RE-TWEET IT!
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Twitter is widely praised as a ‘relationship building’ tool. It’s tempting to extend that into thinking of Twitter as an effective medium to arrange joint venture deals.
Here’s a recent experience.
For background, remember I have a “Twitter Rule of FORTY” which is that I follow only 40 people, so that I can focus on a small group, engage in mini-conversations and build deeper relationships rather than spread them across a large group.
This philosophy is relevant when it comes to the concept of using Twitter for JV deal-making… you’ll understand when I share the numbers.
I sent 15 out of the 40 people I’m following a short Twitter Direct Message (DM), saying this:
Here’s what happened:
- 4 said “No”, they could not promote (for various reasons)
- 3 said “Maybe” they will promote it (to my best knowledge, they haven’t yet)
- 2 ignored the note and carried on regular conversation about other things
- 6 have not communicated with me since then
Incidentally, I also sent the invitation to 2 people I am not currently following – and one of them agreed to help promote it.
My analysis:
- Joint venture deal making on Twitter is pretty much the same as on any other communication medium, with similar response rates. I regularly have 1 in 15 people I contact about helping with a promotion respond, and Twitter seems the same.
- One good thing is you get a reply – even if it’s a “No”. With email or letters in the mail, you often will not hear back for a long time, and that leaves you guessing and wondering.
- Relationships do not guarantee or automatically lead to joint venture deals. People still could say “No”. In fact, most of them did!
- In light of these lessons, if you are on Twitter primarily for wheeling-n-dealing, then you’ll be better off with a different strategy than my “Rule of FORTY” – and may probably do better with the ‘thousands of followers’ method.
Like almost everything else I test in my marketing, there are many powerful lessons I will carry away from this experience. (Hope this helps you too). And based on these lessons, there are some changes I will make to enhance the value of Twitter to my overall approach.
This is possible because I have an over-arching STRATEGY to using social media. It helps me evaluate other things in a specific context and take steps that might otherwise seem random and even silly.
Do YOU have a social media marketing strategy?
Would you like to have one?
If yes, my short 15-page ebook will be a useful guide. It’s called “SOCIAL WINS – How to Develop Your WINNING Social Media Marketing Strategy“… and you can get it here.
Not a detailed road-map, but a short list of bullet-points and probing questions to get you THINKING about what you’re doing on social media.
Trust me, without a guiding strategy to everything you do on social networks, you’re spinning your wheels and wasting hours and hours of your life on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other places.
Ignore it only if indulging your addiction, scurrying down rabbit-holes and frittering away your productive time sounds appealing! Otherwise, check out SOCIAL WINS – today.
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{ 4 comments }
Twitter for JVs is relationship building more than anything else. It probably increases the chance of receiving a response if you approach someone by another medium.
I haven’t been blogging for almost 5 months, yet I still receive 10+ promotions on my contact form daily, and they go largely ignored.
If I was blogging, then I would have 100+ products in the IM niche that I could potentially mention, 100+ service announcements that might be interesting, and tons of blog posts I culd highlight in some way.
Interesting, when I do suggest I could write something when I am back blogging, people make a note of that to follow up with me in a month’s time.
They then don’t take the time in 1 month to see if I have actually been blogging, they just send a follow up email.
Also by limiting your discussions to a small group, in some ways it can limit your reach, and it also prevents DMs being responded to.
@AndyBeard
Thanks, Andy. Great points. The example you gave is classic. The person approaching you is ONLY concerned about the WIIFM, and doesn’t even bother to check if you’re actually back to blogging, and if not, what might be the reason!
I also agree with your point that Twitter facilitates ‘responsiveness’ more than ‘results’. In other words, you’ll hear back from folks who won’t promote your product more often than with other approaches. Which, in a sense, is a plus.
As for the part about keeping the group of people I’m following small, it is intentional because, for me, Twitter is one part of a whole – and the whole needs to be managed in limited time, with limited resources.
I do not view Twitter the same way as a ‘joint venture deal-maker’ might. For me, it will always be a relationship DEEPENING tool, and whether that leads to more business or not is practically irrelevant.
I believe ‘profit’ is consequent to ‘relationships’ with a large (business) audience, but that isn’t my reason for wanting those relationships in the first place. That’s just my personal way of thinking, though, and I would never try to thrust it on anyone else.
This detachment from ‘expected results’ allows me to view tests like this ‘Twitter JV’ trial more or less dispassionately, and make decisions best suited to fit my social media strategy. As an ‘experimental’ observation, the figures however may also be of value to readers in their own JV campaigns, which is why I shared them in this post.
The one BIG drawback I’ve found with my Twitter use is that DMs are restricted to those I follow. I know this is a setting I can toggle – and I’ve debated the decision to permit anyone to DM me. Maybe I’ll just try it for a while and see how it works!
Thanks again for dropping by, Andy. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you active across social networks, and hope there isn’t any unpleasant reason for that
All success
Dr.Mani
Dr. Mani,
While I would never recommend to any of my followers to only follow 40 people, for you it is a necessity. You are a very busy man, and without your attention, many children would die. For that reason, you are definitely encouraged to keep the amount of distractions down…
But…
I don’t believe that not following your followers is a very good thing to do in the relationship building phase. It is right up there with those people who make themselves inaccessible via email or phone! To me insulating yourself from your customers and students is telling them that you matter more than they do. Now I can say that, as my list is one one hundredth of some of the marketers I am talking about.
Still, I do not allow myself to be dragged into every conversation on Twitter. I use tools to help me be more productive. Tweetdeck allows me to place those people I really want to be close to into a special column, so I can watch their conversations more closely than the rest of my friendstream. I also use tweetdeck to search for specific conversations on topics I want to be involved in. So that saves me hours worth of time wading through messages about someone’s breakfast or their right ear is itching…
But don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE all 1038 of my followers and I follow 100 more that do not follow me (including you – feel the guilt yet?…lol). I feel that if someone has taken an interest in me personally, I ought to return the favor. Now if they abuse that relationship and do nothing but promote MLM’s to me all day long, I know where the unfollow button is.
It may be that I like having that many people to lean on when things are tough, that many people to celebrate my successes and knowing that I am not alone on this rapidly shrinking planet! Twitter to me has become the lifeline where people who are on the opposite side of the world (hi Andrea!) can make me smile when I am down or I can pray for them when they are hurting. It is like Twitter has become a part of my communication center, like eyesight, hearing, touch, taste and smell it is like an additional sense.
So I have pretty much released my feelings about this… I fully support you in your rule of 40 (even if that means you missed when I was grieving over my pet spider), but my rule of plus 100 is much more satisfying to me in my quest to spread love throughout the world! As long as I am following you, I can spread the word about what you are up to by retweeting to my own followers who may not know you (are there very many people who do not know you?) and in that way I can spread the love in a different way.
I appreciate all you do, and I should spend more of my day studying you, because you are doing massive things for the people all over the world, because you do care. It is evident in the amount of writing you do to help people understand more about the world of Internet Marketing. So do not take this as a criticism, you are unique and you should not ever try to be anyone else!
Have an amazing day!
Micheal Savoie
http://twitter.com/michealsavoie
PS – Dr. Mani is one of the most respected marketers on this planet, and YOU should be keeping up with him, too! I have great fortune of being part of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle with him, and if Dr. Mani ever gives you an invitation to TIMIC, pounce on it, because it gives you access to people of Dr. Mani’s character and talent!
Micheal, thanks for your gracious words, and for taking time to write such a detailed and well-thought out comment. I appreciate you deeply
As for the alternative approach of following everyone who follows you, all I can say is point to my ‘been there, done that’ story – read “My Twitter Tale”
My strategy of having a ‘Twitter Rule of 40′ stems not from elitism but from practicality. Anyone can still communicate with me on Twitter by a simple @drmani message. I’ll read it, and often respond.
But I won’t let ‘guilt’ (no, your note didn’t provoke it!) or any other feeling of ‘obligation’ twist my arm into following anyone, because it does not add value to either side doing that. Except for ego gratification, I really cannot see any reason to feel happy or hurt that X, Y or Z is following me.
If I say and do things on Twitter that interests, excites, helps or adds value to you, you will no doubt follow me for that alone… and if I don’t, then you shouldn’t have to, right?
Anyway, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!
All success
Dr.Mani
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