Spend Less Time on Twitter, You Gain More Followers

At this point in time I can tell you I haven't lost any more Followers so I guess I'm progressing in a weird sort of way

My biggest problem right now is I can't be found in Find People. I've been in touch with Customer Support (such as it is) and have learned I'm not the only one with this problem. VERY frustrating.

I purposely have Free in my User Name but that's not going to do me any good if I don't turn up in the Find People search

 

There's nothing wrong with tweeting a lot if you have something to say that is worthwhile and engaging. Myself, I have a system that updates twitter & myspace every 10 minutes with trivia questions, and gives users a link to check the answers out, and haven't lost that many followers.

Now if your updates are crap, and the same thing constantly, yes, you'll lose followers. That's how it is in life as well. Make it interesting, and you'll gain followers. Start repeating yourself over and over, or make it boring and you won't.

 

Exactly, if you're interesting and post things that deserves to be read then nobody is going to unfollow you. But sometimes tweeting thousands of times a day becomes a little bit spammy.

 

My updates are worthwhile but I made the ultimate mistake of repeating myself. I've learned my lesson. Unless it is something like a 'public service announcement' (like the info that some MA firehouses are giving away free smoke detectors), I post info on a freebie, at most, twice and, even then, several days apart.

 

I forgot to mention a way to decrease your following numbers. Talk politics. Bash either party and your numbers will surely drop.

 

Well, duuh, that's a given anywhere. Nobody wants to hear anyone talk politics. There's a few exceptions, but unless you are a candidate for some sort of office, avoid religion and politics altogether.

 

It's a duhh...but it a little more extreme on Twitter. Twitter is a crazy place, and there are just some freaks on it. Now that I am up to 4,000+ followers I get all sorts of weird messages, not just the spam.

 

Because most people are hip to them and hate them. You only need to get stuck in one quagmire of hoop jumping for a free gift to never want to waste that kind of time again.

Twitter is full of those type of tweets, and "free" offers which basically come off as spam on the board

 

Yup, you are right, and that is the uphill battle I am waging. Because the type of info I am tweeting about are NOT those type of ads.

I know what you are writing about. Those are the type you submit an email or zip code and, IF , you complete 3 Silver offers, then 2 Gold offers......

Spam!! I agree. But would you consider this spam?

http://www.friendlys.com/events

http://www.releif.org/trivet.htm

http://www.ghstorage.com/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=31

 

Nobody's arguing that free things don't exist. What they're saying here is that you're never going to be able to convince people in that environment that your "free" is any different from anything else. In fact, you'll most likely lose followers by repeatedly offering free stuff.

It's sad that the word "free" has been twisted to mean what it does on the internet now, but, it is what it is. You're not going to be able to change that, really.

When it comes down to it, like you said, it's an uphill battle. The question would be then is that uphill battle worth your time? Where's the payoff for you? Obviously your time has to be worth something, so are you going to continue to throw that away in a fruitless effort or move on to better things that will pay off in the longrun?

 

People think that you're on something by offering them things for free, that's why there is always doubt and that.. However, if you're giving away somethings for free and I mean without completing any offers or things of this nature people would love to follow you though.

Namecheap on Twitter always giving domain names for free and their followers count do not decrease!

 

I'll be honest, every time someone follows me with free offers, I block them..especially if it is from some affiliate program offer.

I give away free CD's and music downloads all the time on Twitter, but they are actually coming from me (or promoters that I deal with), and my profile link is to my site, not a cloaked affiliate link.

There is a right way to do things on any social network site...trying to redirect people through your affiliate link is not the way, it really is spamming.

Links to dating profiles, and signing up for stuff is common on Twitter and is as old a tactic as the internet itself.

There are much better ways to build trust, that work over the long haul. "Click my link" doesn't have the effectiveness that it had 5 years ago...actually almost none.

It's also better to just be honest about your intentions with your profile. One of my Twitter accounts is for a niche sports fans store, and I Tweet news updates for those teams, and Tweet during games. It builds an interaction with other fans, and they are more apt to check out the store, than just posting about what your store offers, and linking to specific products over and over again. People won't bother with you if they think you are just using the platform for blatant self promotion.

I see some people tweet the same offer over and over again...self promoting, and it gets old. people like that usually get blocked, and the only followers they get are people just looking for followers.

Absolutely ! Because it is a 3rd party link, and not an offer from the source. It is most definitely spam because it's for your benefit, and you are not generally offering something to the community with no ulterior motives.
You are also leading them right to the sign up page which screams spam.

I would never do that to my followers, or My Space friends or any other network. My goal is first and foremost to be considered a source of information in my niche. If you have that respect first, people will click through to your site frequently, provided it's not just an MFA, or a landing page.

People don't like being sold to, they like to discover things on their own. It's your job to lead them in the right direction, not hit them over the head with the offer. they will resist that every time.

 

I don't understand what you are saying. I'm really trying to understand this so I'm hoping you can explain it better to me.

You say it is a 3rd party link. How is a link that takes you to friendlys.com a 3rd party link? Ditto with the one from Golden Harvest. Yes, I use a URL shortener but that's because some of these URLs are huge.

And if I don't take them to the signup page, then where should I take them? The companies home page? I guess that would work if the 'get a free sample' link is there, but sometimes it is not.

 

Exactly!!! That is what I would have expected. Everything I tweet is like that. No 'completing offers'. Just straight forward things like 'get a free sample'. Yes, some ask to sign up for their mailing list but, so far, the ones I've seen, also allow an opt out.

 

You ask an excellent question. I, personally, am taking advantage of these opportunities. So I thought (silly me) wouldn't it be nice if I posted these on line (somewhere) so others could also benefit? Twitter came to mind as a way to do it. Looks like I was wrong.

Maybe I'll post them on a blog, instead, and monetize the blog......maybe I can grab a few cents off of Adsense. Might be a better use of my time.

 

People don't like signing up for stuff. They like getting stuff, but they don't want to sign up for it.
I find that the links that I post that are not hidden or cloaked get more clicks, of course that is not always possible.

http //www friendlys.com/events is not that long.

I don't understand what you are doing actually. You mean you are just posting up all the free stuff you find, without any affiliate agenda at all ? What is the purpose of that ?

What I am saying is offers that come from the source seem more credible. If Friendly's had a Twitter profile and posted up their own specials, then it would be seen as credible...someone else doing it seems like there is an ulterior motive.

 

Got it. I see your point.

And, yes, for now I have no affiliate agenda. My goal was to get a bunch of followers first and build credibility. I was going to make a decision later about whether or not/how/what/etc about affiliate links.

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to write. I found your remarks very eye opening and very helpful. Reps to you

 

Why don't you give free stuff for the winners of a Trivia ? Make a couple of questions a day through Twitter and give free stuff to the winners. Like that they won't bother to sign up to anything, and will attract their attention.

 

You have to build your profile from the ground up. It's a complete package. If you were say "a housewife with 3 kids (in your profile) looking to share ideas for saving money around the house"..and you followed other moms, then your posting would likely get more responses.
Throw in a picture of you with your kids (some people even post their kids names) then you would have what seems to be an honest and credible agenda that people will likely check out.

But just tossing up things to see what sticks is wasting time.
To get the most out of any social network, you have to build a niche following.

My Facebook profile has the least amount of followers of any of my profiles, but I get more referral traffic from facebook than all of them because it is clear what my interests are, and what kind of things I will be posting....and I don't mix it with any other niche that I may be promoting.

Same goes with Twitter. I have 5 profiles that are niche specific, and I interact with people on each about each niche separately. My agenda on each is clear, but I don't continually post my own agenda....I post news and information within the niche, and talk about them.

Twitter is not like PPC advertising..people will interact with you if you have the same interest, and seem knowledgeable. You can automate most of it, but at some point you still have to personally interact. That why they are called "social" networks.

 

Good points out there! Thanks for sharing.