Building a Following and Developing Relationships on Twitter

[sherminator]

Elon Musk's reputation as a business builder is encouraging, but I would be concerned that sometimes he is like a loose cannon, and might change direction very suddenly.

Should that happen, a lot of work put into building a presence on Twitter could vanish.

Walter

I respectfully disagree. I think Musk's presence, after he removes the bots and censors, will make Twitter a much more stable platform. I mean, there's a reason why he's the richest guy in the world.

Any ANY TIME you rely on another platform, or SaaS, or supplier, for your business, you're on shaky ground. Unless you create and own the software yourself, it's always thin ice.

Case in point: a few years ago, our agency used a reputation management SaaS to help our clients get reviews. It was too good to be true - $199/mo for up to 50 accounts. After a couple hundred accounts, the developer sold the project for megabucks and the new owners turned it into $hiite. We had to scramble to find a replacement, which we never did, at a similar pricepoint.

Another example: There was a video creation app (Vidnami) that allowed me to crank out short videos for client SEO and quickly syndicate them for massive traffic gains. One day, they announced they were selling to GoDaddy. In 60 days, they were gone.

I'm going to jump back into Twitter with both feet, now that they're going to run their business like adults.

The RIGHT way to do social media is to make the contact / get the lead and quickly move them to your own email list, forum (like this one), or website that you own/control.

I just had another thought - if the cancel bots decide they don't like you, they'll find a way to cancel you. Remember Parler? Amazon pulled the rug out from under their AWS hosting because they didn't like the content.

 

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[MTF]

Have you thought about using Jarvee or MassPlanner (I can't remember what it's called now, they changed the name), but you can have a bot that runs a script which auto-follows and can auto-message followers of your competitor, or of another page which has people you think may likely be interested in your page.

It has a TON of features so you can choose to only follow people who have posted within the last X days, or have above Y tweets, or have a following to follower ratio of Z amount etc.

I don't like spammy solutions. I'd rather have fewer followers but have some real connections than auto-follow random people.

 

[MTF]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1522918526520070144

View: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1522918526520070144


Loved Elon's tweet in response:

Also, work ethic expectations would be extreme, but much less than I demand of myself.

 

[Andy Black]

@MTF

When you post a book-review thread, do you then run ads to get the thread in front of people who follow the book author?

 

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[MTF]

@MTF

When you post a book-review thread, do you then run ads to get the thread in front of people who follow the book author?

Yes. I choose them in the "Follower look-alikes." (I hope that's how you target someone's followers as I didn't see any other option.)

 

[MTF]

Don't use Twitter ads. They're extremely expensive and produce terrible results.

As for the follower campaigns, many of the followers the ads bring look like bots and/or people who don't fit the criteria you used in the targeting settings.

The engagement ads aren't much greater, either. You get some likes (that nobody sees) and maybe a few retweets (that nobody sees either). You get almost zero followers from engagement ads, as if they were created in such a way as to not generate any interest in following your profile.

I feel a bit stupid wasting a few hundred bucks on Twitter Ads but I guess that's the cost of experimenting with new stuff.

We'll see how it goes organically but I can yet again confirm one thing: F*ck I hate social media.

 

[Andy Black]

Don't use Twitter ads. They're extremely expensive and produce terrible results.

As for the follower campaigns, many of the followers the ads bring look like bots and/or people who don't fit the criteria you used in the targeting settings.

The engagement ads aren't much greater, either. You get some likes (that nobody sees) and maybe a few retweets (that nobody sees either). You get almost zero followers from engagement ads, as if they were created in such a way as to not generate any interest in following your profile.

I feel a bit stupid wasting a few hundred bucks on Twitter Ads but I guess that's the cost of experimenting with new stuff.

We'll see how it goes organically but I can yet again confirm one thing: F*ck I hate social media.

Something I didn’t try was to use a card (I think that’s what they’re called), where people click, get sent to your landing page and where they can signup. I guess that with conversion tracking in place you could run ads where you pay for conversions (signups)? Have you tried those?

 

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[MTF]

Something I didn’t try was to use a card (I think that’s what they’re called), where people click, get sent to your landing page and where they can signup. I guess that with conversion tracking in place you could run ads where you pay for conversions (signups)? Have you tried those?

I tried regular website traffic ones and they sucked like every other type of ad. I don't see any card ads.

 

[Andy Black]

I tried regular website traffic ones and they sucked like every other type of ad. I don't see any card ads.

I’m maybe getting confused with YouTube Ads (which I’ve not much experience with either).

Can you configure it that you pay per conversion? And a conversion is an actual signup?

 

[MTF]

I’m maybe getting confused with YouTube Ads (which I’ve not much experience with either).

Can you configure it that you pay per conversion? And a conversion is an actual signup?

They don't offer conversion ads. The best you can do is pay per click. Or if you have an app, you can pay per install.

 

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[Andy Black]

I know someone who said Twitter Ads worked great for getting new subscribers to his podcast.

 

[MTF]

My thoughts on Twitter so far, reposted from another thread:

In an effort to question my beliefs, I recently started testing Twitter. So far, my opinion of social media hasn't changed.

Here are my thoughts on Twitter so far:

• It feels a little like a weird networking event where you pretend not to be there to get something in return yet you clearly do. It feels sleazy.
• You can easily reply to other people's tweets but usually they won't reply back, even if they're a small account. It looks like many people on Twitter like to talk AT people but not WITH people.
• So many gurus and people who pretend they know all the secrets of life. A forceful, I-know-it-all tone is so prevalent on Twitter and so annoying.
• Some seriously f*cked up communities with toxic, completely insane views they treat like gospel (like masculinity).
• A lot of very popular profiles tweeting cheap self-help platitudes. I wonder why so many people find shit like "The opposite of love is not hate but indifference" so insightful.
• A lot of bots or scammy crypto accounts.
• I feel like an idiot after spending a few hundred dollars on Twitter Ads and getting so little in return. But like I said, I'm trying to question my beliefs and trying to give it a fair chance.
• During the day, I find myself trying to come up with an idea for a tweet. I don't like this feeling AT ALL.
• I check Twitter way too often to find tweets to reply to hoping I'll get some exposure. I don't like this feeling, either. Feels like begging like a needy loser.

All in all, after just a few days of using Twitter I'm NOT a fan. I'm trying to approach it as a relationship-building tool but I don't think I'm cool enough to join that party. Still giving it a go but my motivation to keep doing it dropped pretty much overnight to zero. My patience is running out super fast with social media.

 

[Andy Black]

My thoughts on Twitter so far, reposted from another thread:

In an effort to question my beliefs, I recently started testing Twitter. So far, my opinion of social media hasn't changed.

Here are my thoughts on Twitter so far:

• It feels a little like a weird networking event where you pretend not to be there to get something in return yet you clearly do. It feels sleazy.
• You can easily reply to other people's tweets but usually they won't reply back, even if they're a small account. It looks like many people on Twitter like to talk AT people but not WITH people.
• So many gurus and people who pretend they know all the secrets of life. A forceful, I-know-it-all tone is so prevalent on Twitter and so annoying.
• Some seriously f*cked up communities with toxic, completely insane views they treat like gospel (like masculinity).
• A lot of very popular profiles tweeting cheap self-help platitudes. I wonder why so many people find shit like "The opposite of love is not hate but indifference" so insightful.
• A lot of bots or scammy crypto accounts.
• I feel like an idiot after spending a few hundred dollars on Twitter Ads and getting so little in return. But like I said, I'm trying to question my beliefs and trying to give it a fair chance.
• During the day, I find myself trying to come up with an idea for a tweet. I don't like this feeling AT ALL.
• I check Twitter way too often to find tweets to reply to hoping I'll get some exposure. I don't like this feeling, either. Feels like begging like a needy loser.

All in all, after just a few days of using Twitter I'm NOT a fan. I'm trying to approach it as a relationship-building tool but I don't think I'm cool enough to join that party. Still giving it a go but my motivation to keep doing it dropped pretty much overnight to zero. My patience is running out super fast with social media.

Damn. Took me a few months to get to where you’ve got to already.

 

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[MTF]

Damn. Took me a few months to get to where you’ve got to already.

Lol that's funny. I really wanted to give it a go but I don't think I can stand it any longer.

The amount of idiotic tweets and annoying people is just too much. I don't feel good spending time there.

I guess that when you spend more time on Twitter you cease to see it, sort of like you don't see the ridiculousness of TV until you stop watching it (I haven't watched TV in decades and when I see it I can't believe how idiotic it is). But as a guy new to Twitter, I just can't stand this "look at me, I'm a cool guy" type of a vibe. Makes me remember my traumatic school days.

 

[redshift]

My thoughts on Twitter so far, reposted from another thread:

In an effort to question my beliefs, I recently started testing Twitter. So far, my opinion of social media hasn't changed.

Here are my thoughts on Twitter so far:

• It feels a little like a weird networking event where you pretend not to be there to get something in return yet you clearly do. It feels sleazy.
• You can easily reply to other people's tweets but usually they won't reply back, even if they're a small account. It looks like many people on Twitter like to talk AT people but not WITH people.
• So many gurus and people who pretend they know all the secrets of life. A forceful, I-know-it-all tone is so prevalent on Twitter and so annoying.
• Some seriously f*cked up communities with toxic, completely insane views they treat like gospel (like masculinity).
• A lot of very popular profiles tweeting cheap self-help platitudes. I wonder why so many people find shit like "The opposite of love is not hate but indifference" so insightful.
• A lot of bots or scammy crypto accounts.
• I feel like an idiot after spending a few hundred dollars on Twitter Ads and getting so little in return. But like I said, I'm trying to question my beliefs and trying to give it a fair chance.
• During the day, I find myself trying to come up with an idea for a tweet. I don't like this feeling AT ALL.
• I check Twitter way too often to find tweets to reply to hoping I'll get some exposure. I don't like this feeling, either. Feels like begging like a needy loser.

All in all, after just a few days of using Twitter I'm NOT a fan. I'm trying to approach it as a relationship-building tool but I don't think I'm cool enough to join that party. Still giving it a go but my motivation to keep doing it dropped pretty much overnight to zero. My patience is running out super fast with social media.

I had the same observations. The amount of noise+junk on Twitter is just insane. Some of my notes -

1) The way to use social media in your business while staying sane is to remain a producer and not get sucked into actually using the product. It's easy to do this on Instagram by not following anyone but twitter likes to shove random tweets and news down your throat.

It does however have a pretty decent 3rd party integration. If you want to continue using the platform I suggest using something like typefully. This way you can create content and drive traffic (via hashtags + mentions) without ever logging into twitter. Much better fit for writers and anybody who doesn't want to read all the endless junk being posted there.

2) In terms of Twitter ads, I've found the audience lookalike doesn't actually work and never gets any results (similar to what you found). It works on Facebook but twitter seems to be more like google ads where you have to give it keywords. I found much better results using keywords (+ the suggested ones) instead of relying on the custom audiences directly (you can mix in both).

Also, you don't want to blast a high budget on a single Ad campaign. Start with smaller budgets to get a good idea of the results before increasing the budget. If the ad is not performing, you'll just be burning cash. I start with $5 / day max when testing a new campaign and then increase it based on the results. You can also A/B test a bunch of ads with small budgets and then go all-in on the one which produces the best results.

3) Since you mentioned IG being a better fit with your target audience, but not working with your preference of being a writer. I would suggest keeping it simple and creating text cards on canva. You don't need any fancy visuals. Many big accounts just post text presented in a visual manner. Here is an example (took a couple of mins using the canva "Instagram post" template and some content from your website).



You can just duplicate the page and create a few more of these. 9 is the minimum recommended for a new account to fill the grid and then run IG ads to target your audience. FB targeting is miles ahead of twitter and actually produces results.

Again, start with a small budget, A/B test, and then accelerate.

 

[Andy Black]

I had the same observations. The amount of noise+junk on Twitter is just insane. Some of my notes -

1) The way to use social media in your business while staying sane is to remain a producer and not get sucked into actually using the product. It's easy to do this on Instagram by not following anyone but twitter likes to shove random tweets and news down your throat.

It does however have a pretty decent 3rd party integration. If you want to continue using the platform I suggest using something like typefully. This way you can create content and drive traffic (via hashtags + mentions) without ever logging into twitter. Much better fit for writers and anybody who doesn't want to read all the endless junk being posted there.

2) In terms of Twitter ads, I've found the audience lookalike doesn't actually work and never gets any results (similar to what you found). It works on Facebook but twitter seems to be more like google ads where you have to give it keywords. I found much better results using keywords (+ the suggested ones) instead of relying on the custom audiences directly (you can mix in both).

Also, you don't want to blast a high budget on a single Ad campaign. Start with smaller budgets to get a good idea of the results before increasing the budget. If the ad is not performing, you'll just be burning cash. I start with $5 / day max when testing a new campaign and then increase it based on the results. You can also A/B test a bunch of ads with small budgets and then go all-in on the one which produces the best results.

3) Since you mentioned IG being a better fit with your target audience, but not working with your preference of being a writer. I would suggest keeping it simple and creating text cards on canva. You don't need any fancy visuals. Many big accounts just post text presented in a visual manner. Here is an example (took a couple of mins using the canva "Instagram post" template and some content from your website).

View attachment 43380

You can just duplicate the page and create a few more of these. 9 is the minimum recommended for a new account to fill the grid and then run IG ads to target your audience. FB targeting is miles ahead of twitter and actually produces results.

Again, start with a small budget, A/B test, and then accelerate.

Ha. It says something when the advice is not to login.

 

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[MTF]

I had the same observations. The amount of noise+junk on Twitter is just insane. Some of my notes -

1) The way to use social media in your business while staying sane is to remain a producer and not get sucked into actually using the product. It's easy to do this on Instagram by not following anyone but twitter likes to shove random tweets and news down your throat.

It does however have a pretty decent 3rd party integration. If you want to continue using the platform I suggest using something like typefully. This way you can create content and drive traffic (via hashtags + mentions) without ever logging into twitter. Much better fit for writers and anybody who doesn't want to read all the endless junk being posted there.

2) In terms of Twitter ads, I've found the audience lookalike doesn't actually work and never gets any results (similar to what you found). It works on Facebook but twitter seems to be more like google ads where you have to give it keywords. I found much better results using keywords (+ the suggested ones) instead of relying on the custom audiences directly (you can mix in both).

Also, you don't want to blast a high budget on a single Ad campaign. Start with smaller budgets to get a good idea of the results before increasing the budget. If the ad is not performing, you'll just be burning cash. I start with $5 / day max when testing a new campaign and then increase it based on the results. You can also A/B test a bunch of ads with small budgets and then go all-in on the one which produces the best results.

3) Since you mentioned IG being a better fit with your target audience, but not working with your preference of being a writer. I would suggest keeping it simple and creating text cards on canva. You don't need any fancy visuals. Many big accounts just post text presented in a visual manner. Here is an example (took a couple of mins using the canva "Instagram post" template and some content from your website).

View attachment 43380

You can just duplicate the page and create a few more of these. 9 is the minimum recommended for a new account to fill the grid and then run IG ads to target your audience. FB targeting is miles ahead of twitter and actually produces results.

Again, start with a small budget, A/B test, and then accelerate.

Thanks for this valuable advice. I appreciate it.

So you advise to use Instagram for running ads? I thought about organic growth as now I'm not sure if it makes sense to invest in ads if I have nothing to sell.

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks for this valuable advice. I appreciate it.

So you advise to use Instagram for running ads? I thought about organic growth as now I'm not sure if it makes sense to invest in ads if I have nothing to sell.

Ads can bring followers and signups. They can also help you learn what works and doesn’t (content wise when coupled with targeting).

Rachel Miller has good content about organic growth on Facebook (and possibly Instagram). Not that I tried it, but it makes a lot of sense.

 

[MTF]

Ads can bring followers and signups. They can also help you learn what works and doesn’t (content wise when coupled with targeting).

Rachel Miller has good content about organic growth on Facebook (and possibly Instagram). Not that I tried it, but it makes a lot of sense.

The ads I've run so far were extremely expensive. I can't spend $20-30 per subscriber. Even $5 per subscriber is too much considering I have no idea if I'll ever create a product expensive enough to recoup this investment.

 

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[Andy Black]

The ads I've run so far were extremely expensive. I can't spend $20-30 per subscriber. Even $5 per subscriber is too much considering I have no idea if I'll ever create a product expensive enough to recoup this investment.

It’s a case of testing testing testing. Keep dialling it in and/or fail fast.

Not saying Twitter is the right channel or not. Just that this is normal when running ads. You figure it out as you go along.

 

[MTF]

It’s a case of testing testing testing. Keep dialling it in and/or fail fast.

Not saying Twitter is the right channel or not. Just that this is normal when running ads. You figure it out as you go along.

Have you ever run ads for a client who doesn't have anything to sell or was it always straight to a sales page of some kind?

 

[Andy Black]

Have you ever run ads for a client who doesn't have anything to sell or was it always straight to a sales page of some kind?

Sometimes I’ve run Google Ads for people/businesses who are still trying to figure out what to sell. The initial goal being to find out what targeting-ad combinations work. This gives an indication what offer should be on the landing page.

I’ve run Google Ads to get email signups too. We managed to get 15k signups a day for a startup about a decade ago - with a very simple landing page.

 

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[redshift]

Thanks for this valuable advice. I appreciate it.

So you advise to use Instagram for running ads? I thought about organic growth as now I'm not sure if it makes sense to invest in ads if I have nothing to sell.

I would always choose organic growth first. But, if you are running ads anyway, you'll get much better results on IG (especially since you said that's where your audience is). They also have A/B testing built-in to the platform. Takes a little effort to learn, but it's fun after a while.

In your case, maybe just add some platform share buttons (TW,IG,FB etc) and gently encourage readers to share at the end of your emails/web posts to make them easier to spread organically. This way you can focus on the content and have your users do the marketing for you. Isn't that what a productocracy is after all ?

 

[MTF]

3) Since you mentioned IG being a better fit with your target audience, but not working with your preference of being a writer. I would suggest keeping it simple and creating text cards on canva. You don't need any fancy visuals. Many big accounts just post text presented in a visual manner. Here is an example (took a couple of mins using the canva "Instagram post" template and some content from your website).

I followed your advice and started posting on Instagram with carousel posts with the key takeaways from my articles.

Thank you for your suggestion. It's cool to see that so far most of the authors of the books I covered liked or even commented on my articles. It's definitely way easier to get on their radar than on Twitter (where few are as active).

 

[Eyeswideopen]

I followed your advice and started posting on Instagram with carousel posts with the key takeaways from my articles.

Thank you for your suggestion. It's cool to see that so far most of the authors of the books I covered liked or even commented on my articles. It's definitely way easier to get on their radar than on Twitter (where few are as active).

instagram reels also have much more reach as the platform is heading to a video site. You can also create reels on canva and dont need fancy videos.

 

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[MTF]

instagram reels also have much more reach as the platform is heading to a video site. You can also create reels on canva and dont need fancy videos.

Thanks, I'll look into it.

 

[Andy Black]

Do you want the thread title changed @MTF?

 

[MTF]

Do you want the thread title changed @MTF?

Maybe I'll start a separate thread on Instagram. It'll be confusing to change the title of this thread now considering all the posts until now were about Twitter.

 

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[Timmy C]

Good luck with it, but looks like your almost over it!

I Hate twitter as a producer. I spent 6 months and built a following of 4000 people.

Was a complete waste of my time, and I ended up deleting the account I built I hated it that much.

Some can make it work well for themselves, but it's much harder now to succeed on the platform than it was a couple years ago.

Not only was it a waste of time when I tried to use any social media for business, it also left me with a social media addiction.

Lovely lol.

 

[MTF]

Good luck with it, but looks like your almost over it!

I'm not going to use Twitter anymore.

It's not used by my audience anyway. When I let them know I was on Twitter I got like 2 followers. When I let them know yesterday I'm on Instagram I've gained 27 new followers already.

I also find Instagram way more positive and way easier to produce content for without consuming it.

On Twitter there are often dozens of tweets a day from a single person. On Instagram there's much less noise, no politics (or at least no politics in your face like on Twitter), and it's very easy not to pay any attention to it (unlike with Twitter). I create my stuff, post it, respond to any comments and leave it at that.