Since 2005, when I started the ‘Ask Mr Business Golf Show’ on Splashcast, I have been able to hold on to a following of REAL people who know I am not afraid to answer any question they throw at me. I have lost count on how many questions I have been asked but it has to be in the hundreds.
However, there seems to be one issue that this growing community of newbies to the internet seem to keep asking me about the most and that is Twitter. I personally tire of the questions, but concede that because of the volume of these questions seem to be repeating indicates Twitter has FAILED. And for something that is a more or a less a hugely unexplained phenomena, for Twitter to fail like it has I find it interesting that it still exists.
Anyhow, the questions people ask me still intrigue me even though they exhaust me. Since I would like to cut down on the number of times I post something about Twitter I thought I would list some of the questions that I am asked by hundreds of people who are either entering the internet for the first time or just can’t get what Twitter is about. I thought if I spent some time here expanding upon the issues behind the questions being asked I might be able to use this blog as a resource to sent the next person with a questions on Twitter.
What Does Twitter Do?
By far, the Number one question I get. It is a natural question to ask because there is no official explanation to what Twitter Does. The icons of the internet feel insulted when they are asked this question which I feel is due to them being near ground zero when Twitter came on the scene. Back then, it was no more than cute little chat room for a click out on the left coast. Now look what they have done?
Twitter is still and unexplained mess to anyone who stops by Twitter for the first time…or at least it has never been explain to me or anyone who is asking me that question.
What Twitter does for me probably is WAY different than what it does for someone else, or, more importantly, what they want Twitter to do for them.
Everyone in business wants Twitter to bring the consumers to their store..be it online or offline. On that most part Twitter does not accomplish what many business people are looking for out of the internet.
Then you have the thrill seekers who use Twitter as a replacement for their failed real life and want Twitter to make them popular. Twitter gives them the feeling of being someone. Unfortunately that generates the question, does having thousands of spammers, scammers, porn operators and open ‘Black Hat’ internet marketers following you really make you popular in the way you want to be popular?
These two major ‘Wants’ is how the majority of Tweets use Twitter. Of course you have the few of us who use Twitter as a casual gathering place similar to an offline Happy Hour where you stop by for a drink and visit with the regulars. This can only be accomplished with using a filter application like TweetDeck or the like. However, the casual ‘chat-it-up’ approach is what I am seeing, and have had confirmed by hundreds of others on Twitter, is the only productive thing Twitter does.
I also am a business person and expert on human behavior in the workplace so I also use Twitter for commercial reasons. How I go about doing this is by controlling the environment of Twitter and building a community of real people. Then the focus or the information I provide to this community makes sense. Of course the entire world of Twitter is open to view the information, including the many followers who say they want to hear what I have to say, but it is targeted mostly to the selected few Tweets I have chosen to follow. All of this is done to not keep them on Twitter but to entice them to venture out of the La-La-Land of Twitter into the real world communities I have developed outside of Twitter.
To me, this is what Twitter Does…what it really does is still a mystery.
How Do You Use Twitter?
Again, to the veteran Tweets this question generates the ‘Geez’ response. But really, how do you use Twitter? Yaw, it has buttons and whistles, but how are they most effectively used and how would you use some of those buttons that are posted? The buttons and settings have gotten easier an self explanatory so the answer to this question has changed to being more about the application of Twitter.
This question also goes beyond convention and asks how Twitter is used as a tool..primarily a business tool. This is when the advice many newbies received can be controversial. Many so called experts will recommend that Twitter be used as a Spam vehicle..by tying their business’ (if you can call it a business) link to Twitter through their RSS feed or some other median online that produces large volumes of links to other things online.
There are many other devious processed that are offered that produces a questionable image of the user.
I use Twitter with a mix of approaches. I use the 80/20 rule..80% of responses and 20% of informational links. My goal is to be helpful and not destructive and enlighten people on what they are getting into out here in La-La-Land that they may not know they are getting in to.
Why Do People Say Twitter is ‘Powerful’?
I see the powerhouse internet marketers and the guys and gals from the large PR firms reporting how vast Twitter has become in the business world. True, it has become a real curiosity to many C-Suite executives of corporate America, and the world. Many of these execs are the ones asking all of these questions.
What many of these managers of companies with all the money to pour into huge marketing plans are telling me is they are on Twitter because everyone else is. They are using the same mentality as the banking industry did recently with building a branch office on every corner of every intersection of every main thoroughfare in ever large city around the country. We saw where that went.
Now the big businesses are wondering the same thing as the small business person..why is Twitter so popular?
What is making Twitter seem to be powerful is the many internet marketers and PR people saying it is powerful. Really, Twitter is no powerful in the market place than anything else used to stir hype. Statistically, the clean, well put together, informative web-site has more power than Twitter when it comes to producing revenue which is all these businesses who fall for the PR hype are really only after.
Powerful? I guess that is scalable to one’s perception of what is powerful means to them. If reading in 140 characters or less about the most effective way of lighting farts is seen as powerful information for you then Twitter would be pure nuclear to you.
If pushing traffic to your web-site, blog or wherever you want the traffic to go is powerful to you then Twitter is a .0005 earthquake on the Richter Scale to you since it really does not produce the traffic from real people (BOT’s..yaw, baby, they will come to your site from Twitter, but not Real People).
If your using Twitter for the power of its hyped revenue producing then you are talking the power of atomic engineering because it has yet been proven that Twitter can produce revenue from someone just being on Twitter.
Many of the statistics being thrown around on the increase revenue a business has developed since being on Twitter can also be worked into showing the smoke and mirrors any good PR person worth his weight in salt can produce. Anyone with a beginner level of knowledge of developing a spreadsheet can show Twitter to be a Golden Goose. It is what you want to believe that really matters.
The true power of Twitter comes from its ability to build a community. However, expecting the Twitter community to become a market is not what I would risk putting much energy or effort. In today’s economy, the consumer has control and right now they are the true power of Twitter. If you can gain the consumers trust then you have gain their power, not Twitters.
Whether the large businesses who are coming onto Twitter by the droves will be able to build trust with the Real People on Twitter will only be accomplished if the Real People, or the real leaders of the business (not a hired gun), spend time with the Twitter community to build the trust.
I know that will not happened due to these guys and gals who run these large businesses don’t like getting their hands dirty, so where is the power of Twitter when the connections made in the community is not REAL?
Why Does the Mainstream Media Jump on Twitter Then Not Respond to Anyone?
This is a rather new questions, but is repeated nearly everyday. It is obvious the traditional Radio, Television and Cable Stations are feeling the the withdraw of their viewers. Why? The consumes are tired of being inundated with the ‘Billy Mays’ (may he rest in peace) style of advertising that takes up most of their airwaves.
The same goes for the print media. Why read a newspaper and scan headlines on Michael Jackson’s death between full pages ads for living room furniture when you are more interested in either.
The media is now coming on to Twitter thinking they are joining the mix of businesses on Twitter that are reaping large portions of their markets. Here, again, there is this illusion, produced my internet marketers and PR people who back mostly the tech industries products that benefit from the demographic Twitter draws in, that the media is wanting to be apart. The media and other businesses, not part of the traditional tech scene, are lead to believe from concocted statistical reports that their market has moved to Twitter.
True, some of that market has moved online but they are the same consumers who are tired of the traditional media’s style of marketing and will be the first not to follow the media on Twitter.
All of this rational questioning leads into the next question that explains why large businesses and the mega traditional media have been snookered into being on Twitter.
Who Is It That Uses Twitter?
That is a good question and is one I have often wonder why it is not the most asked question. Yes, who are these millions of Tweets?…I call them Tweets, because not all of the are People. And that is the underlying concern of most online social networking groups..lack of real people.
It really is a shame since the number of Real People online is pretty high, but nowhere near the numbers the marketing companies want you to believe. Plus, the number of Real People who want to come online would boost the numbers even more if Twitter and the Internet, as a whole, would clean up their image.
Rough estimates have been made that well over 60% of the total number of Twitter uses represent obsolete accounts that people start and leave before finishing or finish and then abandon for a number of reasons. Most are built for the purpose of deception or to hide behind so spamming or scamming info can be accumulated. A significant amount are probably BOT’s or mechanized efforts of someone to make the existence of something on Twitter automatic.
Out of the remaining 40% are accounts for Tweets that may only come online once every few months. Also there is a large number of social media professionals who open dozens of accounts for people they represent. I have run into a number of them at Tweet-ups who openly claim to tweet for people to provide them an online presence. So what is the value of those large number of Twitter accounts that are inactive or there for promotional purposes only?
That leaves a very, very small number of REAL people to market to. So, why are the Media and other large companies out marketing to such a small base of the market? That is a question I am asking but yet have not been able to dig up the answer. Right now, I can only assume they don’t know it, don’t want to admit to it, don’t know it or don’t care.
Why Are There So Many Tweets That Post a Statement and Then a Link?
This question I use to toil over but now quickly answer with..’because they are idiots’. What I have found after hours of traipsing through blogs and forums on effective marketing on Twitter is there are so many ‘Black Hat’ internet markets in La-La-Land who are telling newbies to the internet to maximize their online efforts by monetize their time on Twitter with focusing only on doing any and everything to link as many Tweets as they can to their product or service. Yaw, that is all one big sentence and that is how these ‘Dead Men Walking’ operate..very over spoken. (How do you think I learned to write this way…reading all their crap)
I am finding more and more lost soles out on Twitter who are just following the foolish guidance of people who probably could not survive in the offline world. It is a shame and is a growing issue now that the offline economy is laying off some many Real People who could the internet and Twitter to find work.
The lure to the $4000 a minute businesses that many people are pitching on Twitter really plays into the hands of these millions of people who are grabbing at anything to make a buck. Flooding Twitter with worthless links to affiliate sites and scammy products turns reasonable people in to misguided fools. So, that is why there are so many posts on Twitter with a few SEO Keywords and then a link.
Why Isn’t the Spam and Porn Controlled on Twitter?
Recently this question is usually asked a few minutes before many of my contacts leave the internet ..probably forever. Real People don’t have time for such crap. I have never understood the marketing principles behind Spam.
The old adage that if you throw enough empty hooks into the sea at once it is bound to catch someone is WAY over with. I am not sure when it ever was a profitable way for Spammers to monetize their efforts…Even if there is a 4000% ROI.
Twitter is flooded with these people, places and things that broadcast out hundreds of Spam and Porn links under hundreds of fake accounts. I am sure Twitter is battling it as they spot it, but eventually Twitter will have to put a gate up at the front end. This will homogenize the environment and that is when Twitter will become valuable. A simple answer to a troubling question.
Is Anyone Making Any Money Using Twitter?
Another very good question. There are many people claiming to make money, but anyone on the internet can claim to be a Trillionaire, it only if you want to believe it when it matters. I suspect that book sellers and other popular trendy product sellers are probably make a sale or two, but as far as door buster sales..I am not sure I can believe it…maybe if these people who are claiming to make all this money were to hire me to say otherwise, (and their check cleared my bank) then maybe I can say they are making money, but not everyone on Twitter can be making any money.
Who Is Twitter For?
I can confidently say, Twitter is for anyone. Historically it has been a playground for the geeks, techs and those who are way too into the world revolving around the happens of Silicon Valley. The majority of who is out on Twitter today are from this genre, but what is growing and is being picked on my the marketing firms, is the growing number of Real people who are coming to Twitter for Real reasons.
I suppose I will always be asked what the deal is with Twitter since I seem to be one of the few out here who are activity out on the streets working towards getting more non-internet real people to come online. I feel strongly that more business people need to come on. However, no matter if they are a consumer or a provider of goods they need to search out answers to their questions on where to safely enter the internet. Twitter may not be the best place to begin their drive down the information highway but eventually will be a place everyone ends up..sometime or another.
Twitter was one of those mystery apps I ran into many years ago. It was only after reading and watching others use Twitter and seeing what works and how I reacted to their efforts did I find the answers to all of these questions..plus countless hours on the phone and SkyPe with people asking them how they use Twitter.
Hopefully this long drawn out attempt to address the most popular questions I am asked about Twitter will get you to understand the REAL Twitter better..unless you are not a Real Person then all of this is just words to you.
Let me know how I can help.
