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I just got this email and felt compelled to share with you. Many business owners using social media are convinced this is what “selling” means. It means, well…this…

I accepted a friend request from this person, and this is what I got in reply. This isn’t selling. This is yelling. This is clinging. This is spam.

What action would you take on this? You’d make sure to visit all the sites that have been suggested, right? You’d make sure to take the time to get back with this person and initiate a conversation, because they obviously have a lot of valuable insight to share, correct?

Or would you, like me, delete it…and probably never talk to this person again? Let me know what you think!

By the way, I greyed out the urls and user name because I don’t feel any need to spread any ill will. I feel most of the time, poor use of social media is just out of ignorance. We all make mistakes. But to the user who sent this to me (surely you recognize this message, lol) no, I wont’ be visiting any of these sites, and sending emails like this isn’t doing you any favors

Something about the “Let’s network!” line cracks me up though. Just sayin.

How often do you get emails like this? How do you respond?

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Twitter remains a mystery to a lot of business owners unfortunately. It’s a pithy and convenient communication tool, and it’s a great way to get traffic to your site as well. But a lot of people have reported that they do not get the results they want, so I wanted to take a stab at offering you some potential solutions.

Clearly without looking at your specific feed and attempts to get results from Twitter, I need to generalize a bit, but there are two most common mistakes I see out there in my own feed, so I will address those two.

If you have any specific questions, I recommend you comment the post or fire me an email with a specific question, and I’ll be happy to address in a future post.

Two Biggest Mistakes Using Twitter

1. Failure to Stand Out
2. Blatant Promotion Over Communication

Let me cover each in a bit of detail:

Failure to Stand Out

Bottom line, if you don’t stand out, your results in business (on Twitter and elsewhere also) will be zilch. Look at your own twitter feed…all the tweets coming in from the people you follow. Which ones stand out to you? Which are you compelled to click on? What traits do these tweets share? Use this information.

Fact is, there is ALWAYS a reason you’re not getting the results you want from any particular technique, and there is ALWAYS a way to fix it. It might require that you do something different. As a matter of fact, it most likely WILL require to change what you’re doing.

It’s not just a matter of getting more followers. If you’re not getting the results you want with 500 followers, you’re not going to get much better results with 5,000 followers or 50,000 followers. As always, it’s about quality, not quantity, especially if you’re operating in a niche market.

So after you’ve analyzed your own feed for a minute…what makes YOU want to click through on a tweet? It probably covers a topic that personally interests you, and it probably has done something to stand out. Put simply, you need to model this. Firstly, are you covering content that specifically interests your followers? Hint: if they’re not clicking through…maybe they’re not interested Secondly, are you using verbiage that commands attention? Hint: if you’re not getting traffic from Twitter…the cause for this is likely in here somewhere.

This may sound simplistic, but Twitter is a very simple tool.

There are certain words like “free” or “make money” that many people are just gonna gloss over. But still, the words you use matter. Pay attention to your verbiage. Certain words are going to stand out and perform better in tweets. Copywriters know this, and if you want to get better results and more traffic to your site using Twitter you need to pay attention to this also. Which tweet would you be more likely to follow?

Get 10,000 followers on Twitter in 30 Days! Check it doode!

-or-

2 Beautiful Things You Should Be Doing on Twitter That You’re Probably NOT…are you doing this?

The first uses overused, spammy language. The second offers a personal challenge to the reader on a targeted topic that is important to them, and it specifically asks for a response. Remember what I’ve said about asking for what you want? If your follower cares to respond, they pretty much have to click the link. Right?

How do your tweets measure up to this? Comment, and let me know what you think!

Blatant Promotion Over Communication

Amped up blog titles will get you a little distance. Titles like “746,000 Ways to Make Huge Money Starting NOW!!!”…they’re going to garner some attention from people in a general sense. However interruption marketing like this, while it has it’s place, will only get you so far.

Especially if a title like this is not backed up by considerable amount of substance, it will go nowhere. It’s also something to keep in mind that the more ridiculous your titles get, the more impossible it is to live up to expectations.

It’s important to understand that when you’re looking to get results from other people, it’s best to engage them, not yell at them.

A title like the example earlier is the web’s equivalent to yelling at someone. Yeah, it’ll get attention, but people are also experts at glossing over and ignoring anything vying for their attention. So being attention-getting is only one element. Don’t just get their attention, engage them.

A Lesson in Direct Sales

Coming from a sales background, I can tell you one fundamental way of engaging a buyer…ask questions. Personally engaging and thoughtful, earnest questions. Almost any question will do…people want to speak their mind and to interact with someone who understands them, especially on topics that are important to them.

More on the value of questions and how specifically to execute the use of questions in your tweets, blog posts and sales copy is the topic of another post…for today just keep in mind that engaging people and asking them to respond is key. Asking a genuine question is always more engaging than making a statement, no matter how kick ass the statement is or how much CAPS LOCK you implement.

Are you getting the results you want from Twitter? Do you have other or better ideas on how to get more traffic using Twitter?