The Twitter Challenge

...and similar social platforms!

This post is for those who utilize social media for lead and/or revenue generation. Not for those, such as myself, who simply utilize the platform for shared learning.

In a B2B business arena, where our marketing efforts are designed to inevitably lead to profitable revenue generation, is our fixation on social media somewhat paradoxical. Shouldn't our efforts produce more than what they cost? For some, the very few, their social media efforts are richly rewarded. But for the large majority the opposite is true. Why?

image: Matt Hamm on Flickr

Consider this, among Twitter users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one. This translates into over half of Twitter users accessing their accounts less than once every 74 days. [source Harvard Business Review ] These are most likely the users noted in Barracudalabs 2009 Annual report  which states that 51% of Twitter users follow less than 5 people and 60% follow less than 10 people [view report]. Why? For one reason or another they're not engaged in the service; therefore not absorbing and increasing their interest in you or your brand.

image: Hubspot on Flickr

Now you might say "I am targeting active users". Doug Kessler, Creative Director and Co-founder at Velocity Partners sums up the folly of this strategy very well in a post '7 Incredibly Rare Mistakes in Social Media Marketing'. Here he sites mistake #5 "Forgetting that your ten thousand ‘followers’ on Twitter aren’t really following you at all". Why?

Well let's disregard the 60% of users who aren't appreciably active. How about the most prolific contributors? Those who account for 90% of all Tweets. Surely you are seen by them! Hmmm... not so much. These users typically utilize applications such Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc.; tools that allow users to create numerous Tweets and schedule them to publish at set intervals during the day. In this instance, with this group, Twitter is not an interactive community for shared learning/conversation. Predominantly it's a broadcasting tool with the app helping them to execute a high volume, saturation strategy. Therefore, users of said applications are not actually on Twitter viewing your contributions as their Tweets are being published.

 image: Hubspot on Flickr

You might say "This doesn't matter. They view my Tweets through their chosen application." To this, I say 'not likely'. The lions share of these contributors, atleast the majority of successful and subsequently influential in the bunch, follow upwards of a thousand -to- tens of thousands of people. Maybe they're just being polite, following those who follow them [again, not likely]. Or it's the result of their 'build their follower base strategy'. A strategy which does not include their hanging on the edge of their chairs waiting for your next Tweet and/or searching it out. Either way the result is the same; a tonne of competitive noise. Unless you Tweet or are ReTweeted at the exact moment they happen to be viewing their incoming Tweet stream, you'll never be seen.

So how can you increase your odds of an appreciable ROI?  First find those remaining 30% of users who are personally engaged in the medium. People who are following say upwards of 30 and downwards of 100 people. They are active[ish], more accessible, and significantly - probably the real person whose name is attached to their account. They are what I define as the Twitter longtail. The probability of these individuals seeing our Tweets is much higher because there's much less competitive noise a.k.a other Tweets that will nudge ours out of view. Think of a Twitter users incoming Tweet stream like the results of a Google search. You want to be on the 'first page' so to speak. For example, per iProspect, if 'you/your company/what-not' are presented on the first page of Google results the probability of getting noticed is 68%. Hence if you are connecting with individuals who are following a lower number of Twitter'ers, your odds of presenting on their first page and subsequently achieving your conversion goal are greater. Timing, activity, etc play a very important role of course, but determining your target market is step one.

In closing, if a significant objective of your Twitter involvement is to generate leads, just showing up and contributing won't cut it. In sales and marketing, social media is a tool... not an end result.