Twitter proves itself to be more and more useful every day. We’ve connected with other great LA bloggers, received breaking news headlines before they reach the rest of the world, and we learned a lot about online marketing. By the way if you’re not following us on Twitter, you can/should. We’re very entertaining.
Now the thing about Twitter is it’s a goldmine for spammers. So-called marketing experts use Twitter as a place to dump links back to their blogs or affiliate pages. Today’s spammer (seen to the right) makes spam sandwiches all day every day. Seriously, it’s like lunch time with the locals in Maui. Why are we calling Lisa out? Well if you’re going to put “Online Marketing Coach” in your bio, at least have somewhat of a clue about online marketing. In her mind, the proper way to utilize Twitter for online marketing is to pick a bunch of products, say for example a book on how to use Twitter for marketing (this is getting pretty meta) and post a link to an affiliate sales pitch page over and over again in hopes that someone will buy it. You’ll notice in the photo above (click to enlarge) that every “tweet” (post on Twitter) has a hyperlink driving traffic somewhere. There is no conversation taking place, just an onslaught of links.
Attention whoring isn’t the proper way to utilize Twitter for marketing. “Is it not kosher to post links back to my blog?” Of course it’s kosher, but mix it in. (Spam isn’t kosher is it?) If you went to a networking party, or really any kind of party, and a lady came up to you and started rattling off sales pitches, you’d probably walk away.. right? Do you flip on the TV just to watch commercials? No, you deal with commercials if the other content on the TV engages you. You have to mix in some real convo with your sales pitches. At least try to fake it. If you’re really that socially inept that you can’t manage to participate in a conversation, social media is not for you.
There IS a guaranteed way to make Twitter work for you if you’re trying to attract traffic to your website/blog, but most web marketers will not like it. Do you want to hear it? Ok fine, here it is: Have fun with it. Doesn’t sound so awful does it? Well the problem is, most online marketers are either working from an office or scrambling to pay the bills by collecting scraps of web-sale commissions so there’s just no time to get personal on Twitter. Well if you want the site to work for you, you’re going to have to make time for it. Everyone knows someone that only likes to talk about themselves (especially in LA) and we avoid these people (unless they’re physically gifted.) Same goes for the web. If you are trying to sell a book on how to use Twitter for marketing, you need to realize that people already using Twitter can provide a wealth of information on the subject. Before preaching to the choir, get in on some conversation. Use Twitter’s search feature to find other users interested in using the site for marketing. Respond with some answers, ask questions of your own, eventually people will find you and start following you. By participating in Twitter conversations (Tweetversations?) you’ll be seen as an authority and people will actually want to visit your site and check out the products you recommend. Most users will actually find your site through your bio and not your constant “look at me!” tweets, meaning you can relax and behave like the actual fun-loving, charming, witty, online-marketing, person that you are.
That’s it, I could delete all of the above and this post could just read “don’t use Twitter to throw links at me, engage me and maybe I’ll listen to what you have to say.”
And that, right there, is some online media coaching, beeeyotch.
Oh, by the way, if you want some books on Twitter check these out:
(See what I did there? 
