Business Growth Strategies » Twitter

Don’t Build a Business on Top of Fickle Social Media (Especially Twitter)

Ryan M. Healy — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:30:08 +0000

Here’s more proof that you should never build a business on top of fickle social media.

Twitter Suspends UberMedia, Creator of TweetDeck

Twitter holds all the cards in this “negotiation.”

If you build a business on top of Twitter (or any other social media company), you’re in an extremely vulnerable position.

With a snap of their fingers, they can make your business completely obsolete, worthless.

Why take the risk?

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

How to Connect on Twitter

Ryan M. Healy — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:22:12 +0000

New Twitter followers are a dime a dozen.

Maybe even a nickel or a penny. (Blame it on all the spam accounts.)

Which means it’s not enough to merely follow somebody to get their attention.

You need to go a step further and begin to interact with that person. Send them an @reply. Or retweet something they posted.

But don’t stop there.

Send them multiple @replies. Retweet their stuff on a regular basis. This will definitely get their attention — even if they happen to be busy.

If you’ve looked at my Twitter profile lately, you’ll notice I don’t follow many people. And I’m fairly picky with who I choose to follow… because… if I follow a person, that means I’m reading what they post.

So for every 25-30 new followers, I may follow 1 back.

Recently, I followed back @DonnaBaierStein. Why? Because she’s retweeted my tweets and interacted with me. I checked out her profile and she has good stuff to say. So I followed her.

But for every Donna on Twitter, there are dozens of “fake followers” — people who follow you, but never read a word you say. Keep that in mind for when you really want to connect with somebody on Twitter.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Connect with me on Twitter @HeyHealy.Similar Posts:

How to Commit Social Media Suicide

Ryan M. Healy — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:24:39 +0000

Ever get tired of all the effort it takes to keep up with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?

Ever wonder why you’re investing so much time in people you don’t really know and don’t really care about?

Well, you could do what I’ve done and strictly limit Facebook to family and friends only — and follow just a handful of people on Twitter.

But if even a strict social media diet sounds like too much work, you could go for the whole enchilada and just commit social media suicide.

It’s easier than you think… because… the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will do all the heavy lifting for you. Who knew it could be so easy to get your real life back?

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Instantly Obsolete: The Danger of Building Your Business on Top of Fickle Social Media

Ryan M. Healy — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:46:06 +0000

If you’re building your business solely on top of a fickle web-based business like Google, Facebook, or Twitter, I strongly advise you to BE CAREFUL.

All it takes is one tweak of an algorithm… one revision of the Terms of Service… and you could be out of business faster than you can say “Google Slap.”

Perfect example:

ReFollow has built their business by providing a unique service to Twitter users. In seconds they can tell you all kinds of things about your Twitter presence. For instance: who you’re following, but hasn’t followed you back; who hasn’t recently updated their profile; and so on.

I actually like their service and have used it more than once to help clear my Twitter profile of abandoned profiles.

But when I decided to visit their site again, I found a strange message:

As you may have heard, Twitter recently changed their policies (unannounced) regarding the amount of requests (POSTS) that we are allowed to make to their system. As a result, they have blocked the free version of Refollow based on the large amount of users we were supporting. The only solution that Twitter has suggested is for us to balance our requests across many more servers, which is going to cost us a lot more cash! Check out our blog if you want to know more.

The note went on to explain how ReFollow is in the process of revising their services (frantically, I’m sure), introducing paid plans, and, if you are in a hurry, how you can make a one-time payment for at least 30 days of use of the old system.

Fortunately, ReFollow is not entirely out of business. It may even turn out to be a positive change for them. Nevertheless, I believe the point still stands: Never base your entire earning potential on a fickle business that can, on a whim, make all your plans and ideas instantly obsolete.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Am I Encouraging Twitter Spam?

Ryan M. Healy — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:54:45 +0000

Since my last post about getting free traffic from Twitter, I’ve gotten a couple emails from concerned readers who believe I’m encouraging Twitter spam.

It’s a fair argument, so I thought I’d address it head on. Here’s the first email I received.

Hi Ryan,

Are these random @ messages sent to non-followers with a sales page at the end? Because if that’s what you are promoting, you’re likely to have people reporting you for spam left and right.

Twitter users are into social media – SOCIAL. Spamming links is not social. It is anti-social.

Know what I mean?

The second email I received was from Joel Comm, a well-known Internet marketer and the author of Twitter Power:

Hey Ryan,

I’m really surprised to see you promoting Twitter Diving.

It’s total and complete Twitter spamming. You have to set up multiple Twitter accounts, and Markus even says on his forum that Twitter is shutting down accounts that are using this tool. You would never risk your own account as it would get shut down.

I’m trying to figure out your motivation…

Eager to hear your reply. :-)

Joel

So the big question is, am I encouraging Twitter spam?

This is a question I asked myself. In fact, I was an original beta tester for Twitter Diving. Naturally, I was concerned about the whole spam issue. So I created a throwaway account to test the service and satisfy my concerns.

After testing Twitter Diving myself, I personally feel my recommendation is not encouraging spam. Here’s why I say that…

Let’s say you’re on Twitter and you come across a tweet about “quinoa.” You’ve recently written an article about quinoa, so you reply back and say something like, “Hey, I see you’ve got an interest in quinoa. You might like this article: [link]”

Is this spam?

No.

You’re providing useful and relevant information based on what a person is publicly talking about.

Twitter Diving lets you send personalized @replies to multiple people at once. This is why I view it as a productivity tool. Instead of replying to 10 people by hand, you can reply to those same 10 people all at the same time.

I have already sent lots of @replies by hand, many with links to articles that aren’t selling anything. I’ve received many @replies like this as well. I don’t view it as spam and I don’t think others view it that way either.

To me, it’s similar to somebody on Google searching for something specific and you say, “Hey, here’s what you’re looking for.” Except on Twitter, people are publicly talking about certain subjects and you can jump in and add to that conversation: “Oh, you’re talking about quinoa? Here’s an article you might like…”

Since I began using the tool, I’ve gotten extremely high click-thru rates, usually between 30-50% and sometimes higher. I’ve had some people retweet my @replies. And I’ve also had people reply back to thank me for the information I sent.

If I was spamming people, would they be clicking on my links, retweeting them, and personally thanking me? Probably not.

Obviously, Twitter Diving is like sending email; it can be abused. Somebody could blast out a bunch of irrelevant tweets all pointing to sales pages — but that would defeat the purpose of personalized @replies.

Not to mention, it would quickly backfire. (This is why Twitter Diving has a few safeguards built in to stop anybody who tries to use the tool for spamming purposes.)

Certainly, some will still see Twitter Diving in black and white terms and say that all automated tweets are spam.

Of course, if this is their position, then that means that many popular Twitter clients (like HootSuite) are tools for spamming Twitter. It also means all scheduled tweets are spam, all tweets auto-published via an RSS feed are spam, etc.

In the end, I guess it depends on a person’s definition of spam. Sending out unsolicited sales pitches is spam. Sending out on-topic @replies that aren’t trying to sell anything seems to make good sense to me. It’s something I’ve done by hand and will continue to do.

The only difference is that now I’m experimenting with Twitter Diving to be more productive.

This is all just my opinion, of course. I’m certainly open to hearing other arguments. I’ve been wrong before about a lot of different things in my life and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be wrong again!

What’s your perspective? Is sending personalized @replies with Twitter Diving spam? Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks!

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Free Targeted Traffic with New Twitter Tool

Ryan M. Healy — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:48:21 +0000

As Google Adwords becomes less viable for your average direct response marketer, it only makes sense to look for alternative sources of targeted traffic.

After all, the more diversified your sources of traffic, the less any single source of traffic can negatively impact your business.

If 90% or more of your sales come from Google Adwords traffic… and a disgruntled employee decides to ban your ads from running… you’ve just lost 90% of your business in one fell swoop.

But if you’ve developed multiple sources of traffic — Adwords, Bing, Twitter, social media, organic search listings, backlinks, etc — then you won’t have so much to worry about if the Google gods suddenly cut you off.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with a new Twitter tool that helps drive free targeted traffic to any page you want. Basically, the idea is to send personalized @replies to multiple users with a few clicks.

So far, my @replies are getting click-thru rates up to 60% and averaging around 30-40%. These are impressive statistics. It means that my @replies are extremely relevant. So relevant, in fact, that some people are even re-tweeting my @replies.

Here’s a real-world example from this morning…

Today I sent 35 personalized @replies using this new Twitter tool. Within an hour, 10 people had already clicked through. I can see this because I’m using bit.ly to track clicks. That’s a 28.5% click-thru rate so far. I’m sure this number will climb throughout the day.

Here’s a screen shot:

That’s 10 unique visitors to my site in an hour. And the best part is I didn’t have to pay for that traffic.

To learn more about how this new Twitter tool works, check out this in-depth review: How to tap into Twitter to attract free website traffic

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Just finished writing this post and I refreshed my bit.ly stats… now up to 12 clicks. That’s a 34.3% click-thru rate in a little more than an hour.

P.P.S. Back from the gym and clicks are up to 19 (out of 35 tweets sent), a 54.3% click-thru rate.Similar Posts:

How to Generate Traffic from Blog Comments

Ryan M. Healy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:02:13 +0000

There are dozens of different ways to get free traffic to your site. One of them is to leave comments on other people’s blogs and link back to your own site.

This by itself is a decent strategy. The quicker you comment on a new blog post, the more likely it is you’ll get some traffic to your blog.

Why?

Because many successful bloggers email their list after they publish a new post. If you are the first one to comment on a new blog post… then you’ll get to “ride the wave” of subscribers who visit that post.

But while this strategy works, I’ve found an even better way to generate traffic from blog comments.

Blog Comments as a Source of Traffic

Lest you think that commenting on blogs is a waste of time, let me share with you a little story.

A couple years ago, as I was researching new ways to drive traffic to my blog, I stumbled upon a simple idea. The idea was to find “do-follow” blogs that passed PageRank through their comment links.

In theory, by leaving comments on blogs like this (and perhaps even using your primary keyword phrase as your “name”), you could actually increase your search engine rankings.

In my case, the theory proved true. Here’s what I did.

First, I found a do-follow blog that had a post related to one of my posts. I then left a comment linking to a post on my site. I used the title of the post in the “name” field. In my comment, I referenced my post and said, “Click my name to read the post.”

This not only helped me get (and stay) ranked for that search phrase for years, it also sent a lot of traffic to my blog.

Not just hundreds of visitors.

Thousands.

In fact, this one blog comment has sent more traffic to my blog in the last year than any single guest post or web site other than Google, StumbleUpon, and Twitter.

In other words, this blog ranks #4 in terms of how much traffic it sends to my site.

And it was all because of one measly comment on one measly post.

Blogs that Rank Well Send Lots of Traffic

If you were to use this same strategy to drive traffic to your site, you’d want to do the following:

1. Search Google for a keyword phrase you’ve already written about in a blog post or article.

2. Go through the first page of search results to see if any of the sites are blogs.

3. If one of the sites is a blog, and comments are open, then leave a comment contributing to the conversation.

4. Do not link to your site’s home page in the URL field. Rather, link directly to the post or article that’s related to the one you’re commenting on.

5. Rather than typing your name into the name field, use your primary keyword phrase, or even the title of your post or article.

6. Finally, mention your related blog post or article in your comment and instruct readers to click your name if they’d like to read more.

While it’s no guarantee that your comment will produce thousands of visitors (or that it will even be published), there is a good chance you will get a steady stream of visitors to your site for weeks, months, and possibly years.

-Ryan M. Healy

Listen to This Blog Post:

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A Side of @HealyMonster

Ryan M. Healy — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:43:22 +0000

If you’ve been a reader for any length of time, you know that my blog here is the “main course,” so to speak.

In other words, this is where I share a lot of my controversial ideas, as well as tips, strategies, and techniques for writing sales copy, getting traffic, and growing business.

Now, I even have a regularly updated web site that is focused exclusively on the art of written persuasion: Copywriting Code

But there’s another outlet for those who want to know what I’m thinking and reading outside of copywriting, marketing, and business growth.

“A Side of @HealyMonster”

Today, as I was reading Terry Dean’s blog, I came across the post “Building Momentum in Your Life.”

In this post, Terry talks about the importance of routine and being productive even when you’re not in the mood to be productive.

But what made me chuckle was this paragraph toward the end of the article:

Instead of wanting to be the “overnight social media sensation,” just get involved. Setup your Twitter account. Subscribe to some great people like that wonderful @TerryDean or perhaps a little @BenSettle with a side of @healymonster.

My Tweets Are Not for Everybody

Obviously, if you’re on Twitter, I’d love to have you as a follower.

But based on Terry’s wording, I can only assume that this “HealyMonster” guy is an acquired taste, kind of like fine wine. ;-)

Seriously, though, my tweets are often like my blog posts; they’re polarizing because I’m not afraid to stir the pot (so to speak).

So if you can handle some contrarian, sometimes off-the-wall thoughts and ideas, join me on Twitter.

And don’t forget to follow Terry Dean and Ben Settle as well. They always share good stuff, and they’re not hyperactive so they’ll never monopolize your tweet stream.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. The name “Healy Monster” was an old wrestling nickname I resurrected when I discovered my name was already taken on Twitter. Just in case you were wondering…Similar Posts:

The Hazards of Social Media

Ryan M. Healy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:50:01 +0000

Bad news today. Social media is not the panacea the media has made it out to be. In fact, in many cases, it can do more harm than good.

So while I do like social media and get new blog readers from it, please allow me to share the three most common hazards of social media.

Hazard #1: Kiss Your Productivity Goodbye!

Between Facebook, Twitter, and StumbleUpon, it’s a wonder anybody gets any work done online these days. Employers know it, too. That’s why many of these sites are now blocked on work computers.

With social media, one thing leads to another.

You innocently drop in to update your status — then get sidetracked and follow dozens of interesting tidbits of information. Next thing you know, an hour of your time has vanished.

Poof! Just like that.

Hazard #2: Sacrificing True Friends for Imaginary Friends

Social media encourages dozens of casual encounters with people you don’t know every single day. It might feel like friendship, but somehow it’s not.

Unfortunately, social media has a tendency to keep people from investing in the true friendships they already have.

Instead of sitting down to coffee, social media junkies exchange one-liners with strangers — and then secretly wonder why they feel lonely.

Hazard #3: Becoming Intoxicated by Your Own Pseudo-Fame

Why is social media such a juggernaut in the 21st Century? Because with social media, all of a sudden everybody is a celebrity.

I may not know you from Adam, but if you have 20,000 followers, it’s going to look like you’re somebody (even if you aren’t).

That’s why I call it pseudo-fame. It’s a little like being famous, but far short of the real thing. (By the way, many famous people wish they weren’t famous. That should tell you something.)

A Better Way…

If you’re going to be investing time online, I suggest you do something that provides you with a monetary benefit — and not just a transient ego boost.

One of the most valuable skills you can learn is the skill of copywriting. That’s just a fancy way of explaining how to get people to buy through the written word.

And, if you think about it, words are what drive the economy of the Internet. Every sales letter, every sales video, every sales email is powered by persuasive words.

If you’d like to strengthen your copywriting skills, I highly recommend the work of Claude Hopkins, especially Scientific Advertising. You can get a copy on Amazon for $15 or so.

And, of course, you can also get my perspective on copywriting at Copywriting Code. Before you publish another tweet or status update, hurry on over and check it out now…

http://www.CopywritingCode.com

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Moonfruit Just Moonwalked All Over Michael Jackson

Ryan M. Healy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:05:52 +0000

It all started on July 1 when the topic #moonfruit started trending on Twitter. Within a matter of hours, “moonfruit” was more popular than Michael Jackson.

Naturally, people on Twitter started to notice. Tweets started showing up all over the place saying “WTF is #moonfruit?” After all, what could possibly be more popular than Michael Jackson the week of his death?

A Twitter Campaign with Staying Power

So here’s the scoop.

Moonfruit is a web design company. They decided to give away 10 MacBook Pros on Twitter, one a day for 10 days. And all you have to do to enter is tweet #moonfruit.

Turns out, the campaign caught on like wildfire, and #moonfruit has been the #1 trending topic on Twitter for 48 hours now. I don’t think I’ve EVER seen a topic trend that long in the #1 spot. Pretty amazing.

I’ve seen other guys run contests on Twitter, and they’re usually fairly successful. But usually there is only one prize, or the duration of the contest is hours instead of days. There’s some buzz, but it doesn’t last.

Two things Moonfruit has done differently:

Give away a high-value prize.
Give away 10 prizes.

This is what has made the campaign go viral. The campaign has created so much buzz that news of it is moving off Twitter and has been covered on popular sites like Mashable and Brand Republic.

As a direct response marketer, the key question I want to know is: Will Moonfruit be able to turn all this attention into new business?

How to Enter the Moonfruit Contest…

If you’re on Twitter, you too can tweet for a chance to win a MacBook Pro. Simply tweet this:

Celebrate 10 years of Moonfruit and win a MacBook Pro http://bit.ly/96bxC #moonfruit

Of course, you can tweet whatever you want, so long as you include the #moonfruit hash tag.

And, while you’re at it, you can follow me @healymonster.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Happy 4th of July! Enjoy the holiday weekend, and stay safe.

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