SMALL BUSINESS SEO

MAXIMIZING INFLUENCE ON TWITTER

In my first months using Twitter, thinking it would be an excellent tool to connect with and learn from those in the SEO profession, I searched for keywords in profiles using Twellow.com before it became bloated, confusing and useless with too many advertisements. I found about 275 people, among them @Sugarrae (more about her later), and was followed back by slightly less than the same number. I found my experience as a newbie on Twitter with such a relatively small group to be generally warm and rewarding. Gradually my “followers” began to increase, and not wanting to be one of those who has lots of followers following very few back, I followed most back.

Once I surpassed following 750 people I had much less time to click on or read everyone’s links. So as a follower I realized that when I followed fewer people I was more responsive to those I did follow – making THEIR tweets much more effective.

Thus, for me, the best “quality” experience on Twitter for myself is achieved by keeping those I follow down to a minimum, and conversely the most valuable followers (worth answering back thoughtfully with the intention of developing honest relationships with) are those who follow fewer people.

The analysis of this behavior says that if you ONLY get followers who are themselves following less than 300 people – then when you request an action from any of them, you’re more likely to get results. This may seem like a rather cold and calculating analysis, but in fact it isn’t. The alternative is to follow and be followed by thousands of anonymous mostly spammers who will fill your timeline to overflowing with largely crap links to “Out of This World Unbelievable One Time Deals” that you must act on now. (Makes me want to hit publish right now and go unfollow a whole mess more!).

So, automatically following, or following back lots and lots of people who follow 10,000, 20,000 or 60,000 people means that when you tweet something – YOUR tweet is not likely to be seen. Keeping it small, keeping it genuine, keeping it intimate is the way to go and let your followers follow you if they like. It’s not about numbers, it’s about building quality relationships. I don’t think there’s any shortcut to doing that.

For most people following more people on Twitter is not better. Some, like @zaibatsu seem to deal well enough with it. @Zaibatsu worked aggressively just before NewYears of 2009 to approach 100,000 followers and has tweeted virtually non-stop ever since. He follows virtually all of his followers back, and is definitely a very active and aggressive tweeter providing lots of valuable links to follow, quick quips, fast personal responses, and is generally speaking, not to be believed (He’s not human, I tell you, he doesn’t sleep or eat).

On the other hand, a woman I admire and respect immensely on Twitter, @Sugarrae, (Rae Hoffman), has built her following steadily through a combination of lively conversation between herself and a few dozen well known associates she follows (all working in the same general niche of SEO / Affiliate Marketing etc) and links to well written, highly informative posts. As Rae is perhaps the most widely acclaimed successful Affiliate Marketers known today on the web, she adds a great deal of wealth to the value of her tweets by tweeting directly with her employees and various corporate officers regarding article deadlines and the occasional frustrating system bug that pops up. What’s more, she provides value to her tweets by using her BlackBerry to tweet while she’s away from the desk and posts the occasional photo to TwitPic.com keeping us all vicariously in the loop.

Why am I focusing here on Rae Hoffman so much? Because I can only write about what I know – and on Twitter there’s nobody else I follow as closely as I do Rae and those around her. I know where she lives, where she vacations, what her web sites are, what she likes and doesn’t like – without knowing her, without ever having met her – without ever having seen her in person the combination of honest, open conversations, both personal and private as well as professional and polished – makes me feel like I have a one on one relationship with her.

Learning to develop the closest thing to one on one personal relationships with business contacts is extremely important in managing business to business marketing communications. Most have a difficult time managing and building relationships using multiple means of communications starting with a standard database and client communication response management software – standard mail, email, telephone calls, personal visits… and yet Rae has mastered synchronizing Twitter, blog posts, her BlackBerry (and those of one or two of her key employees) and a few other tools on the web in such a way as to make the way she uses Twitter THE way to go. One of the most common laments I’ve read from those who follow @Sugarrae is that they wish she would follow them back. The truth is though, that following that many (she has approximately 5,000 followers) would render Twitter largely useless to her and the small group she most closely associates with. Her following was built over time through great content, delightfully funny, entertaining (with the occasional drama thrown in) conversations (which have always made me feel like the proverbial “fly on the wall” listening in) and the guts to be herself. So, with that said (the “missing chapter” of what it takes to be more effective on twitter) without further ado I give you the most excellent link to @Sugarrae’s “Commercial Twitter Case Study Revisited” on Sugarrae.com. Enjoy.