I am Twittering and not totally sure why yet but I am taking advice. But first of all let me explain how this has come about.
I am totally changing things around here. I am absolutely fed up to the back teeth with all the hypey, must have 5 minute wonders that pass as major ground breaking product launches.
My e-mails are swamped with messages from the same spammy IM characters – who have a friend, who has made pots of money, and is now launching the secrets of how that was all achieved etc etc etc etc etc etc.
Scream!!!!
I actually bought into some of that hype in the past.
So decision time. Who are to be my mentors? – who do I respect the opinion of?
Well my shortlist is: Rosalind Gardner, Anik Singal, Armand Morin, John Reese, Mark Hendricks, Gina Gaudia-Grave, Mike Filsaime and now Ed Dale. The only other mentor I need is a copywriter and I haven’t decided there yet. This list doesn’t mean that there are no other good marketers worth noting but you have to make choices or drown.
That means I can clear 80% of my e-mail traffic and hopefully more as most of my selected advisor gurus have blogs – much preferred.
And some of them are Twittering – which is where I came in.
I had looked at Twitter some time ago and although I had began to embrace all the Web 2.0 social bookmarking and networking scene I just didn’t get where twitter fitted in.
I simply didn’t get it.
Then I received this e-mail from one of my aforementioned mentors John Reese. I was really pleased to find that I was not alone in failing to see the point. I repeat it here in full.
Let me start by saying…
“It’s not my fault.” 
Who’s fault is it then?
It’s all Ed Dale’s fault.
Let me explain…
Ed’s a really good friend of
mine. For the past several
months he’s been telling me
about something and basically
saying…
“John, you’re an idiot for not
using it.”
Of course, he said that in a
‘loving’ tone.
But I resisted.
And resisted.
And then resisted some more.
Yet month after month, Ed
kept showing me how this ‘thing’
was bringing him more and
more traffic AND sales.
(Affiliate commissions too!)
BIG TIME.
I’m talking about TWITTER.
You’ve probably heard of it.
It’s a ‘micro-blogging’ platform
where users post short updates
about what they’re up to, currently
reading on the Web, etc.
And you can do it all from
a cellphone. In fact, that’s how it
was started — as a mini-blogging
tool that worked entirely via SMS.
But during the past year, Twitter
has been on a meteoric rise. More
and more people are using it. And
many BUSINESSES are starting
to use it.
It’s a great networking tool AND
a great communications device.
I resisted using Twitter because
frankly “I just didn’t get it.”
It just seemed like a bunch of
back and forth “chat” between
people. And my initial thinking
was, “I don’t have time for that.”
But then Ed kept hammering away
at me. Trying to convince me that
there was really more to it if you
truly understood how the ‘sub-culture’
of Twitter worked.
Ed recently showed me some
fascinating traffic stats and explained
exactly how it worked for his marketing.
And it finally hit me.
It was a definite “Ah-Ha” moment.
If Twitter is used properly, it’s an
incredibly POWERFUL traffic generation
and relationship-building tool.
In fact, it will be really interesting
to see ‘where’ Twitter goes. For example,
many are saying that Twitter is becoming
a new SEARCH ENGINE.
Because Twitter posts happen so fast
(i.e. someone could witness an
event and instantly post about it from
their phone) it’s becoming a valuable
source for REAL-TIME information.
Twitter is also becoming a powerful
“crowd-sourcing” tool.
Someone can post to Twitter and
ask “what’s the best digital camera
for under $400?” and in a matter
of MINUTES have tons of replies
from other people.
This is extremely powerful.
Let’s face it, marketing is becoming
more and more TRANSPARENT.
In other words, those that will thrive
in the game of marketing (i.e. make
the most money) will be the ones
with a closer connection to their
customers and their market.
By now you probably know that the
more ‘touches’ you have with a customer
the more likely they will BUY from you.
This is an old school direct marketing
principle. It’s the reason why sending
multiple “follow-ups” in a marketing
process produces more sales — because
many won’t buy from the initial communication.
Facebook, Twitter, blog discussions,
and many of these other ‘communications’
devices work the same way — but probably
BETTER. There’s a tighter relationship
using this technology. Things happen
in real-time and are definitely MORE PERSONAL.
Just as I recently embraced Facebook
for my personal use (even, though, I’ve
been using it with clients for almost two
years) I am going to be embracing these
other tools like Twitter and having a more
personal touch with my students — I know
they want it, and now I just have to give
in to the resistance and let them have it. 
* There are ways you can use these
“Web 2.0″ tools and still maintain whatever
level of privacy that you desire. So don’t
let it scare you from using it for your business.
Are You Already On Twitter?
Now I quickly realised when I went to join twitter yesterday that I needed advice and who better to go to than the guy who had persuaded John Reese to get involved – namely Ed Dale.
I watched a couple of really helpful video by Ed basically introducing some useful tools. And I found myself looking at his 30 Day Challenge mentioned in the video. Terrific free course by the way. What a guy!
NOW THIS IS THE ONE THAT GOT ME
Do you know what – I tested his claim made in the video that through using www.quotably.com he could keep a handle on what was going on and further that if anyone used @ed_dale via twitter he would answer. I asked a question and sure enough the reply was there within minutes.
Now I am going to twitter that I have posted this blog and it has got Ed Dale in the title – let’s see if he sees how grateful I am for his splendid help for newcomers to twitter.
See me on my twitter at http://twitter.com/keithwatson/
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