So I’ve been experimenting with Twitter over the past couple of weeks with a few simple objectives. First, (1) I wanted to expand my network to topical and classifiable tweeps within certain demographics and try to keep up with a broader network. Next, (2) I wanted to test the level of engagement I could muster from said followers. Here’s how it has worked out.
Objective 1:
I googled around for Twitter directories and found a host of them. I was looking primarily at engaging marketing and advertising people (admittedly early adopters) as well as local and regional tweeps. Any overlap would be a definitive bonus. I found sites like Twibs (http://twibs.com/) where I could follow businesses as well as sites like Twellow (http://www.twellow.com/ ) and TwitDir (http://twitdir.com/ currently offline) to both post my existence and find others to follow. I really figured that my ratio of following versus followers would be a bit skewed due to lack of engagement on the part of those I was following to refollow but was pleasantly surprised. Utilizing these tools and those suggested by my tweeps I grew my network to currently 90 followers following only 151. It seems that everyone truly wants this medium to succeed. I registered with Twitter Counter (http://twittercounter.com/) to keep track of my growth and here’s what it looks like today with very little effort put forth. You can view my network here. (http://www.twitter.com/jaythornton000).
Level of engagement was tricky at first. I would post questions and polls to get responses to relatively no avail. Baring a couple of people, I had very little response even to direct messaging. Then I started posting site updates to Twitter. Now the changes showed. The old adage that people like to surf proves true. Every time I make a change to my site(redesign, added links, and other updates) and post it on twitter, my viewership on that day jumps upwards of 70%. Granted my personal site doesn’t have much content and doesn’t get that much traffic to speak of, this is still a fairly impressive hop for posting 140 characters or less and brings infinitely more referral traffic that this blog has ever done.
Basically, I’m sold. Twitter is a viable marketing tool to even non-business sites. Maintaining a broader network isn’t as time consuming as one might think and tools are popping up every day to help with that. Try out Tweet Deck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/ )for one. Now I’ve got to apply what I’m learning to other industries and see how it goes.
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