Why Panhandlers Get Better ROI Than Twitter List Builders

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I recently wrote a post on Social Media ROI (Return On Investment).

Well, shortly after the post was published, I received the following feedback from one of my readers:

“I find that it is not a good ROI. I have to get on Facebook, Twitter, forums, blogs, etc. It’s very time consuming? And what do I get back? A few friends maybe and some followers. My husband is a successful internet marketer and he says he doesn’t work that much, but trust me, he does. It’s hours and hours of consistent socializing, making technical videos, articles or simply educating yourself.

Then I asked him, do you think I would be able to make at least $10K/year with a blog that I can market things with? He laughed, he says that is a lot of money to make in the first year if you’re just starting out and you have to work your butt off on top of it! I said, I would probably rather be a beggar, because that is a sure ROI.”

This comment really hit home for me. Not too long ago, I was asking myself the same questions.

1. So, what’s the point of social media traffic generation?

Before we even get into the discussion, let me say this: “The Jack of all trades is master of none.”

Don’t stretch yourself thin going in too many directions at a time. The proper way to learn proper marketing and actually succeed with it is to limit your focus to one thing at a time.

Become an expert in it.

Figure out how to make it work for you. Get it to the point where you start generating a good amount of social media traffic with it and you are so good that it doesn’t involve much of your time to keep going.

With that said, my recent social media traffic generation focus was Twitter.

Why?

It’s everywhere. From internet to magazines to books. It truly became the recent craze and, dare I say, it’s here to stay.

Maybe you can relate to what I was thinking of Twitter just a couple of short months ago:

“Twitter is short for Time Waster”

or

“Twitter is just not a business tool”

or

“I joined Twitter and I just don’t get it”

I talk to many online business owners on a daily basis and this is exactly what I hear from them, especially the last part.

So, what typically happens is that they open an account, make a few friends, and then sit around and wait for the manna to start falling from heaven.

“Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men & women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” ~Conrad Hilton

From marketing perspective, Twitter = Social Media Traffic Generation Heaven = List Building, plain and simple.

It’s been said that “The money is in the list”. I tell you that the money is actually in YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THAT LIST.

Done properly, your Twitter follower list can potentially be even more responsive than your email list. What a dream of every marketer – to have people actually listen to what you have to say!

By the way, Facebook is my second social media network of choice. I won’t go into it in this post, but you can get more Facebook advertising tips at this link.

2. Why is it so difficult to be heard on Twitter?

Obviously, there is the right and the wrong way to go about using it for your social media traffic generation.

Here are some of the direct messages I get. To be more precise, most of the direct messages sound like that:

“RIDE THE WAVE OF SUCCESS…BE YOUR OWN BOSS Link”

“Hi there and thanks 4 following my tweets.I guess you will find way to use 1-3K$ on Autopilot Link”

“Learn how to make money online with cell phones-coaching from a pro-less than $25! Link”

“Do take a sec to look at my Web Programming articles. Click on a few links while you’re there Link.”

No wonder it’s hard to be heard above all that noise!

But if you think about, there is an opportunity there for you to stand out.

Value without sales is a hot commodity on Twitter. Give without asking for anything in return is the key ingredient to your social media traffic generation.

Learn that and you will go from Twitter underdog to wonderdog in no time.

3. Twitter is very time-consuming.

It absolutely can be. Here’s how I go about it.

First, you need a plan. My plan is to spend about an hour per day, spread out in 15-20 minute increments.

Daily Process For My Twitter Account:

(many thanks to Harris Fellman of Coup De Twitter for helping me to make sense of my schedule)

1. Read your @mentions and reply to all of them.
2. Post a favorite quotation, recent news link, or just basic info (this can be from online or offline resources) HINT: Go to http://alerts.google.com and set up some alerts for your interests to be automatically sent to your inbox.
3. Scan your own timeline & look for conversations to jump into.
4. Go to http://search.twitter.com, search for topics of interest to you, and get into a few conversations there as well. While you’re there, go ahead and search for your own name and/or company name to see if anyone is talking about you
5. Check your direct messages (DMs) and reply to them as well.
6. Repeat this at least 3 times a day.

Use services to automate some of the tedious Twitter tasks!

In order to find people who are in your niche and who share your interests, check out Twellow.com, Twibes.com, and MrTweet.com. All you do is type in your keyword and you’ll get lists of potential followers.

Your best bet is to find people in your niche with 2,000 to 10,000 followers. Then you want to not only follow them, but follow their followers as well.

Don’t be in too much rush though; stick with adding 300-500 people per day.

By the way, you don’t have to do that by hand either. I did it in the beginning of my Twitter career and believe me – talk about time-consuming!

If you want to automate the process, which I highly recommend you do, you have 2 options: outsource to a virtual assistant or get a software that does this as well.

I’ve done a lot of research on this kind of software and my personal pick is “Tweet Adder”. It works on both Mac and PC, it’s only $50 and does everything and more than software 4 times its price.

Obviously, there is a lot more to the Twitter traffic generation process than just following people.

You need to know how to engage, what to say, when and how to sell. I will definitely be making more post on Twitter (since I am obsessed with studying and using it right now, might as well).

However, if you are dying to learn social media traffic generation with Twitter in detail, I highly recommend Harris Fellman’s social media income system titled “Coup De Twitter”. I’ve learned most of what I know about Twitter from him. There’s a free video for you there with no sign-up required to watch (it’s a bit lengthy, but fun and well-worth it).

Last thing: if you have questions for me, look me up on Twitter @WebTrafficCafe – I look forward to seeing you there.

You are right: you don’t have to comment or retweet, but would it help if I told you it would be much appreciated?

PS For more no-nonsense traffic generation and conversion tips from Ana, fill out this short spam-free form:

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