When Todd Mintz finally convinced me to join Twitter at last month’s SEMpdx event, I’ll admit: I still wasn’t fully convinced. I’d been to enough search conferences in the last two years to hear @dannysullivan (for the uninitiated, the @ symbol means even Danny’s now on Twitter, too) bash Twits’ pithy burps of “content” more than once. But, I decided, what the hell, I’ll use it for a few weeks & give up on it, just like I did with Instant Messenger after my freshman year of college.
Well, now it’s been a few weeks, and I am anything but giving up on Twitter.
The fact is, I’m finding Twitter to be an infinitely more useful Social Networking tool than MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or even Sphinn (sorry, Danny). Believe me, no one is more surprised than yours truly.
I attended a session at last year’s PubCon with Natasha Robinson and smirked at Laura Fitton‘s presentation, which for me boiled down to “Look how great I am, I have 1000 followers and just picked up 20 more since I started talking” ( she’s now up to an impressive 3900). That presentation more or less confirmed my prejudice as to the essence of Twitter: a megaphone that enables narcissists to reach lemmings. That’s hyperbole—of course, I don’t really think Laura is a narcissist; she just struck me as mildly arrogant. Nonetheless, her discourse probably delayed my adoption of the service by at least three months.
At the time, as a non-Twit, it was difficult for me to comment publicly on Laura’s synopsis of Twitter because I simply didn’t know enough about the service to have an informed response, and I’m not one to criticize people based purely on personality. After +/- 40 days using Twitter, though, I think I can reasonably voice my opinion.
I definitely see the value of those 1000 / 3900 followers. For large businesses, powerbloggers, or social media gurus who submit content to Digg, Reddit, etc., there’s incredible value in having a large base of fans who you can instantly exhort to vote for or read your content. Twitter becomes Digg’s “Shout” feature, super-sized. Even for small businesses, there’s plenty of value in publicizing open houses, timely sales, and other brick-and-mortar events via the “push” side of Twitter.
But my impression of Laura’s presentation drastically undersold the “pull” side of Twitter: the people you FOLLOW are just as important as the people who follow you. You’re missing out if you’re not a good listener.
–Connect with folks who share your interests and/or your geography. Danny Sullivan recently posted a great piece on SEL about Summize, a Twitter search engine. Follow those people and develop a real relationship rather than just tweeting PR. The ratio of Tweeple who also have a blog has to be nearly 1:1. This can be an amazing source of highly relevant links for blog posts or other content you create. Side note: where did I hear about Summize? From @chiropractic , where else? On Twitter!
– Learn what people in your industry or in your geographic area find interesting and compelling. Write blog content that addresses those topics, develop a dialogue with them. Twitter conversations are chock-full of link bait ideas that aren’t sensationalistic or off-brand.
–Deepen your Twitter relationships so that when you network at conferences you’ll know more about the folks you want to meet. Pay attention to what makes them tick. Note happy, funny, embarrassing, or tragic events they’ve tweeted about. Your Twitter conversation stream becomes an instant credibility builder when you meet them in person.
–Ask questions! You can get some terrific responses for just about anything from where to look for mod_rewrite syntax to the best happy hour in your town.
–Particularly for bigger companies: respond to what might otherwise turn into customer service nightmares and/or reputation management problems. @comcastcares is a great example of using Twitter for exceptional customer service and reputation management.
Bottom line: after my 40 days on Twitter, I feel more connected to the rest of the SEO industry than I ever have before, from conversations with tiny paeans like @willcritchlow (just kidding, Will!) all the way up to giants like @oilman. Twitter keeps my finger on the pulse of current topics and the latest strategies.
I’m so glad that Todd stayed on my case and got me to join Twitter last month. It’s one example where it actually does pay to give in to peer pressure. You’re next, Kelley! J
David Mihm is a Portland, OR web designer and SEMpdx member. You can connect with him on Twitter @davidmihm.
David has spent his career helping location-oriented companies make the most of their digital presence.
Over the course of the 2010s, his teams built software products to optimize what are now Google Business Profiles and other directory listings, first as the co-founder and CEO of GetListed.org, then at Moz, and finally as VP at ThriveHive. David was also a co-founder of Local University, and the creator of the original Local Search Ranking Factors survey from 2008-2016, before handing it off to Darren Shaw.
David started his career in the mid-2000s as a consultant and is now back to that mode of work, teaming up with Mike Blumenthal and Greg Sterling at Near Media to help multi-location brands and vertical agencies understand how their customers interact with Google search results, and advising them on how to adjust their search strategy accordingly.
I love that you are loving Twitter! I am sad that you did not hear my presento as “listen listen listen listen!” (listen on social networks, not “listen to me”). see the slide deck here: https://twurl.nl/fgi0gs
I’m actually rather humbled and embarrassed and weirded out by the having an audience side of Twitter, but I thought that would be interesting to an SEM/SEO crowd. I often leave it out entirely.
At any rate, your post is awesome. It IS about who you follow, what you learn, etc. My slide about traffic was very much meant to discount the “go read this” effect and play up the listen, contribute, create value bit. https://twurl.nl/fgi0gs
Hey Laura, thanks for responding! I had a feeling that wasn’t the point of your presentation, but for someone who was unfamiliar with what Twitter was all about, that was my take-home.
Maybe in future preso’s you might give some concrete examples of third-party companies listening on Twitter to beef that section up? I wish I still had my notes from that day but nothing is sticking in my memory. It’s also possible that there just WEREN’T any last year when you gave the seminar.
At any rate, I really am in awe at your massive following and now count myself as one of them. It’s clear that Twitter has worked amazingly well for your business & that you are an expert at how to leverage it to achieve real business goals. 🙂 Hope to meet you at a future search conference.
Nice post, David. This is all so true, and that’s why I severely limit the number of people I follow, it it all just becomes noise.
Well I guess that means you were actually able to use Twitter over the past 40 days. Lucky you! Here’s to hoping they get the technology fixed so it works for us as we learn to depend on it…
I personally don’t really care for Twitter. I gues that’s because I use Facebook as my multipurpose social network and any more than one profile to update seems too much of a pain to me. I did like Pownce after using it for a few days, but I slowly stopped using it because none of my friends used Pownce either.
He, I just joined. I’m a later holdout 😛
BTW, I loved the narcissists and lemmings line. Classic. BTW, the lemmings game has been emulated and is available, free, online, I just learned.
I just jumped in a few months ago too and its better than i imagined. the many business applications of twitter rival is uses for funn stuff 🙂
Well Since ya brought it up…
I am an EARLY adopter (hence why I don’t use it much anymore now that EVERYBODY is on it) of Twitter (& also the person sitting next to David). I also came to the conclusion that your presentation came across as the most self-congratulatory presentation EVAH.
I’ll throw one piece of constructive criticism out to you Laura: Record yourself.
Because maybe then you’ll hear just how much of what you said contained a relative of the word “I” when you spoke. Seriously there should have been a drinking game where players took a shot every time you said “I” referencing just how awesome you thought you were. We would have all be S$%#-faced.
@David “Twitter: a megaphone that enables narcissists to reach lemmings.” – AWESOME!!!! best line of the year evah!
Nice job David! Glad you’ve seen the iight. I’ve received one new client, one speaking gig, countless new Twitter friends who’ve helped me make connections to them offline and amazing ability to keep on top of relevant events unfolding in the industry as they happen. The relevancy and relationship building are key, I’ve only been actively tweeting for less than a year, but find it to be me “can’t be without it” daily tool. Cheers, Lisa