After reading John Janstch rescent article, “All Tweet No Cattle” I felt inspired to come up with my own synopsis of what the Twitter phenomenon means to referral marketing.
While a few figures in the social media oligarchy are going to be real angry that this article isn’t trumpeting Twitter as the key to all life’s challenges , someone had to put this Twitter thing in perspective.
Before all of you Twitterholics go into a fit and start citing every example of every time one Twitter user referred you to another’s page, keep in mind that there is one key distinction between referral networking and social networking; Accountability.
As a preface, I strongly recommend that anyone interested in reading, writing and sharing micro-blogs try Twitter. Many of you may even be connecting with Referral Key on Twitter and we’re thrilled.
So how does Twitter stack up for referral networking?
Pros
- Twitter is fun.
- Twitter is entertaining.
- Twitter could be the first step in a relationship that would require (much much) more development and trust building.
- Twitter is useful for brands looking to engage a large number of people. (i.e. mid to large size companies like Skittles and Dell)
Cons
- If you don’t have a referral relationship with someone in the “real world” then you don’t actually have a strong referral relationship. Sorry fellow “Social Media Consultants” but there’s no two ways around it.
- Twitter allows 140 character text snippets. While this fosters creative Tweets(posts), fleeting social Haiku’s are not an ideal way to build rapport with other busy professionals.
- You’d think that with only 140 characters, Twitter would be the least time consuming of the popular social media tools. Actually it’s quite the opposite. To grow your connections, maintain those connections, update your status, and engage those contacts; requires an incredible expenditure of time and energy. So much so that it has become a lifestyle for those people you see with 20,000 followers… Twitteraholics
- Twitter is anything but private. Information, messages, and connections are visible to hundreds, if not thousands of people. Yes, there are options to privatize your messages but at that point you mind as well not be using Twitter.
Final Thoughts
Don’t turn your back on your networking group just yet. Twitter is not an alternative for a real world referral marketing strategy! There is no alternative to Face-to-Face networking… especially referral networking; not by MySpace in 2006, Facebook in 2007, Linked In in 2008, or Twitter in 2009
Bloggers short on new story ideas (and probably new to Twitter themselves), seem to be regurgitating the same trite filler about Twitter’s greatness… at a nauseating rate. Some would even lead you to believe that the micro-blogging site can be the one-stop-shop for building a reputation and driving sales to your small business. These people don’t know what a qualified sales lead is.
Suggesting that Twitter is a good source of qualified sales leads is just too much of a stretch; like forcing a square peg in round hole. Twitter should be further down on your marketing “to-do” list and the experts agree:
“While the odd restaurant or coffee shop may be grabbing some headlines because of their tweeting strategy, most small businesses have far greater pressing foundational needs when it comes to the limited time and resources they can allocate to marketing.”
John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing
Unless you also have a real world relationship with someone, all that’s truly certain is that 1. They have a computer (or a library card) and 2. A Twitter account… That goes for every social media relationship.
Think about it…
Tags: referral marketing, twitter
