Chirping for Retweets!

This week’s challenge at Gather Success is all about the ReTweet … the objective is to get familiar with Mr. Twitter, now that is a challenge and a half for me!  That is not good.  I’m not in the habit of getting familiar with any misters that I don’t know very well … and Mr. Twitter?  Why, we’re practically strangers!

This is not going to be a step by step dissertation on how to run your social media campaigns – just thoughts that flooded my brain as I sat through two very interesting and even fun filled days.  I think when you can say workshop and fun filled in the same sentence it has to have been a successful event.

We were a small group of five – I think it safe to say that each of us was a confirmed social media neophyte.  None of us quite understood the “why” of any of this phenomena but  were in agreement that we needed to get with the program and see how we can apply it to our own businesses.

Of the three disciplines Twitter was the one that captured my attention the most and entertained me the most, probably because it is like being in a foreign country; it also stretched my mind which surprised me as I had a tendency to dismiss all this babble on the net as just being mindless prattle about nothing.

We spent the better part of day one on this phenom and by its end each of us was a bonafide tweep – yes I know, there is this devil in me that wants to say twit but no, there are no twits on twitter, just tweeps who send out tweets in 140 characters or less.  Now correct me if I’m wrong because I have also heard the word peeps but would those be the tweets who are your followers?  You know “ … have your peeps get in touch with my peeps…” kind of idea?

First thing I notice as I am sitting on my very own perch “goldenkoi”  is that this is a very noisy world. Because I already had a twitter account set up from when I took the 30 Day Challenge last summer I actually had a small following of tweeps.    Spending just few minutes in my domain the tweets kept running like a ticker tape at the stock market.  After just 7 minutes I had well over 36 new tweets!  Now how the twit am I supposed to keep up with all this?   Imagine what the home perch looks like of  someone who has thousands and thousands of followers?  Ah but that’s not the point.

The point is relationship building and here was a revelation … for the longest time I believed that he who has the most followers wins, but the emphasis has shifted somewhat, it is now quality over quantity and how do you attract quality?  Keywords, my dear, keywords.  The right keywords attract the right followers and you can engage in short but meaningful conversations.

These conversations bring a whole new meaning to the phrase short conversation – at a max of 140 characters these aren’t even sound bites!  They are … aah, tweets!

Now trust me these birds might be short on their vocabulary but they’re no birdbrains as they have mastered the art of twittery and can lay a clear and distinct path of breadcrumbs that lead to a conversation that actually makes sense. The mastery lies not in just tweeting about “What’s happening” but in participating and engaging with others on a topic.  It takes a bit of time but I am told that soon I too can learn the nuances and proper use of just tweeting, RT (reply to), @ (the tweet or tweep), the URL and the somewhat confusing hashtag #.

Since attending the workshop I have visited my perch several times and selected a tweet to follow by clicking on the  appropriate links to see how far I can follow a conversation – gosh, I’ve even tweeted a few times!  You know it’s kind of fun.  After following only a few breadcrumb paths I have come to the conclusion that there are some really smart tweeps (and tweets)out there – it challenges the brain to be creative and I have come across bits of brilliance that are nothing short of awesome.

If you don’t have a Twitter account yet hop on over to http://www.twitter.com and open one.  Choose an appropriate username.  Here once again I committed the cardinal sin – my username is goldenkoi which means squat when it comes to either blogging or internet marketing.  When I first started visiting forums I chose that as my handle.  To me it has meaning.  I grew up in Japan where the koi is revered.  The fish comes in colors of red, white, grey, black and shades of gold so “goldenkoi” has intuitive appeal to me.  Matt suggested that I check to see if the domain was available – of course not.  GoldenKoi.com belongs to someone in the business of selling koi fish!

You can have several accounts with Twitter but not so with Facebook – so choose carefully as to how you want to brand yourself.

I found it interesting that in terms of developing online relationships there is a structure and that Twitter is where it begins.  Look at it as a funnel if you will.  You meet people at Twitter, get to know them better on Facebook and eventually that leads to loyal followers on your blog.  Sounds like a long and protracted process but it isn’t.

In my Internet Marketing Mastermind group there are members who have met key and influential people in their business that they would not have otherwise and those people were just as likely to be in their own backyard as somewhere across the world.  Aside from the growth in their social capital this process has also grown their businesses and bank accounts.

It is easy to get lost in the social media world and to let the time just drift away.  Be cautious.  Allow yourself a small block of time for your social media marketing.  I would say that 15 minutes twice a day is sufficient time to spend in this area of your business especially if you are just dipping your toes into it.

To Tweeting to Success!

Valentina

Yesterday, at my monthly Smart Thinking Marketing Group meeting,  I met someone who did that in what?  SIX … 6 … MONTHS! YES!  This is 6, SIX, half a year!

Gustavo Garcia and his colleagues began their project this summer … so whether that was June, July or sometime earlier, is somewhat besides the point, the point is, in something like six months, they sold their online business for an undisclosed amount.  Sweet!

Gustavo  was our keynote speaker.  He told us how he had an idea that would improve efficiencies and the bottom line by the millions for the call center industry.  He tapped a few chosen former colleagues and  the Discreet Math Group was born.   What is so unique about this success story is that the marketing was entirely social media based.  They launched their product with a blog. As theirs was a business directed product, Gustavo relied heavily on LinkedIn which is the social media of choice for business and then went on to connect with Facebook and Twitter.  Here is the crazy figure that made my head swirl: in hard, actual, cash outlay, it cost them a total of $76.20!

I think that this is the penultimate in living the blog income life! Granted these gents weren’t exactly newbies.  They each pack some serious credentials behind them that go back some twenty years in internet marketing/technology, but you gotta love the speed of this success story.

Here is one other interesting fact.  Shane Morgan who owns and facilitates the Smart Thinking Marketing Group relied on social media searches to find Gustavo!

Time to head back to LinkedIn and polish up your profile and open accounts with Facebook and Twitter if you haven’t done so yet.

Here’s to your future headline:  “Sold!  For an Undisclosed Amount!”

Valentina
Lots of good cheese in social media!