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marketing

Retweets Don't Make A Best-Seller

by Dr.Mani on August 28, 2009

On August 25th, 2009, I had a fun-filled day launching my first ever print book, “Think, Write & Retire – How To Turn Words Into Wealth, Easily!“.

And in keeping with this era of social networking and marketing online, I was on Twitter most of the day, watching with mounting excitement as the buzz spread.

Tweet after tweet after tweet rippled across the Twitterverse. And as I watched the word spread like wildfire, rosy dreams of having an Amazon.com best-seller kept springing up before my eyes.

All who tweeted

And don’t get me wrong – the book launch went very well. My book started the week before with an Amazon.com rank of #821,902. On Tuesday morning, it was at #35,021. And by 3 a.m. on Wednesday, it had gone up all the way to #537 of all books listed on Amazon.com.

A few hours later, the book broke into the AMAZON.COM HOT 100 ranks, reaching #83 in Business & Investing, and a high of #474 overall.

Amazon.com HOT 100

Much of this was the result of the interest generated on Twitter.

But I wish Amazon.com awarded best-seller status based upon the number of tweets generated around a book – because then I would have BEEN NUMBER ONE… easily!
:)

Sadly, re-tweets do not make a best-seller. Book sales do.

And re-tweets not allow non-profits to do good work. Donations do.

Yet re-tweets will always be plentiful and profuse – because they are quick and easy. And therefore appealing.

The problem is, re-tweeting may be considered as EFFECTIVE ACTION, in and of itself.

It is not.

Impact, REAL meaningful impact, takes more than “quick and easy”.

It takes more than a casual involvement, for a few fleeting seconds, after which we get back to “business as usual”.

No. Impact takes effort. Commitment. Involvement.

Worst of all, impact takes TIME to achieve.

Time spent working behind the scenes. Without any fanfare or spotlights. Often doing the many tasks others won’t do, taking the trouble most are reluctant to take, hoping against hope that some day, all of it will pay-off in a big way.

Re-tweets are a prop to support the structure, for sure. Get your event or cause or product or service a quick flash of visibility among a wider audience.

But that impact is as fleeting and superficial as a casual ‘Thank you’ from a stranger.

It can, however, have the deep impact of a sincere smile from the same stranger – if the motivation behind it is deeper.

When you re-tweet from your heart.

And then, back it up by DOING something about whatever you re-tweet.

Like buying a book.

Or making a donation.

Or changing the world!

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From the Word "Wisely"

by Dr.Mani on June 20, 2009

I was listening to a recording of one of Jay Abraham’s seminars, and Ben Mack was doing critiques of participants’ copywriting samples. One of them was an ‘A-ha’ moment for me.

An ad for a free real estate seminar had the word “wisely”.

Ben analyzed the ad, and specifically the psyche of the audience, to indicate why “wisely” was less effective than “safely” – and went on to say how distinct the real estate market segments were by describing them as “asset creators” versus “biz op’ers”.

And the penny dropped.

“The two groups won’t sit in the same room” he said.

In a flash of clarity, I saw the parallel with the ‘make money online’ niche in which I am very active. My products and coaching appeal to the “asset creator” segment of this niche. But many products and services are directed at the “biz op” segment.

Instead of seeing these two distinct sub-markets, I had been getting increasingly frustrated at how so many of “my” prospects were being sucked into wasting money on the “other” kind of product or service.

Today, I realized that they were NOT “my” prospects at all. Never were. And that will help reframe my marketing to fit MY real prospects – and avoid a lot of angst at the OTHER kind of marketing, too!

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