All Entries in the "Social Networking" Category

If You Don’t Follow Me I’ll Unfollow You and I’ll take my toys and go home!

People are always asking how to get more followers on Twitter and how to manage an effective Twitter account. First, define effective. I want to ask you some questions myself.

1. If someone follows you on Twitter do you feel obligated to follow them back, even if what they talk about doesn’t really interest you?

I don’t. It isn’t bad etiquette to not follow someone on Twitter if the topics they talk about do not interest you. It doesn’t mean you don’t like them. It isn’t an insult if I don’t follow you.

If I follow you and never read your posts, then what’s the point? Think about how you get traffic to your website or blog. You choose keywords to get a specific target audience to visit your web pages.

Targeted traffic is the key, not the number of people who come to your website. So why, on Twitter, do you think that basic concept doesn’t apply?

10,000 visitors to your website that are not interested in your products and services doesn’t do anything for you. 10,000 followers on Twitter that don’t care what you say doesn’t do anything for you.

2. If someone you choose to follow doesn’t follow you back, do you unfollow them because of that?

It isn’t a popularity contest. You should only be following people you are interested in and you should not feel insulted when someone doesn’t follow you back.

You should be choosing to follow people whose tweets interest you. And each person in turn should do the same thing. So what if everyone you follow doesn’t follow you? So what if you don’t follow everyone that follows you?

If a person doesn’t follow you on Twitter, it isn’t a vote against you. It isn’t an insult. Each person has their own interests. Those that are interested in what you have to say will follow you. You will have a targeted audience. Isn’t that what you really want?

3. Are you using a Twitter Tool to get more followers? If you say no and you have only made 49 tweets and have 49,000 followers, we know you’re lying.

Seriously? Is what you have to say so uninteresting that you need automated software to get followers? Did you not have friends in high school? OK, that may sound mean, but using software to get followers is like paying people to be your friend.

And it doesn’t get you a targeted audience that cares about what you link to or say. Is it because you want the bragging rights of having thousands of followers?

People who say they have 1000 friends usually don’t. You have a few friends and a lot of acquaintances. That’s in real life. On Twitter, you can have 50,000 followers and only have 100 followers who actually read what you tweet. How is that an effective marketing strategy?

4. What percentage of your posts are about you and your services?

Go to your own profile and actually count. Some of you don’t need to because every single tweet you make is about you. You are the center of the Twitterverse and we are all just on Twitter to serve you.

If you show interest in others, they will show interest in you. Post stuff that isn’t about you at least 2/3 of the time and you will naturally get more followers. Comment on the blogs that the people you follow write. Post some funny stuff. Everyone loves humor.

5. How do I know what will interest my followers on Twitter?

I know you think everything you are doing or selling is what will interest them. But, get real. It’s not just about you.

In order to post stuff you know will interest your followers, you have to actually know who they are. Go down your list of followers. Have something to write with ready.

As you view each follower on the list, write down a category or categories that you think would interest them. Let’s say the first one on the list is a real estate person, write down real estate, mortgages and loans as topics.

If the second follower on your list is a gamer, write down games as a topic. If the 3rd person is also in real estate, add a number under the topics you attributed to the 1st follower.

Continue down your list and keep doing that. Look at the categories that have the highest numbers and put them at the top of your list of topics, then build your list according to those numbers.

Tweet about the most popular topics more often than other topics. Then mix in something you are promoting about every third tweet. You’ll build trust and users will click on things you tweet, including those that are about you.

5. How many retweets have you done for other people?

Again, have you shown interest in what others tweet about? Do you even care? If you don’t, your followers will know you don’t care and they won’t care what you have to say either.

6. How many times have you commented on someone’s blog after seeing their tweet?

Is it really too much trouble to make a comment on someone’s blog? You get a link back for doing it and you let that person know you are listening to them. They in turn will listen to you.

7. Do you even read the tweets from those you follow or are you just after traffic to your own website,blog, products and services?

If you really are just using Twitter to post your own services, products, etc. then you have missed the entire point of Twitter and all other social networking websites as well.

You may think you are a social media guru because you have 100,000 followers, but if you are not reading what other people tweet and responding to that, you’re really just a dweeb whose “popularity” will fade in the long run.

That’s my opinion. What’s yours?

March 14, 2010 | Chris McElroy | Comments 0

Why I Don’t Buy FaceBook Ads

I’ve read a lot about advertising on FaceBook recently. I haven’t been a big fan of FaceBook as a serious business social media tool. I like to call it MyFace. However, you can’t ignore the fact that they are #2 in Alexa and growing daily.

Maybe it just goes to the fact I don’t like crowds either. Either way, I’ve only recently decided to create a FaceBook Profile. I also decided to take a good look at their PPC ads.

I do like the demographic choices it gives you, but it’s missing one of the biggest features I like about Google Adwords. I can tell Google the hours and days I want to run my ad. I don’t get to do that at FaceBook.

At FaceBook, you can choose the start day and hour of your PPC campaign and the end date and hour. But it will run 24 hours per day by default from the start to the finish.

Then FaceBook suggests to pay by impression. So I have to pay for the impressions I don’t want? That makes no sense to me. If I don’t think my audience is online at 3am, why would I want to be paying for impressions then?

My clients are webmasters, SEO companies, corporate marketing executives, business owners, etc. so I also don’t think my ads running 24/7 are going to reach my audience all that well.

I do well with Google Adwords and until convinced otherwise, I’ll stick with that. However, I do have clients who might benefit from FaceBook Advertising. Their target audience is much more general.

So I will recommend it to some clients, but not all and I won’t be using it for my business.

What has your response been with FaceBook Ads and for what target audience?

Facebook Ads Update (realestate.about.com)
Could Facebook be worth $1bn a year? (guardian.co.uk)
How Google Adwords Can Help You To Get Targeted Leads (ronmedlin.com)

March 03, 2010 | Chris McElroy | Comments 1

Why Don’t I Get Good Response From Twitter?

I see a lot of marketers posting on their blog about how they get a poor response from Twitter. John Reese sent out an email about how Twitter is a waste of his time and how the responses to his tweets are declining.

Why is their response from Twitter declining? ME ME ME, that’s why. When is the last time you retweeted other people’s tweets? How often do you do it?

When is the last time you went to your follower’s blogs and made comments? How often do you show interest in what your followers and those that follow you are doing?

There are thousands of marketers on Twitter that simply post dozens or even hundreds of times per day to tell everyone about what they are doing, what they are interested in and why everyone should be following them and taking their advice.

If you are that selfish and self-important then none of the social networks are for you. If you do not have the time to show interest in others, they willnot take the time to show interest in you.

For some, Twitter is all about gaining as many followers as possible through automated means, then blasting your message to them over and over again. These people even think that makes them social networking gurus.

They aren’t. The real genius of social networking makes real friends and networks with others. That means showing an interest in others.

If your response from Twitter is declining, then it’s you and not Twitter that is at fault.

March 02, 2010 | Chris McElroy | Comments 13

Google vs Facebook is a Dumb Comparison

I keep seeing posts titled; “Google vs Facebook, which is better?” or “Is Facebook better than Google?”. Why do people insist on making these comparisons?

Why would anyone need or want to choose one or the other? I want traffic from many different sources. I want Bing traffic, Google traffic, Yahoo traffic, traffic from social media websites, traffic from other people’s websites and blogs and I want traffic from anywhere my target audience might be.

So the answer to the question, “Which is better?” is YES.

Facebook Posts Phenomenal Growth In Search (allfacebook.com)
Facebook is Now Second Most Popular Website (slyvisions.com)
Bing Fuels Monthly Microsoft Search Growth (marketingvox.com)
Facebook Overtakes Yahoo: Now the Second Most Visited Site in U.S. (matei.org)
Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Part II: Facebook’s Traffic Passes Yahoo (ReadWriteWeb) (domainmacher.com)
ComScore: Facebook’s Search Query Volume Grew by 13% in January (insidefacebook.com)
Don’t Count Out Facebook as a Competitor to Google (webpronews.com)

February 21, 2010 | Chris McElroy | Comments 6

What Complications Does Social Media Marketing Give To SEOs?

If you are a working SEO I’m sure you’ve noticed the rise of social media marketing. I’m curious if this has given you any complications in your business. What challenges, if any, does social media marketing give you in your business?

Obviously, there are benefits to marketing through social media, even for SEOs. But is there a downside? Have you lost business from your SEO clients who went seeking a social media alternative? Or have you noticed that social media results from your competition have edged in on your organic search listings in some niches? Have you tried to use social media for your own marketing only to find it a waste of time?

I use social media and I’ve used it successfully. But I’m interested in knowing what challenges you’ve had with it and how you overcame those. Discuss.

Why Marketers Fail at “Social” (socialmediatoday.com)
Organic Search Engine Optimization is Critical to Success (ronmedlin.com)
Is Social Media Ruining Your Sales? (thecustomercollective.com)

February 16, 2010 | Allen Taylor | Comments 1

Mingle Plugin Allows Your Blog to be a Social Network

I like testing WordPress plugins. You find a lot of plugins you don’t need and every now and then you find a gem. the Mingle plugin for WordPress is pretty cool.

You see the links at the top of my blog? There is a Mingle Signup page where you can join the social network for my blog. You get a profile page with your chosen username in the URL to your profile page.

You can add friends. You can micro blog on the My Activity page. It’s nice to have subscribers and members on your blog, but even nicer that your blog members can interact with each other.

I didn’t have any problem configuring the Mingle plugin for my blog and doubt you will either. Give it a try!