I got my friend Will to start writing a blog for work months ago. What advice did I give him?
- Write interesting content
- Be patient, people who like your writing will come
- Only comment on other peoples blogs if you have something to say that’s meaningful
He’s now loving blogging. Not loving the google juice it gives him. Not loving the SEO aspect. Not loving the marketing. He’s enjoying writing a blog. He’s enjoying writing about work. He’s enjoying expressing himself and having those people who work for him expressing themselves. He’s enjoying talking about his baby (note that’s the flower delivery company, not an actual baby) and that it provides and outlet for him to share some of the energy he is putting into his company.
Which is why I still am amazed when people only see blogs and social sites as a marketing tool.
Take for example this gem I came across (Ironically I think Matt twittered it) of a guide: The Big Juicy Twitter Guide
Part1: Why You Must Start Using Twitter Right Now
… is that it can be an incredibly powerful marketing & community building tool with the ability to develop your brand, build relationships with your audience and provide a promotional medium that has the ability to go viral!
Seriously? SERIOUSLY? You’re kidding me? People still don’t get it. If you’re trying to market with twitter, you just don’t get it. If you’re using twitter as a something to communicate, to be part of an community, to share experiences, that’s all good. If you’re using it as a methodology or process to push marketing messages at customers, you’ve lost it. You don’t get it. You wont get it.
Anyone who tries to make something “go viral” doesn’t get it. Things go viral because they do. Because they are in the right environment at the right time and mostly because the content is good. Better than good, great. But you can’t force viral. Viral happens.
Meg’s anti valentines day sites didn’t go viral because Meg was trying to make a viral. It went viral because Meg was trying to do something she found amusing. It went viral because it was a great idea and a great site. Why was it a great idea and a great site? Because Meg was making something that appealed to her, and hence appealed to other people.
Twitter is now being recognised as a valuable marketing tool …
Oh god. By who. Can’t we have one site that isn’t polluted by people trying to force their message on me. I’ll bet the only people who see Twitter as a valuable marketing tools are the same marketeers that tell you they can make virals.
Part2: How to Get Twitter Followers
When you first join Twitter you will have no followers. You can send updates but the only people likely to see them are the people who are currently surfing the public timeline on the Twitter homepage and that moves pretty fast. You aren’t going to get many followers from there! How then, should you get followers?
This is about as far as I read before I sign off this page seething.
This is bloody ASDFing. This is why I get spammed at least once a week with some dickwad who is following 2367 twitters. I can barely follow the amount of updates I get from somewhere shy of 50. You’re not interested in me, you’re not following me, you’re just trying to get me to follow you.
This is dickheadish behaviour and gets your blocked.
However what really gets my horned quadruped (goat) is that people are still recommending this as a technique.
There is nothing wrong with getting involved in an online community. But if your intention is based around getting people to follow you so you can market to them - Stay out of my internet. You’re not welcome.
1. Matt
I actually delicious’ed it, not Twittered it, I think. And I hadn’t read it fully before I bookmarked it (there is actually some good stuff in there when she’s not bullshitting about marketing), and I agree with you about everything. For once.
2. Dragon
Oddly, so do I.
3. Hg
The way I look at it, the web’s like a conversation in the pub. Sometimes you talk to people you know and sometimes to strangers. Conversations happen one-on-one, or in groups.
There’s nothing more annoying than someone you’ve never met before haranguing you about their great product or service. But if you get to know them as a person first, then you’re more receptive.
I guess brute force marketing must work - otherwise people wouldn’t do it - but as far as I’m concerned, the more frequently we question it, subvert it, name it and shame it, the better.
4. Adrian
Well put HG. The thing is you can usually tell people in pubs marketing.
But can you imagine going to a pub, meeting people, joining in conversations, and doing this week after week, so that you can suddenly start telling them to invest in ProAmToffees Ltd.
File under: First with their backs against the wall when I am grand dictator and master of all.
5. Hg
You can give them a ProAmToffee to chew before you tie the mask over their eyes.
6. snowgoon.myopenid.com
As Hg says, the internets is conversation. Particularly I reference an example from a recent conference.
The evening, everyone is relaxing with a beer or 5, we are all at the stage of talking nonsense (slagging of two guys for their spectacularly crap business cards if I remember) and all having a good laugh. There are maybe 15 of us, split into 2 groups.
One guy spent the entire evening walking between both groups, chipping in with hilarious tales about his company which he quickly followed up with the fact that his company did X and when everyone was sober we should talk about that.
I think it took him three visits to our group to get the message.
Anyhoo, been trying to think up a similar acronym centred around UIOP but can’t be arsed (in a poor ASDF related kinda way)