9 Comments

What Are You Doing?

Mar 6, 2008
by

Twitter is so valuable for my own personal brand and business that it has become an essential part of my web presence since I started using it in Nov 2006.

Over 1,000 people follow me and I follow close to 1,000 people. Because of that volume, Twitter has stopped being yet another social network for me and is rapidly becoming my micro-neural net for things that are happening across the web.

Is Twitter essential for online marketers? That’s a completely subjective question. I took some heat for calling Twitter “the next big thing” on the social media panel at Affiliate Summit. But for me, Twitter is rapidly replacing email, and to some extent, feed reading. For my own consulting business, it’s not the next big thing, is the big thing.

Perhaps the most important thing about Twitter is that it is the place to be seen, heard and make yourself known in the online marketing world. If you are interesting (or interested) and have anything close to a personality, Twitter is the ultimate branding tool for your business or yourself.

I get emails everyday from people asking how they can get more attention for their blog or their new program or their network. One of my stock answers is to start using Twitter and get to know the people in your niche that are already there. In other words, get involved. You don’t need to spam the place with your latest coupons or affiliate links… but just show up and be interesting. Add value. Ask questions. Eventually, the traffic and notoriety will come.

In many ways, Twitter is a microcosm of the larger web and the same nay-saying arguments against Twitter were levied against blogging, email, forums and the web itself previously. You can choose to participate and reap the rewards for responsibly doing so, you can write it off as yet-another-geek-fad and miss out on the potential for your business or your brand (or both), or you can go in with guns blazing and spam-up the joint. I’d suggest going with the first option.

The CommonCraft team have put together another excellent vid breaking down exactly why Twitter is becoming so important to a growing and influential crowd:

YouTube – Twitter in Plain English

Thanks to Tris Hussey for the tip.

About Sam Harrelson

Former ReveNews and CostPerNews Publisher, Former Affiliate Marketer, Current Middle School Science Teacher, Current Publisher of AffiliateHack

Twitter: sbharrelson22
Filed under: Internet Strategy + Micro Transactions + Micro-Content + Online Marketing
  • http://www.CathyStucker.com/ Cathy Stucker

    Sam, you are absolutely right about the value of Twitter. I am still a fairly new Twitter user (Twit? ;o) ), and I have to admit that I resisted it for a long time. Twitter seemed like nothing more than a giant time suck, and I did not need that.

    What was I thinking? Twitter is an amazing way to keep on top of what is happening in my world. It has helped me meet new friends and business contacts, and get to know my existing community better.

    I am quick to follow new people, but also quick to dump those who do not provide value (e.g., just spamming their latest links with no other participation).

    I just wonder what is going to happen to Twitter when SXSW hits with full force. Should be interesting.

  • http://www.revenews.com Sam Harrelson

    Thanks for the comment, Cathy.

    SXSW is definitely going to be a back breaker on their servers, so hopefully we won't have to experience any of the now famous Twitter downtime.

    I honestly don't remember what the web was like before Twitter. Sad, but true.

  • http://www.twitter.com/trust Jonathan (Trust)

    "I took some heat for calling Twitter “the next big thing” on the social media panel at Affiliate Summit."

    Rightfully so. Replacing email, the ultimate branding tool etc. is reaching. It's alright to really like a product but good to keep it in perspective. I think the video highlights a few of the problems people have with it. Namely the limititions of 140 characters and people not really caring about every little thing someone does:

    In the video -

    Wow another homerun

    mmm coffee

    I missed my bus

    I'm off to sleep

    And then the big thing which we've talked about, grouping. I want that in Twitter itself. They really need to tackle that next if they want to move forward. Take it for what it is but keep it in perspective. Oh and click my url and add me :)

  • http://www.45n5.com 45n5

    "Over 1,000 people follow me and I follow close to 1,000 people. Because of that volume, Twitter has stopped being yet another social network for me and is rapidly becoming my micro-neural net for things that are happening across the web."

    the same could be said for youtube, facebook, or any social network, ie the more people connected to you in the social network the better your brand and communication.

    (I also think youtube trumps twitter for "branding")

    it doesn't matter what social tool you use, be it twitter or something else, communication is important, of course, no news! ;)

    aside: love the "micro-neural net" reference, i sometimes think of my blogs as a brain plugin or extension.

  • http://www.revenews.com Sam Harrelson

    @Trust To quote the Gipper, "There you go again…" Haha, we're going to have to agree just to disagree since we've been going back and forth about Twitter's virtues pretty much since 2006. We've had some good arguments, though! But seriously, there are people in this industry that contact me through direct tweets and vice versa and who I wouldn't be in contact with otherwise. Sure, there's a high noise-to-signal ratio, but that's true of any web medium. Again, it's highly subjective.

    @45n5 Good point on the social networking stuff and I suppose YouTube, Facebook, etc could be preferred if those are more your tastes. However, the 140 character constraint of Twitter often cuts through the BS and makes people get to the point. For me, that constraint is the major plus factor for Twitter.

  • http://www.quityourdayjob.com/ Jeremy Palmer

    I signed up with Twitter a while back, but never updated it or followed anybody. A few weeks back I started posting a few updates and subscribing to others feeds and quickly became addicted.

    The video you posted is the best one I've seen explaining Twitter. I had the hardest time trying to explain it to friends and family – now I just send the link.

  • http://www.wayneporter.com Wayne Porter

    Sam is correct IMHO. Either you see it, or you must clear your vision.

  • http://onlinewealthexposed.com/blog Wealth Seeker

    Thanks for the information.

    I have also signed up with Twitter a few days ago.Haven't used that much.

    After reading I will definitely use t more often!!

  • http://www.WhatTheFrank.com Frank Carrasco

    Started using Twitter and surprised by how much traffic I have received to my sites because of active web surfers.