Many people do not get Twitter.com. As it means quite different things to different people, maybe it is little wonder. After all, on the outside it seems like 140 characters of inane banter about arbitrary nonsense between strangers.
But if you are a real “Twit” (my nickname for someone who Tweets on Twitter, and I am a Twit myself) then it is much more than that. Much more!
Unfortunately certain Internet Marketing gurus pointed out the side effect benefits of Tweeting without explaining the protocol, strategy or real use of such a Web 2.0 system.
I don’t have room here to talk about the side benefits of Tweeting, but let’s look at the core value, of “communication” between a “close knit” set of people with similar interests. Yes you can find them on Twitter and it isn’t too hard to find that at all. There are various tools from third party developers to help you do this. I’ve mentioned some of them in a free report you can get from my Twitter Mutual website.
But just for a moment imagine a communication device, where your “thought” or question (or offer) an be “pushed” to people who are really interested in what you have to say. Why would any one pass that up? You can even link Twitter in and out of your other social activities, and even your plain old web site (or blog), so your tweets (updates) can be fairly automated to the other stuff you do.
But there is a problem. The gurus said “get lots of followers” (fans) and that the easy way to do this was just to “follow anyone, and they will follow you back”.
Well this doesn’t really work as a concept, because “targeted” traffic and communication is what we all need. Not 2000 messages about bottom scratching and burping from strangers. And not all people just follow back. Most check you out first to see if you have anything in common or of interest.
And another thing happened. These quick buck merchants, got a follow back and then realised they couldn’t cope (or be bothered) with 2000 messages coming in, so they stopped following most of their fans back. You get no notification when someone stops following you, so if you played this game, you may well have a bad ratio, even if you are an innocent party.
Now to alleviate Tweet spam, Twitter are taking a fairly dim view of people with bad follow to following ratios. IMHO the ideal ratio for a normal person is around 1:1. If you are a “celebrity”, you may well have a follow/following ratio of 2000:1. But there is almost no reason to have a ratio of 1:2000, or anything like it (i.e. 300:1800). And this is where many people have now got caught out. It is a stereotypical sign of someone who follows just to get fans, without any real intention of two way communication. These people are starting to feel Twitters anger. And you may be one of them, innocently! You may have followed everyone who follows you out of politeness, curiosity or novelty. But then as they were only after your vote, they have now left you following, on your own. Not much of a “conversation” is it…
You can see your ratio, on your own Twitter home page. (Mine is Twitter.com/ReikiMusic) As I said something around 1:1 is ideal for a normal person. If you are lucky (or pro active with your original information), you may even have an excess of fans. But what can you do if your ratio is way off? How do you know who is really following you and if you are really following people who are following you back?
Well I made a software tool (PC only currently) which can help you to do that. A side benefit is you can also keep a backup copy of your fan list. Why would you do that? Well twitter lost their relationship database a little while ago (most of it wasn’t permanent) but people couldn’t remember, or find out, who their friends and fans were, for several days, and it was never 100% restored either. These things happen, which is why backups are important. Well Twitter Mutual lets you back up that list for yourself, as well as find out who your Twitter sponges are. When I used it on my own account, I also found some people I had missed return following, so I was able to remedy that and develop some great new relationships. So there is a very positive side to Twitter Mutual as well.
You can learn more about Twitter Mutual from the web site, which I bizarrely called http://www.TwitterMutual.com/
It’s not an insurance company, although it can ensure your fan ratio is balanced ;-)
You can also check out my latest blog at http://www.RichieSays.com/videomarketing/ for my other inspired ramblings… strangely particularly about erm. Video Marketing. Just call me transparent ;-)
Add A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.