Afternoon All!
So much going on in this ‘Think Tank’ lately, this post is kind of unplanned and ever so slightly off the cuff! I’ve been doing some work with my LinkedIn profile and group today, and the idea for this post has kind of just ‘happened’
I suppose I need to kickstart this by saying I’m feeling ever so slightly disillusioned and this is something that has been bothering me for some weeks now.
*I would like to also add at this point I owe my friend Andi from Tims Minions some credit for inspiring me with this post, thanks to a post on Facebook earlier, which also kind of touched a nerve (in a good way) with how I am feeling*
OK, I’ll stop with the chatter and get down to the nitty gritty.
Am I the only person who actively uses Twitter as a key networking tool for their business? NO
Am I the only person who’s newsfeed is being overpopulated with mindless self promoting tweets and offers? NO
Does the above combination bother me? YES, and here’s why ……..
I use twitter on a variety of accounts personal and business for a variety of businesses, and I am seeing a very vast pattern emerging – Cliff Notes version : People have stopped listening and conversing and just started getting word vomit.
This I know might sound pretty harsh, and I am not going saying EVERYONE is doing it, but the more popular Twitter is becoming as a way of networking and generating business, the more people want in on a piece of the action, and if they don’t understand how we do business inside it, thats when the situation I am talking about occurs.
I don’t blame anyone for this, Twitter is powerful and successful IF used properly ….. The more I am looking at Twitter (and believe me I spend HOURS a day inside there) the less I think people ‘get it’
A LONG TIME AGO A WISE PERSON TOLD ME THIS ‘FOR EVERY 1 TWEET YOU SEND THAT IS SELF PROMOTING OR ‘SELLING’ YOU NEED TO SEND 10 NON SELLING/PROMOTING TWEETS (BE HELPFUL/ANSWER QUESTIONS)
When I log in, and see my ‘lists’ and general feed filled with (examples) ‘RT this tweet for 25% off all our services’ ‘www.buymenow.com – visit our website to see our new products’ I very quickly switch off and if I see a repeat offender, I tend to unfollow them.
That’s not me being ‘mean’, I’m of the old school tweeters, the ones who want to know whats happening outside of my immediate ‘bubble’, I am interested in the people I CHOOSE to follow and more than that, I like to help people -so when I look through my twitter feed (and I don’t have HOURS to analyse and look for these kind of tweets) and all I see is BUY BUY BUY I get frustrated, because I know how to ‘work’ twitter, and you don’t get sales by ‘over-selling’
I miss the conversation, not even that long ago, twitter was a fabulous place for people sharing helpful information, forging new relationships based on being friendly, making recommendations and just having a chat – Everyone involved knew the underlying tone was to open up new opportunities – you know a case of ‘you scratch my back, i’ll scratch your back’ You formed little allies and when someone out there needed a ‘painter in kent’ theres a chance you would of been recommended by one of your twitterati because they saw that tweet in their newsfeed.
This still happens on twitter – please don’t think I am saying this has vanished into thin air, It hasn’t, but for me, lately, *based solely on my experiences* think that these kind of tweets are getting harder to see, and the conversational element has faltered away almost like it is no longer needed.
WRONG – Without this, you have people like me ‘switching off’ and that is not what you want ….. WHY? Because Twitter is a Social Networking Site, and without the ‘Social’ element to it, its boring, it takes effort, and people have a lot more constructive ways to use their time online than just plain and simple ‘networking’
I want to give you an example here if I may – on Twitter there is a (well used to be) powerful hashtag that people used when looking for something, referrals – you know like above ‘I need a painter in Kent’ They would send a tweet out saying something like the following
“I need a decent painter in the Kent area, can anyone recommend anyone #msrfr” – by including that hashtag you are opening up your chances of someone seeing it (that searches / uses the hashtag) and then giving out a recommendation. Its fantastic, you have those who ‘work’ the conversations to help people out, and in the past it has been an absolute godsend for one of the businesses that I work with – the amount of clients that simple hashtag has given to me, and the amount of people i’ve managed to help out is immense!
So, 2 days ago now I tweeted from an account that I was looking for an upholstery cleaner (included the hashtag #msrfr) and guess what ….. apart from the odd retweet, I’m still waiting for a recommendation – which i find almost unbelieveable, because in the past I’ve had people chomping at the bit to recommend people to me. I refuse to believe that in my entire twittersphere nobody can recommend anyone, and knowing that my tweet has been seen by well over 10K people (thanks to the RT’s and the hashtag itself) just further adds fuel to the fire that the conversation has ‘died down’
So I’ve resent the tweet (because I still need an upholstery cleaner and I’d prefer a recommended one, thats just how we work in this world now, off recommendations) and I’m still waiting ….. I can’t help but wonder, if my timeline is overpopulated with the kind of tweets that don’t make me want to connect / do business with the people writing them, surely others feel the same? And if this is the case, it means that my tweets aren’t actually being seen by the people that would normally help me out, because they are having difficulty in filtering through the masses to see mine?
This post isn’t all doom and gloom however, although i am slightly on a downer with Twitter today, it is a great tool, and to help make the ‘noise’ quieter, Twitter lists are a great way of filtering who and what you want to see *even if they can suffer the same fate with ‘noise’*
I almost feel like I want to spear head the return of the conversation. I don’t want to fall out of love with Twitter EVER, I owe it so much, I just want people to understand how it works, and more importantly WHY it works.
What advice do I want to give to people, or say to those who feel a little bit like me right now ….. Don’t give up, LISTEN, Don’t just talk and talk and talk …… is your message being received, and if not why not? What are you doing wrong (or right) and how can you change it to get you the desired result you want?
I’d love to know your experiences with Twitter, good and bad, and of course your thoughts on this post. Does this strike a chord with you, or am I out here on my own with these feelings?
Have a fab weekend everyone!
Clair 
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