Who Are You and Why Are You Following Me?
Posted by Sandy Fitzgerald on Fri, Aug 28, 2009
When I was younger I used to have terrifying dreams that a stranger was following me.
Just a my
sterious stranger, lurking in the shadows, ready to jump off and whisk me away and make me do things against my will.
The stranger's back. He's called the mystery Twitter follower.
Anyone who has a Twitter account gets the messages every day. ToeJamMakesYouYounger! is following you. You go to your Twitter account and click on your account and there the stalker is.
10:02 a.m.: Buy some ToeJam. http://tinyurl./..
10:04 a.m.: Look at me! http://tinyurl./..
10:06 a.m.: I've got something for you! http:tinyurl...
Now that Twitter is out there for any random marketer to use as a new tool, these weird "followers' are lurking around all the hidden corners of your account. Where did marketing execs decide that this creepy method was great for selling items?
Yes, Twitter is great way to market your product. But lurking in the shadows, waiting to jump unsuspecting tweeters, is NOT the way to do it.
It's creepy.
Instead, use your Twitter account to spread your message and get people to follow it. Selling clock radios? How about tweeting what you have and letting people who want a clock radio follow you?
And instead of the creepy "who's watching me" messages, you can put up:
10:02 a.m.: Clock radios, $4.95! http://tinyurl./..
10:04 a.m.: Know what time it is? Time to buy a clock radio!
Seed your tweets with enough SEO friendly words, they'll stand out, reach out to those looking for your items and there you go! You've marketed yourself in 140 characters or fewer without sneaking your way into a total stranger's account.
And you won't end up in some tinyurl somewhere with the rest of the losers who decided to follow total strangers and who were blocked, never to content market again (honestly, though, isn't the term tinyurl creepy in itself?)