Can Tweeting be bad for your business health?
Everyone always makes fun of Stupid Tweets like “Eating a BLT yum yum”… but what about those Tweets sent by consignment and resale shops to their (presumably) customers? Some just leave me scratching my head.
Gently worn items added this week. Great deals especially if you can get yellow spots out of clothes.
She could at least have offered a free stain removal brochure with every purchase.
Then, the Tweets where the author forgot to pay attention to the 140-character limit, with odd results:
Mark your calendars ladies! Girls Night Out is back! Join us on Thursday, March 16th from 6 – 8pm for FREE eyebrow…
What? You’re only giving away ONE free eyebrow?
Then there’s the Tweet that is seemingly DESIGNED to cut down on those annoying shopper visits:
Downtown needs some more security. I was followed today to the parking lot.
(Think her Twitter account was hacked by a competitor?)
Then there’s Tweets which should have been removed…links which no longer work, past sales event notices, and the like. Why are they still there? You really want to tell folks that they MISSED Monday’s 45% off sale?
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Good tip. I never thought of removing older tweets.
My hubby (Robert) helps small business owners like us with internet marketing and I told him about Kate’s post so he thought the info below may be of interest to us shop owners. The guy that wrote the post is apparently an internet guru named John Reese. So here you go….[Note: the following has been edited for brevity by Kate}
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I do think [Twitter is] not the marketing channel that many believe it to be. The concept behind Twitter is a strong one. The
marketing and relationship opportunities (at least on paper) look fantastic.
There’s only one problem that no one seems to ever talk about…
Many tweets are never even seen by people “following” that person.
Either their Twitter stream is too full with the posts of other users they
follow, or they don’t login often enough to catch tweets before they get pushed “down the list.”
I do think Twitter can be an effective SYNDICATION channel to auto-post links to your new blog posts or other activity. Even if just a small percentage of people following you catch those
URLs and you get ‘some’ traffic it can be worth it — especially if you
automate the posting like many are doing. [Note from Kate: that means, use Twitter to point to your other channels of communication such as your blog or FB or web site]
But, overall, I personally feel that Twitter is a time and focus vampire.
The ROI from Twitter just isn’t worth the time many people put
into it.
I would like to make this CHALLENGE to you…
If you’re using Twitter much at all, stop using Twitter for one week. Don’t login or check your account or stream or anything.
Spend the next week using the time you would use on Twitter to setup some new PPC campaigns, test some Facebook Ads, write some articles or blog posts, or make an offer to your email list. [Kate’s emphasis]
I guarantee you that you will make far more money during this week not using Twitter than if you were still spending your time on it. And that’s the point.
Social Media has in many ways become ONE BIG EGO COMPETITION.
People feel important because they have “x” number of followers on Twitter or friends on this site or connections on another.
It’s human nature to WANT TO BE HEARD. Everyone wants to contribute and have people listen to them. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The problem with Social Media is that too many people are getting caught up in it (at least when it comes to business)
and are losing touch with WHY they feel they are using it in the first place — to make more money.
…when it comes to business, and for making money, it’s about the FUNDAMENTALthings that make business (especially online) work…
– Serving a target market.
– Providing value to that market to
solve their problems.
– Lead generation.
– Building a list of prospects and
customers in that market so you can
follow-up, strengthen your relationship
with them, and also make offers that
generate revenue for you.
That’s it. That’s what generates millions of dollars.
Now Social Media certainly can fall into some of those areas. But for every minute you spend on using one site
or tactic, you’re taking away from using something else. [Kate’s emphasis] So you need to make sure you keep ROI in mind.
What I am saying is that many aspects
of Social Media are completely overrated
and time would be better spent on other
areas of marketing — depending on the
business, of course.
The Ego game can be fun for many and make people feel good (at least
temporarily) but it’s not going to pay the electric bill.
Something for you to really think about.
Yours For Online Profits, John Reese