Since the 4th of June I have been running an experiment using Twitter – and it goes like this.
For over a couple of years I have been using Twitter to engage targetted people that I want to have a dialogue with. Over the course of this period I have been very selective about who I follow, and have been very selective about the tweets that I’ve sent. As a result of this my following has grown very slowly.
Despite the slow growth, what I have got has been a really good engagement with those that choose to follow me. In return, I only follow back people who’s past tweets suggest that they will say things that I actually will benefit from – but I read those that I follow. I now have 638 followers and follow 68 people – the figures have been in that sort of proportion for some time now. I suspect that most of the followers that I have actually read what I tweet, because when I send a tweet I get a response (not retweets, but positive action – click here, buy now etc). That’s great, and I like the fact that people are following me because they want to, not because I follow them first.
If you read older posts you will see my feelings about auto follow, auto tweeting…
So I thought it was about time that I put this to the test.
So, on june 4th I opened another twitter account, linked it to twitterfeed, google alerts and friendfollow and have automated a series of actions which allow me to send tweets which are both topical and unique to an increasing band of followers without doing ANYTHING whatsoever, then when people follow me I send them a nice introduction DM. Today, my ‘twitter influence’ from this second account overtook my first account – exactly three weeks after starting it!
Now I have 750 followers, follow a similar number people, are regularly retweeted and have never done anything to the account since that first day!
If there is anybody out there who can explain how my ‘twitter influence’ with a disparate group of people that I don’t know, don’t understand, don’t listen to and can’t mobilize into action can be higher than a similarly sized group of loyal followers I would love to hear from you!
Amongst my loyal followers if I ask them to click they do, if I ask them to buy, they do. With the 04/06 account…nothing (although I do get retweets and more followers).
I hope that the companies providing Twitter analysis tools would start to consider that the important metrics are comments, action, engagement and money NOT BLOODY NUMBERS!
Later in the year I shall report back when I pass the 1k, 2k and 5k marks!!!
God help us all.
I’m passionate about the world of social media, what it can do for business and mankind. I work with companies to help them understand what Social Media is and how they can harness its power to have more and better relationships with their prospects and customers. I help my clients integrate social media with their existing marketing and ensure that they get the best possible return on their investment. I work across East Anglia and the South East of England with clients in Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire and London.
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