How Not to Market on Twitter

The part that too many would-be viral marketers aren’t getting is that our attention brain turns these into “noise” and starts to tune them out almost immediately. There’s nothing in these messages that rewards the recipient, nothing that engages our actual attention. They are remarkable for nothing other than annoying pointless repetition.

If you want to manufacture word of mouth, make something interesting.

Great points Chris. There are those who are clearly trying to drum up business, and yet their 140 character messages do not encourage you to pursue the link.

I think that there has to be an establishment of “some” connection no matter how small and no matter how brief. I generally try to inform folks of upcoming shows on TV which might be of interest, because they are of interest to me: Lots of C-Span, PBS, Nat Geo, History Channel, Discovery Channel, etc. Anything that expands my view of the world and contributes to my knowledge, along with classic old movies on TCM. I also try to include a brief description of the program or a link to further info so that they can make a decision as to whether they will view it, or record it.

I’ve noted that people will follow without ever engaging me, and I can only assume that they are attracted to the same types of broadcasts, or information.

An(other) excellent example of the power of Twitter to foster communication between a business/brand and a consumer/user. In less than 1/2 a day’s time, the concern was acknowledged and addressed. Kudos to Nova for handling the issue so humbly and intelligently and kudos to you, Chris, for spreading his communication as freely as you did your initial skepticism. This is great stuff.

I just found out today how to opt out of Tweetlater’s auto-dm’s. I recommend trying it – it might really help! Go to http://twitter.com/optmeout and follow the instructions, which are:

1) Follow @optmeout
2) Wait for follow back
3) Send @optmeout a DM
4) Unfollow @optmeout. Must be done in this order.

I did it just today and it seemed to work. We shall see! I am over-the-moon excited about this – that is a SUPER-SAD testament to how much crap we have to endure on our beloved Twitter. :-)

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your note! I couldn’t agree more — Twitter, and all social media, is about building relationships, not sending generic invites which amount to spam.

Thanks for posting!

Sandy

You ask if this is going to be tricky. Of course. The real gem of this post is the demonstration of the speed of communication. The whole thing took place over the span of an hour. What might have happened if the company hadn’t been listening?

The fluidity and speed at which consumers and producers can communicate is the beauty of doing biz on Twitter. Great example.

Matt

I like the “marketing speed” :)

Maybe app created msg’s should have a special tag that people could then opt-out of through their profile. This way apps could still use this to allow users to inform their friends, but not bother those of us who don’t want to hear it.

If you market a business on twitter you will anger people. There are no two ways about it. The more commercial messages you send out the less likely people are to spend time on the site.

I hate companies marketing on twitter. I will unfollow you if you advertise a product, especially if you do so without it being personal.

It seems that Nova has not been able to apply the breaks yet. After seeing this post yesterday, I just got a bulk email from Twine last night telling me about the great new feature: “We’ve hooked into Twitter, and now you can invite your Twitter friends to join Twine or to a twine you think they would like to join. ” followed by a link to the functionality. I didn’t dare click on it for fear that I would be spamming my Twitter stream without warning.

Moral of the story – It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission

Thanks Chris,

I’m glad you’ve mentioned this because Twitter runs the risk of losing market share if this kind of spamming gets worse.

Keep up the great work.
Karl
Promote your networking club in the UK

“This is the speed of marketing and business communications. Not days. Not usually even hours. This is going to be tricky. You think?”

Forget sleep!

I’m not a twitterer (gasp!) but it sounds as if these messages are unanticipated, impersonal, and irrelevant. If you have something worthwhile, why ruin belief, trust, and goodwill by sending out messages that smell strongly of spam? Build a relationship and permission instead!

I’ve found that when you bring things to the personal level, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.
Technology is cool, when it’s a tool. When a human it replaces, our society it defaces.

Cheers

George

Kudos to you for calling them out and to Twine for being open, listening and being willing to change the strategy. Warms my social media heart.

great post, so true
i find myself more often remove people i follow because of this, its absolutely spam
good work brogan

Chris:

Well done. I think Nova is a brilliant soul. I have been on Twine since mid-last year and I enjoy it. Two weeks ago I found him on twitter and connect w/ him (or vice-versa, don’t remember), which I thought was great b/c I have seen him speak at conferences and I think he is amazing.

Unfortunately, shortly after I connect I get that ridiculous tweet that you documented. I replied telling him, “Please, no bots…”, and that he is a brilliant mind, please don’t ask me to join Twine when I have already been using it for some time. I think I mentioned the Semantic Web and how I wish it was here!

He was kind in his reply, but I am glad someone like you took them to task on this b/c we don’t have time for it currently and it easily changes our perception of him and his site-that is not needed since I, and many, hold him in his site in the highest regard.

I am glad they are seeing the error in their ways; special thanks to you for speaking for many of us that don’t have the clout that you wield.

I will continue to use Twine.com and follow Nova with much more interest now that I know this episode is over.

I’m not a fan of these auto-post DM’s where the first thing that a person says is – check out “Whatever” I’m selling/promoting/pushing… This is a great way to get unfollowed quickly. However it’s great to see Twine step up, take notice and begin to change things.

Matt
@emailkarma

This is one of the many reasons why I left twitter because of how some companies market themselves and it is to me an unauthentic voice. I even was unfollowing people who were using twit later (I think that is the name) where it was a robotic response. It drove me insane.

I prefer being an observer and reading blogs now instead of using twitter as much as I did.

I appreciate your blog on this, Chris!
[I used to be @thejenntafur on twitter]

I confess to using Tweetlater to send auto-DMs to new followers. There, I said it! lol

However, I should point out that:

1. In my profile, I do warn you that I’m going to send you an auto-DM, and I tell you what it’s going to be about. I think if someone is that serious about Twitter, they should review who it is they’re about to follow, and if you did that with me, you’d be forewarned that I’m going to DM you.

2. I do market my business – yes, I have t-shirts I want to sell you – but I do spend a heckuva lot of time NOT talking about tees. I’m close to 6,000 posts now – I love Twitter, and would be there whether or not I had a company. I do spend time helping others with advice, sales leads, and just silly links to silly stuff.

For some, auto-DMs and marketing are the scourges that ruin Twitter. To me, it seems symptomatic of a problem – just really bad marketing by a group of folks – and I am delusional enough to think I am not part of this group!

I DO have a DM message saying thanks for following me, and I autofollow by return. But I don’t invite people to view my website or find out more about me…just presume this will happen naturally via the Tweets ;-)