, yr, he’s, biz, bike, read, Tues, Wed, pic, lol, t-4-2,… not to mention the Twitter tendencies towards reduction – which partly makes up for the fun of twittering, of retweets and other useful abbreviations -even of the grammar.- All those abbreviations, new coinings and short forms afford their learning like a kind of metalanguage for people using English as a second language.
In short I can’t imagine to communicate (in the sense of the term) properly ‘within 140 characters or less’ as the Twitter slogan goes. – There’s a funny buzz around an even shorter version with 26 characters (if this wasn’t a joke or pun from it’s virtual beginning) by the name of ‘Flutter’.
And yes, I think it’s fun to ‘coin’ new phrases, terms even and to see how others adopt them for their own use as well.
This could get me to take up twittering – not only as a technique or a means of business model.
I began collecting infos on use, functions, phrases, abbreviations some time ago as I want to get a feeling first for that kind of communicative instrument- partly comparable to the development of the amount of plug ins you may choose from for WordPress by now – although not altogether similar.
All that said – I’m curious to learn what you will come to in your evaluation as I appreciate of your opinion which will certainly have to regard the development of the last five months, too.
I’m a fairly new convert as well but I absolutely feel that it is a must have for everyone these days. It is the best way of engaging customers, and potential customers, in rich two way conversations.
Here are a couple of my recent blog posts that you may enjoy:
– Why you’re missing the boat if you’re not on Twitter.
http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/do-not-miss-the-boat-join-twitter/
– My unofficial Twitter roadmap.
http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/the-unofficial-twitter-roadmap-for-a-social-marketing-delivery-platform-don’t-pass-it-on/
John
http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com
Tweets by JohnFMoore
Just recently started getting your emails, took your survey and wanted to respond to one of your Tweets but couldn’t do so inside of Twitter until you follow back.
You asked: “What are your suggestions for posting my own URL without it being cloaked?”
My suggestion is to use TweetDeck. You asked after taking the survey to tweet about it and I did so from Tweetdeck . . . your URL stayed in tact, no automatic shortening. I rarely if ever post from Twitter.
And for me, while I joined Twitter sometime last summer, I know I didn’t start actively using it until recently, although I don’t use it nearly as much as others do. For me, the jury’s still out about it’s effectiveness, but then again, I really think it has to do your intention and motivation for using it.
Hi Eric:
In many ways what you have been doing with your “Eric’s Tips” has been kind of like a “tweet”, although you have at times gone over the 140 character limit, you have provided short, unique content that people are interested in and thus have gathered a loyal following ( me included).
Twitter is a microblog, a communications tool. When one provides unique and interesting content, then one will over time build credibility and thus loyal followers.
Twitter as has been discovered is not just a chaos of noise of people talking about this and that,although if not used properly that is what will happen! When used properly it can enhance your online experience with so much valuable and entertaining topics, in some cases even ground breaking news of the day.
It is my opinion, that if people stay tunnel vision in their thinkings, then Twitter will be of no use at all. If people think that they can use twitter for blasting ads or like an email advertising campaign, then they will soon find out that they will be unfollowed in short order and maybe even reported for spam.
Can Twitter be used for business? Of course, but it has to be done the right way. when I talk to people about twitter and how to use it to the best advantage here are the guidlines I give:
– Post questions for quick answers and answer other people questions. This will establish your credibiliby and expertise. ( almost like yahoo answers?)
– keep up the “buzz in your industry – this is not selling by the way, it is informing people about new things happening in your business.
– network with like minded people. Lets face it if you are not into sports, why would you want to follow a sports personality?
I like twitter very much. It helps me when I am researching or just wanting to get ideas for me to post on our other blog.
I am by no means an expert on Twitter, I will leave that to all the wonderful “gurus” out there. I have just found that by studying and talking to “like minded ” people that I have learn a lot.
Sorry that this comment was so long, but you asked for an opinion…. now how do I get it to the 140 characters….lol
Best Regards,
Diane
Administrative Director
I have not used twitter as of now. I will be signing up soon with them.
In my opinion twitter is an excellent social network tool, also it gives you instant exposure. I think its too early to monetize with this tool. Building relationship and interacting should be primary objective.
Current trends are strong indicators that twitter is not slowing down but growing rapidly
I think Twiter is just very brief comments. People using it are trying to get notice on the many News shows and other places.
I have met people on Twitter who I have come to know, like, and trust.
Some have come to know, like, and trust me.
It’s fun, fast, entertaining, interesting, and, yes, sometimes distracting.
I don’t go there to sell stuff, or buy stuff, but to start and build relationship(s).
It’s another way to connect, and be connected, quickly.
Thanks for all the value you offer.
I’ll Twit about it. It’ll take 20 seconds, and who knows what good it might do?
Regards,
Bruce