Twitter is the only platform where I could take somebody today, promote them, and they would be gaining traffic within three days. There’s no other platform that I can do that with. On Twitter, you will start getting traffic to your website within days of your first tweet. You can’t do that with Facebook unless you spend money; you could kind of do it with Google Plus back when they first started, but Google Plus is dead now, so you can’t do that anymore. You can do it with Instagram, but all those processes take time. So I think for anybody that’s starting a business, you should be on Twitter because it’s the fastest way to get people to see your business.
It really comes down to what you share that’s targeted around what your business does. The more you share quality content on Twitter, the more people will look at you as a resource and they will come to you every day to say, “What did John share today? I either need to learn something or I need something to share on my stream today.” Once they come to you and they look at you as a resource, then they’re going to go to your website and they’re going to read your content and share your content. They’re going to look at the stuff you have on your website.
It’s about good profile, good content, targeted content, being active, and being available and helpful. Let’s say I schedule from 9 to 12; Tweets are going out and I’m there. I’ll pop in and say, “Did somebody tweet me?” I’ll say, “Did someone ask me a question or make a comment?” Do all that and it will grow your brand on Twitter and it will start to drive traffic to your website, which is the main goal. You want to take people from Twitter to your website to get them to opt into a list, to buy a product, whatever your goals are. I call it the chunky system.
How Do You Create Good Content?
So what I do is each chunk is four tweets. There will be three tweets of other people’s stuff and links to their stuff. And then the fourth tweet will be something to my stuff. I will tweet, say, one of your blog posts at 9 a.m., find somebody else to tweet at 9:30, and then at 10:00 I’ll tweet somebody else’s, and then my tweet—whether it’s my blog post to a video or to whatever piece of content that’s mine—will be the fourth tweet in that chunk. That gives you about three hours of activity on Twitter, but I am not physically on Twitter that whole time. I’ll pop in in between tweets for about 5 or 10 minutes. So within that 3 hours of content activity on Twitter, I physically was there maybe 15 minutes. So it looks like you’re there for hours, but in reality you come in, reply to anybody, say thank you, or whatever you need to do, and get out.
Cooperate with Other Entrepreneurs for Promotion
You want to feature other people’s stuff. Make sure it’s good, helpful content targeted around what you do. You want to share the quality stuff from the big guy, but you also want to mix up some smaller blogs and small business owners because those are the people you’ll build the relationship with and those are the people who will start retweeting you at some point. That’s the goal: you give, give, give, and at some point you’ll start getting back, and that’s when things start to work for you. People want to know that there’s somebody there, especially if you have a new business. You have to put yourself out there, let people see you and know you, see your face see that you’re basically available. You have to be very, very helpful in the beginning because that’s just reality. Twitter is one of those that’s “what can you do for me now?” So the more helpful you are in the beginning, in time you’ll start to get back.
Thank Your Audience
So when you do a tweet you want to thank people. I thank people because they could choose twenty other blogs that are just as good as me. I thank people because it’s the right thing to do. Also, by thanking people, you put yourself back in front of them. So when that person says, “Wow, John thanked me,” that person’s going to tweet me more. You want to be helpful. You want to answer questions. If people make comments you want to get in there and join the conversation, make comments, and joke around with people. Whatever comes your way, you want to reply to it. If I’m replying to you, my other followers will see that. And that’s going to benefit you in the long run.
Good Content Needs Good Promotion
Promotion is the most important part, because good content without good promotion is just going to sit there. So in the beginning, nothing’s going to happen. You want to learn the fundamentals now before they forget you. Learn how to share correctly, how to find great content to share, how to connect with people and engage and build those relationships. In the beginning you just have to know that what you’re doing is working and at some point it’s going to give back. You’re going to get more traffic to your website every day, you’re going to get more followers every day, you’re going to connect with more people every day. It will grow as you are doing it. If you’re doing things correctly, you’ll see that things are growing.
Who Should I Follow?
Let’s say my blog is about blogging. My main focus and core people are bloggers, but my soft people are marketing people and small businesspeople. These people still have an interest in blogging. It’s kind of like sharing content. Follow the low-end people, follow the middle, and then follow the big websites because the big websites will still help you in time. But the little people are the ones that are going to connect to you. You’re going to get more followers.
Share New Content with New People
You need a follow plan. I have a follow plan I’ve used for ten years. It’s what I teach people. You have to go in there old school, like I do, look at the accounts, spend a couple of seconds and make sure they’re real people. Are they targeted to what you do, are they active followers? And if you do that and follow a system—let’s say you’re getting 200 new followers every week—that’s 200 new people who are going to see your new blog posts and any videos you share. You’ll see a profile, see their link, maybe see a pin tweet, send people to your website, and get them to opt in. That’s 200 new people each week and at the end of the month that’s 800 new people. That’s when big things happen because you’re constantly sharing great stuff to brand-new people each and every week. That’s the exact same system I follow and I’ve got 140,000 followers.
It’s not about the numbers, though. The numbers don’t mean anything. I don’t care that I have 140,000 followers because if I’m not getting retweets or traffic to my blog, then the 140,000 followers don’t mean anything to me. I would rather have 10,0000 followers that are targeted that visit my blog every time I do a new blog post. But the reality is, that’s not why you’re following people. You’re following people because you want to put your stuff in front of new people each and every week. By doing that, the outcome will be that your follower numbers will grow.
Build Trust to Build Resources
But that’s not why you’re doing it. There’s no point in having 50,000 followers if they don’t care about your business. If you’re getting no retweets and no traffic to your blog, then you’re wasting your time on Twitter, because again, everything you do on Twitter is about bringing people back to your blog or to whatever else you offer. You have to chase targeted people that care about what you talk about. Once they get that trust, then they become a resource. Once they become a resource, it’s also set, because now when I come on Twitter and say I want information about so-and-so; if you do so-and-so, I’m going to come to your Twitter stream every day because I want to either read something helpful or I need content to share on my stream. You are now a resource for me. Your business will grow once you have that trust. It is up to you to keep it for years to come.
Make Your Goal Clear
Focus on whatever your goal is. I’m on Twitter because I want people to come to my website and opt in. So you’re going to see a big “opt-in” box as soon as you come to my website, because that’s what I need. That’s my main goal: get on my email list. Yes you want them to read your content, but you want to deliver on something, whether it’s to buy a product or something else. For me, it would be my email list. Get them on your email, because once you get them on your email list, you own them. So if you work Twitter correctly, you’re going to get success on other platforms because people will share that stuff in other places; they will put it on LinkedIn or put it on Facebook. So if you work Twitter correctly and get people sharing your content, they’re going to share to other places.