Twitter – Follow You, Follow Me
I think I’ve just about got my head around Twitter now; I’ve made nearly 300 Tweets and have about 200 followers and am following about the same number. To make things easier I downloaded a free interface tool called TweetDeck which basically has automatic page refresh and allows you to view Tweets, @replies and Direct Messages in different columns. This is very useful when you are following a significant number of people, say more than 40 busy posters.
I generally don’t go looking for followers, but will almost always reciprocate when someone follows me. This is not some sort of high-handed attitude – I have adopted a philosophy based on this blog post which, as you can see, advocates providing value to other users and not just using search tools to follow thousands of people or saturating Twitter with posts linking to your own product. People will find you if they want to. Obviously this is just a personal thing that I believe in and, of course, I do start following people I find particularly interesting who are internet marketing orientated.
So, what is value exactly. Well, I try to link to news items of interest (not breaking news generally) offbeat or humorous articles and videos (everybody needs to smile and laugh) and any marketing articles and tips I stumble on. I also ‘retweet’ posts which I think others will find interesting. Obviously there is a lot of information to be learned from other Tweets as well.
I was quite surprised by a number of ‘follows’ I received; from WaggyWoo (a dog loving Tweeter) to Jim DeMint (the US Senator from South Carolina) to HBK (who, as far as I can gather is Shawn Michaels of WWE fame) and plenty in between. I was particularly pleased to be followed by a few high-flying marketers, such as Mike Filsaime and Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos).
You’re bragging Blackburn, I hear you say; well not really – I am certainly not fooling myself into thinking that these guys saw a post of mine and went ‘Wow’! The follows were probably generated automatically. However, Twitter does allow me to interact with these major players. This shows the power Twitter has for networking but I also firmly believe in providing plenty of value for followers to read (or listen to) if they so choose.
Hi Keith,
Nice blog and nice post you have here.
I still did not get how can our business benefit from Twitter. It looks like an other social website. May be Twitter is a real time massaging but globally it’s like the others.
If you can tell us more or if someone visiting the blog can tell us how internet marketing can benefit from twitter that will be great.
I wish you all the best
Mostafa
http://mostafaalid.com
Hi Keith,
It seems you are ahead of me in a couple of areas. On ebay I too have been a member for some years but have not yet sold anything. As for Twitter, it is something yet to explore. Your article is an insperation to get on with it.
Hello Keith,
My respect twitters your way! I haven’t even started to look at what twitter is all about (in fact, there are some other traffic generating tools I haven’t researched either), but I am looking forward to the day when I can also say with certainty that my head has wrapped itself around this subject.
You are writing some very nice posts and I appreciate your thoughts on wanting to create a log based on integrity. And hey, you never know who may twitter along and also enjoy reading what you have to say!
Wishing you the best of luck with the masterclass!
Svenja
http://www.svenjasattler.com
Hi Bruce
Thanks for your kind comments. I think one of the ideas behind the Masterclass ‘link swap’ is so that we can all learn from each other, and if you have found one or two useful ideas here then that’s great.
There is a lot to learn ‘out there’ and therefore a lot to do – but taking action is everything.
Keith
Nice comments – in fact generally. Thanks for the tweetdeck link. Keep up the blogging.
I am new to twitter – please follow me – thomasaspin
Regards
fellow masterclass student
Thanks for your comments Tom. Reciprocal Twitter follow was made just now.
Keith
Hello Svenja
Many thanks for your comments!
To be honest I’m not sure how good a traffic generating tool Twitter is! I treat Twitter as a fun tool really, and if people visit my site then all well and good. I avoid the ‘hard sell’ type of Tweets that some people post, since there is a school of thought that this is actually counter-productive. If people want to visit my site they will.
I also wish you all the best with the Masterclass and your future success.
Keith
Hi Mostafa
Your comments are much appreciated!
If you look at my response to Svenja you will see that I have my doubts as to the power of Twitter for generating site traffic. I basically do ‘blitz Tweets’ (ie lots) for short periods during the day. My Tweets are generally news items, offbeat stories, music from blip.fm, videos and I also re-Tweet other posts. I feel that if people find these Tweets interesting or amusing then they are more likely to visit my site than if I just posted links. It is a personal thing really. There are tutorials about using Twitter for business – just Google a search.
Likewise I wish you all the best with the course and future success.
Keith
Ou-yo-yu you have a nice little blog…it’s now in my bookmarks ;0
Hi Nicholas
Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my blog and post a comment. Please come back any time!
Best wishes – Keith
hmmmm .. looks like I should take a look at twitter… I have resisted so far as I too thought it was just another social website.
Liking these blogs Bruv !!
Gailx
Well hello Gail (aka Lil Sister)
Glad you like the posts. Twitter is pretty big at the moment as I’m sure you know. There’s no harm in opening an account and seeing how it goes – I’ll be the first to follow you, don’t worry!
Take care – Keithx
Whoa… this site is pretty awesome
your layout is really well designed, and your blogs are (judging from what i’ve read) very interesting. heehee… consider yourself favorited. 
Hi Justin
Many thanks for your kind comments about my blog. Please come back and visit any time in the future – I’ll do my best to keep the content interesting!
Thanks again Justin – Keith
Definitely worth the read
Hi Twitter
Thanks for the comment – glad you liked the post!
Keith