Twitter is it Worth it?

[georgelopez66]

We all know the twitter craze thats going around.
I used twitter and not the biggest fan of it.
I use it for personal reasons (connect w/ friends, family)
But i see people saying there making like 5 figures a month
and twitter is there main traffic source. Thats something
i find hard to believe.
Twitter is cool to keep in touch with friends and family.

For getting traffic and growing your business is twitter
Worth It?

Your Thoughts!!

 

[LinkBuildingServices]

Hi,
yes you can get a huge traffic. But you need a huge follower. But you can not have a crawler count as a back link. Because twitter gives nofollow links

 

[OldWelshGuy]

what he said above. for link juice it is worthless, but it does help get pages spidered, and it can help to bring in traffic. It can also help to brand you.

 

[MonicaSharma]

Yes I agree with Georgelopez66.

 

[wood1e2]

You can also spend all your time twittering and not getting any sales.!!

No point being known as the twitterer for 'Baby Clothes' and you sell an extra pack of nappies!!

Obviously you have to be in it to win, so along with a good website, blogging etc etc Twitter can be an added benefit....

Or it can become a place of benign boring dross!!!

Remember also that just because there is 1.5 million following you, 1.4999 could be Russain sex goddesses, Thai lady boy farmas...

 

[venlions]

its exactly like a facebook status
but its cool
you can follow all these famous people and see what their doin and stuff
the president has one to
so i mean it has to be worth gettin :]
its a pretty cool site you should get one :]

 

[wood1e2]

Yeah right...or should that be 'I get yeah'!!!

 

[eventdomain]

But you need a huge follower. But you can not have a crawler count as a back link. Because twitter gives nofollow links

Yes, Twitter are very very smart. Great for themselves - but its not for advertisers.

 

[mattsaw]

what he said above. for link juice it is worthless, but it does help get pages spidered, and it can help to bring in traffic. It can also help to brand you.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Google did start looking closely at links being posted on Twitter. Over the past couple of years it has canabilised a massive portion of the link graph. If not now, but in the future it makes sense for thm to be using this data in some form

 

[An Oasis]

its exactly like a facebook status
but its cool
you can follow all these famous people and see what their doin and stuff
the president has one to
so i mean it has to be worth gettin :]
its a pretty cool site you should get one :]

Worst business advice I've seen in many moons...who gives a flying F if a president has one, ditto that for famous people!?!?

Better advice for you, work on getting traffic to your website rather than rely upon some third party staying the course and delivering for you.

 

[mylee]

The point is the more followers the more traffic.

 

[CraigieDD]

You have to look at Twitter and how it will fit into your marketing and communications plan.

For example, you could have a Facebook page which is for announcing events and putting up chatty content about your business, presenting the human face of the business.

Your blog could be more serious "whitepaper" style content, genuinely useful to people in your industry or in the market for your products and services.

Your twitter account could be solely for up to the minute special offers, linking to pages on your website. A nice link on your website saying "follow us in twitter for exclusive offers" or the like may prove successful.

You'll find many people on here that rarely duplicate the content across all three. There's a reason for that.

More importantly all of this stuff should be tested and measured.

 

[eventdomain]

Twitter is NOT a marketing tool, it was designed for people to post about lifestyle things, and like all these social ideas its being used for marketing purposes because its easy to spam and free.

No wonder this stuff fails, it wasn't meant to be a business tool. Just like everything else and like celebrities, its talked about far too much and in your face too often.

I have tested this on websites and found that when an open form is used, it gets spammed with porn, urls and stupid comments, if you allow easy entry then it will be taken advantage of. Twitter is no different.

I don't get this facination at all, if I want to talk about something or market my business, I use a blog to do it, I don't go to twitter anymore.

Social sites aren't information websites, portals or search engines, they are for social interaction and nothing more. You wouldn't use a screwdriver to paint a fence, so why use Twitter to market a business

 

[CraigieDD]

Twitter is NOT a marketing tool, it was designed for people to post about lifestyle things, and like all these social ideas its being used for marketing purposes because its easy to spam and free.

.....

they are for social interaction and nothing more. You wouldn't use a screwdriver to paint a fence, so why use Twitter to market a business

Couldn't disagree more.

Twitter is just another channel. It's how you utilise it that counts. Dell attributed £5M of sales directly to their Twitter channel at the tail end of last year. At the other end of the scale a friend who runs a guided tour company in Scotland attributes 20% of all his sales to his Twitter channel - Why? Because he provides genuinely interesting information to his audience and special deals, only available to his twitter followers.

 

[Simply Clicks]

Despite the huge media attention focused on Twitter I see very little evidence of real commercial value to any of my clients - even when they have generated significant traffic volumes from the service.

 

[mattsaw]

Twitter is NOT a marketing tool, it was designed for people to post about lifestyle things, and like all these social ideas its being used for marketing purposes because its easy to spam and free.

Really? What are you basing that assumption on. Have you never tried to use it, or tried and failed?

Incidently enough I'm working with a client on a campaign at the moment. We seeded a link to a article they posted on their site this morning.

So far they have received over 800 rewteets, over 14,000 Facebook likes and close to 20,000 site visits - and we're currently only halfway into the day.

Add to that mentions so far in the Guardian and Telegraph websites, making it onto some well known mailing lists, many mentions already on niche blogs.

- I would place the nominal value of the links already aquired at over £5-6k
- Branding and awareness, I estimate by the end of the weekend the site will have received 50-60k visitors, maybe more depending on media uptake
- The value of the press mentions already translates into several hundreds of pounds worth of PR agency work
- The SEO value remains to be seen, it's far too early to draw any conclusions, but I expect to see significant improvements in residual serach traffic in the coming weeks.

But, obviously because it doesn't work for you Twitter is useless for marketing.

 

[eventdomain]

Dell attributed £5M of sales directly to their Twitter channel

People know Dell, and I assure you people don't buy from Dell bcos of Twitter posts.

Dell's name gets them noise and sales - not twitter!

 

[DotNetWebs]

People know Dell, and I assure you people don't buy from Dell bcos of Twitter posts.

Dell's name gets them noise and sales - not twitter!

There are plenty of people that would disagree with you:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=dell+twitter+case+study&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Regards

Dotty

 

[sysops]

So far they have received over 800 rewteets, over 14,000 Facebook likes and close to 20,000 site visits - and we're currently only halfway into the day.

Any sales?

 

[sysops]

Twitter is the one of the worst things ever invented. It is of very little value, yet is able to consume vast amount of man-hours very easily.

 

[Rebecca May]

Twitter is about spreading your message, generating visitors to your site (not all of them useful), it says something about you/your brand as twitter tends to be regarded as trendy and very "now" BUT it does not pass page rank e.g. help you with your search engine rankings.

 

[eventdomain]

There are plenty of people that would disagree with you:

Great, fantastic..... if it works for all those, then they should keep doing it.

Sure I got some Tweets, but I learnt that people are just following to be followed.... and thus cannot be people with a genuine interest, their just doing it to build up their own followers. Perhaps its entertainment for them, who knows. This is just a collectors haven, its people collecting followers :| maybe, its like a swap card game or collecting football stickers.

But its a craze, and like all crazes it wont last long without revenue. But as soon as they charge, people will lose interest and the spammers will drop off, and when that happens any value will be gone.

 

[mattsaw]

Any sales?

Yes, a few, as well as some sponsorship and parnership requests. Too early to tell so far though.

Not everything can (or should) be measured in direct sales volumes though, marketing doesn't often doesn't work like that - i.e. it's hardly ever a direct a leads to b scenario.

An example - a previous project (similar to this) that I workd with a PR client on. We saw similar uptake figures. Twitter was never a vehicle to direct sales, but rather a way of connecting with incluencers - bloggers, journalists and the media. Targeting exposure, press coverage and links above direct sales.

Everybody is going to use Twitter/Social media differently, but I'm of the firm opinion that most smaller companies shouldn't be trying to connect with consumers, but connecting with influencers instead.

In two weeks my client estimated he picked-up around £40,000 worth of business as a result of the press coverage that he received.

In addition to that he also began to (with 14 days) rank in the top three results for one of his primary keyword (as a result of the links aquired to the site) we were targeting. Since then as a result of that he has picked-up Kellogs as a client via them finding him for that keyword.

Not bad results for something that is useless for marketing.......

 

[sysops]

Yes, a few, as well as some sponsorship and parnership requests. Too early to tell so far though.

A few? With that much traffic, you say *a few*?

Not everything can (or should) be measured in direct sales volumes though, marketing doesn't often doesn't work like that - i.e. it's hardly every a direct a leads to b scenario.

Ah, the heady aroma of marketing bullshit.

"Don't worry, it doesn't matter if the £10k you've just spent with us on this marketng campaign doesn't drive any sales - that's just not how marketing works". Been there too many times.

 

[mattsaw]

I think we can safely say that in this thread useless = I don't understand how it works

I went as far to break down the value in terms of sales, link value and directly attributale sales.

If you can't be bothered to read it that's not my problem.

I honestly don't get why so many people feel so threatened by Twitter, I think mostly it's a lack of understanding of how it works, because they don't 'get it' therefore it's rubbish

 

[eventdomain]

But, obviously because it doesn't work for you Twitter is useless for marketing.

Twitter's not a marketing tool... Its a social message book- at the most its a post-it note for the web, with anyone slapping their stuff and spam hoping they get popular off it.

But then again, I'm in the enviable position of owning 2 huge traffic generating websites, so I don't need to worry about Twitter

 

[sysops]

I think we can safely say that in this thread useless = I don't understand how it works

I went as far to break down the value in terms of sales, link value and directly attributale sales.

If you can't be bothered to read it that's not my problem.

I honestly don't get why so many people feel so threatened by Twitter, I think mostly it's a lack of understanding of how it works, because they don't 'get it' therefore it's rubbish

Tell you what, if you'd like to prove me wrong, and get paid for doing so, drop me a PM. I'm always up for wasting money on marketing experiments, and hey, it is Friday after all.

 

[mattsaw]

Tell you what, if you'd like to prove me wrong, and get paid for doing so, drop me a PM. I'm always up for wasting money on marketing experiments, and hey, it is Friday after all.

Tell you what, depending on your industry I'll do it for free. Some are easier than others as the key is in the concept, the syndication and promotion is easy if you have the network.

 

[sysops]

Tell you what, depending on your industry I'll do it for free. Some are easier than others as the key is in the concept, the syndication and promotion is easy if you have the network.

Appreciate the offer, but I like to pay for my marketing follies - it would feel weird otherwise. Can you PM me your email address, and we can set this up?

 

[Jeff FV]

What Twitter - and Facebook - do is they 'democratise the web.'

Most people on this forum are pretty tech savvy and most will have a website or blog or both.

But people on this forum aren't most people and most people don't have a webiste, blog or any other 'web presence' other than Twitter and Facebook.

What Twitter allows them to do is say "Hey, I found this on the web - I liked it, you might like it to. Go and have a look. www.somesite " Now anyone can recommend a site, not just someone who blogs or who runs a website.

A spammers paradise? - It could be, but I don't think it is. People soon unfollow those who spam.

Twitter and Facebook et al are shifting the ownership of the web from the technocrats into hands of the 'masses' and giving them a voice online, and that is why it is so important.

Jeff

 

[Cool Moggy]

Don't advertise. Do talk to people and take apart in the conversation. Retweet useful business or techie stuff. Post URLs to interesting blogs. Tweet your own blog posts, though not ad nauseam. It will all help you climb the search engines.

Build relationships in your network and find new business friends.

Eventually the referrals will come from your network (don't forget to give referrals too). I have a current juicy project which a Twitter friend spotted in her network and tweeted to me and the introducer. Twitter is great, but it is a tool and you need to know how to use it for marketing. That knowledge stems from knowing how to network effecively.

 

[CraigieDD]

People know Dell, and I assure you people don't buy from Dell bcos of Twitter posts.

Dell's name gets them noise and sales - not twitter!

No... The content they sent out via their twitter feed got them sales.

Have you read the E-Consultancy report on their campaign?

It was specially formatted and optimised for their twitter audience - a demographic that wasn't part of their core business.

They believe that of the £5M sales generated that over £4M was genuinely new custom.

And I'm afraid your argument falls over as my mates runs his small company himself. And as other people have pointed out, he provides genuinely useful and inspiring content for his followers in bite sized chunks. Ideal for consuming information on the move.

Will Twitter go away, probably, eventually. Will Facebook die. Probably eventually. But while they are here, why not use them?

I'd be interested to see what you sent out to see if we could help you with this channel.

 

[CraigieDD]

Don't advertise. Do talk to people and take apart in the conversation. Retweet useful business or techie stuff. Post URLs to interesting blogs.
...

tool and you need to know how to use it for marketing. That knowledge stems from knowing how to network effecively.

Cool Moggy. It may have been your first post. But it's a good one. I couldn't have summed it up better myself - and I'm a big-head so that's hard for me to say .. ;-)

It astonishes me that some business people in this forum will dismiss a technology because they haven't studied it enough or got an expert in to utilise it properly.

CHEERS!

 

[eventdomain]

some business people in this forum will dismiss a technology because they haven't studied it enough or got an expert in to utilise it properly.

You're suggesting people pay ££££ for some expert to tell them how to post using Twitter? (Sorry, Marketing cough, cough). Its hardly rocket science is it, and to expect savvy people to inccur a fee to do something so simple is frightening advice.

Wait a minute - here comes the Twitter Marketing Association, the trade professional body for Twitter Consultants......


Ka-ching

 

[jmsclark]

as far as i know twitter is the best marketing tool these days , more powerful than facebook.

though my personal success not so good but its a fact that its a good tool

 

[eventdomain]

Even though I hate what Twitter is, I have to admire the amount of users it gets, but that can never replace the usefulness of websites packed full of searchable businesses and biz information.

It will never beat Facebook, mainly as Facebook allows for user content pages, where Twitter cannot. People do search for information, and that will never change...

The social sector is very young, nobody knows which way it'll go and people know what Facebook is, they know what Twitter is, but its risky to change what these sites currently offer. To start selling business adverts could alienate social users, and they aren't there to buy products - they hang out to chat and make friends etc.

If facebook loses its users, well, its going to have impact....

 

[jmsclark]

rightly said , i too am eager to see where the social media goes next , i hope we can see something concrete in near future

 

[CraigieDD]

You're suggesting people pay ££££ for some expert to tell them how to post using Twitter? (Sorry, Marketing cough, cough). Its hardly rocket science

....

Twitter Marketing Association, the trade professional body for Twitter Consultants......


Ka-ching

All I'm saying that if you don't know how to utilise a channel then get an expert in who does know.

That's not bad advice. Getting good people who are experts in their field is a plan for growth. Flailing around in something you can't make work isn't.

I spoke to WeBuyAnyCar recently and they have someone specifically employed to handle their twitter feed and their Facebook page.

Not sure what your logic is here.

You're saying on one hand you can't make it work but on the other your not prepared to pay for help to make it work....

I expect we might have to agree to differ on this topic. ;-)

 

[An Oasis]

Appreciate the offer, but I like to pay for my marketing follies - it would feel weird otherwise. Can you PM me your email address, and we can set this up?

Good grief a Twitter Yes camper and a No camper getting together and actually testing the waters. This could turn into one of the most interesting threads on UKBF.

Good luck boys!

 

[CraigieDD]

Appreciate the offer, but I like to pay for my marketing follies - it would feel weird otherwise. Can you PM me your email address, and we can set this up?

Keep us up to date on this one.