subject: Twitter Marketing - Vampiric Time Suck Or Traffic Gold Mine? (Inquiring Minds Want to Know) [print this page] Twitter Marketing - Vampiric Time Suck Or Traffic Gold Mine? (Inquiring Minds Want to Know)
"Twitter! Tweets will set you free!" ~ Jingle from The Craig Ferguson Show
Twitter is all over the place, right? But is it a gigantic waste of time or can smart marketers use it to their advantage?
When I first heard about it from friend and colleague Paul Colligan, I went and got a free account because I know, like and trust Paul.
I will admit, though, that my first thought was "Who cares what I had for lunch?" And I left it at that for a little while. Until I heard from more than one of my marketing friends that their Twitter list was becoming more responsive than their email list.
That got my attention. And we'll take a closer look at that in just a moment. First I want to answer the question asked in the title of this article (the article does have to relate to the title, you know).
Vampiric Time Suck?
This is one of the objections I most often hear about getting involved in Twitter and Social Marketing in general. Just like anything else, in can become a giant time suck, if you let it.
If all you are doing is posting updates about your every move that day and chatting endlessly with people about meaningless crap, then I guess it could be considered a giant time suck.
I guess my bias is leaking out here, huh?
I just get aggravated that people piss and moan about something without really checking it out and/or believe all the hype they have heard, again without checking it out.
Traffic Gold Mine?
For me, Twitter has become a traffic gold mine. Here's how:
The first thing I ever learned about traffic on the internet is that "you don't chase after traffic, you find out where the traffic is going and get in front of it." With Twitter being the 11th highest ranked web site in the world in terms of traffic at the time of this writing, I think it is obvious this is a good place to be.
Once you get your info in front of the traffic coming into Twitter, you can then direct that traffic wherever you want it to go.
Remember earlier when I talked about how a Twitter list can become more responsive than an email list? It's true, because it has happened for me. Think about it: with email you get to communicate once a day at best. Anything more than that, and people are going to unsubscribe in droves. On Twitter, you can communicate several times a day, and gain more followers.
With free tools such a HootSuite.com and others, you can automate much of the process and thus spend much less time.
If you want traffic from Twitter, invite your followers to check out your articles, videos, opt-in pages and whatever else makes sense for your marketing.
But only if you want a flood of traffic from Twitter.
