7 Levels of Twitter Followers
All Twitter followers are not created equally. I would be fooling you if I convinced you otherwise. This morning as I was driving back from an early morning breakfast meeting I was thinking about how we don’t usually rank our friendships “Jack is my number 4 friend” or “John is definitely in the top 10.” We can certainly put Twitter followers on different levels though. I think this is especially appropriate for today, Follow Friday.
Level 1: The Bots These are automated Twitter accounts. They follow blindly, never engage, and sometimes spout out spam messages which get them quickly un-followed. These followers are useless, except to pad your stats.
Level 2: The Sleepers These are the silent Twitter followers. They never say anything, they have 10 updates total- but they are following you, even though they no longer spend any time on Twitter.
Level 3: Word Searchers These followers have followed you based on a word in your bio, or a term you have used in tweets. For example, when I mentioned that I like to wakeboard in a 22 Tweets interview, I was immediately followed by 2 wakeboard companies. These are only slightly more valuable than Level 1 or 2, because they are at least interested in something about you.
Level 4: Readers These are extremely valuable followers because they read your blog posts, read your tweets, and pass them on to others. Readers often times keep a low profile, but they can make a huge impact in helping you become a name in your industry.
Level 5: Engagers These are engaging Twitter users that will have a conversation with you about your tweets or blog posts. These people may be lawyers that like my articles about social media for lawyers, or social media junkies. Whoever they are, they are extremely important to me, because they help create the conversations on Twitter and on my blog. It doesn’t matter if these people agree or disagree with me, the important thing is that they create a buzz. Engagers is what makes Twitter so much fun. These should be highly valued.
Level 6: Contacts Level 6 followers are those who leave the mystic world of Twitter and become real contacts. The best was to turn an engaging follower into a contact is by setting up an appointment to have breakfast, or to have a phone call. Business people generally don’t understand Twitter, because they don’t understand how easy it is to take an engager on Twitter and turn them into a contact.
Level 7: Friend The holy grail of Twitter is turning online relationships that seem somehow less real, and turning them into offline friendships, partnerships, and (best of all) paying clients. I have had the opportunity to create Level 7 relationships all over the country thanks to Twitter. Whenever I stop in a different city, I try and meet up in person with the contacts I have built up on Twitter.
Whether it was meeting up with Melanie Green in the Minneapolis Airport, Gini Dietrich in downtown Chicago, or Tyson Snow for curry in Salt Lake City. Meeting contacts in person has helped me create some great friendships that have enriched my life, and helped my business.
Want to connect with a potential client on Twitter? Start by engaging, then you can move your way up. Its not that hard, give it a try. I love engagers, so feel free to shoot me a message @adriandayton or leave a comment on my blog.
Adrian Dayton is an attorney licensed to practice in the State of New York. His latest book, Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition will be published internationally on September 4th, 2009. Click here to learn more about it.
How Twitter Got Me Published
My first book will be published on September 1st, 2009. The title is Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition. The path I took to get here, is so strange that I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t just lived through it.
I got on Twitter for the first time back in January of 2009 because I was trying to get another manuscript published, “The Year of 12 Virtues.” A friend told me that Twitter and a blog would be a big help in getting me published. As soon as I got on Twitter, I quickly realized that I loved Twitter. It is such an amazing marketplace of ideas. Read more
Post Title Makeover: Good Post Titles Are The New Black
In my last post, Is SEO dead? No More Gaming Google I talked about how Google weights links more heavily in search results than it used to. But well-written and focused post titles in search results are the carrot that’s going to bring the reader to your site.
Readers have the attention spans of a gnat these days, and don’t spend more than a few seconds lingering on any post or article title found in search, deciding whether they want to read the following content. It gets worse on Twitter, where you only have 140 characters to entice someone to click through.
Follow these quick and easy tips to make your post titles descriptive and memorable.
Common sense rules for good post titling
Keep it short
State your post topic in as few explicit words as possible. Using Twitter has made me a better post title writer, for several reasons:
- it’s made me think of myriad ways to shorten my post title just so it fits
- It’s made me aware of the focus of my post. If I couldn’t state the point of my post in 140 characters or less, my post isn’t focused enough.
Include keywords
Users will be scanning the titles to decide whether to read further, but Google is also scanning it to decide where to rank you. Why not please both and include relevant keywords?
Use specific words
Keep your writing focused by using the most specific words possible. For example, don’t say “pool” if you could say, “above-ground pool.” This is also true for post content.
Use active tense
An active tense sentence by its nature is shorter than passive. It gets you to the point faster. It’s also easier to read.
Which is easier to parse:
More Readers For Your Site Are Found By The Writing Of Good Post Titles
Good Post Titles Drive More Readers To Your Site
Put keywords close to the beginning of the post title
Usability testing has shown that people scan the first few words of a post title and decide whether to read further.
Don’t assume context
Let’s say you are writing blog posts in a series. If you entitle it, “Post #14: Good Karma,” someone reading your blog might see the other articles and understand the context, but a stranger encountering this title in the wilds of Google won’t know what the heck it means, and click elsewhere!
Common Sense Makeover
Let’s look at an example to illustrate these principles. Let’s say I’m writing an article about choosing a Twitter Client.
Bad Post Title: Make It Easy!
The word “easy” is always enticing, but this title doesn’t tell me what the post is about!
OK Post Title: Make Tweeting Easy With The Right Twitter Client
Better, it has the keywords “Twitter Client.”
Great: Choose The Right Twitter Client and Tweeting Is Easy
Great! Uses active tense, and keywords are right up front.
Extra Credit: Adding Oomph To Your Post Titles
Just like in life, shiny is more appealing than plain. Descriptive post titles can be effective, (also for Google) but boring for your readers. Last week I was trying to come up with a good post title for my blog post and went through a few permutations.
First draft: SEO is Dead, Content Is Alive
This one is fine, descriptive but a little blah.
Second draft: SEO is Dead, No More Gaming Google
This is the one we ended up going with. It has nice alliteration, and has a tinge of naughtiness with the word “gaming.”
Shiny but might be too provocative: Google Is a Demanding Bitch, What It Wants NOW
This doesn’t have the keywords of “SEO” and “content”, but if I can assume my audience knows what function Google serves, with a title like that, I KNOW it will generate clicks!
Too Much Time On Your Hands Credit: Makeover Per Audience
You can tool a post title to suit different purposes. For example, Adrian has this post title on his blog:
No Twitter for Lawyers? Hear marketing pro Larry Bodine’s Take
This post title functions well enough; it tells the who (Larry Bodine) and the what (Twitter). I think Adrian structured it in this way because Larry Bodine’s podcast is part of the post. However, there are a few ways I could rewrite this blog post for different results:
Twitter Useless For Lawyers, Says Legal Marketing Pro Larry Bodine
This is a bit provocative and makes me wonder WHY it’s useless! Also I added the word “legal,” because it makes him more of an authority for this legal blog.
Larry Bodine: Twitter Useless For Lawyers
This is shorter, and if puts the focus more on Larry Bodine.
………………………………
Hope this has helped you think about ways to tune up your post titles!
Charlene Jaszewski makes her living helping people make their websites easier to use, editing books so that their ideas are crystal clear, and making marketing materials sound less markety. Wanna see stuff she’s done? Click on over to http://charlenejaszewski.com. Oh and she makes killer marshmallows dipped in chocolate.
Don’t Hate Me Because I Auto-DM
Auto-DM: A direct message sent automatically on Twitter by a 3rd party service like Tweetlater. Generally these are sent as a welcome message to a user’s new Twitter followers.
I hate the annoying auto-DM”s. They clutter my inbox and waste my time. There is a however a right way and a wrong way to use auto-DM’s. I am going to probably lose followers for saying this, but I feel like in full disclosure it is something that needs to be said:
My name is Adrian, and I send auto-dm’s to my new followers.
There, I admitted it. I know its impersonal, I know it may be annoying, but I use auto-dm’s and I am probably going to keep sending them and here are three reasons why:
1. I have a fairly large following, and I REALLY appreciate my followers. I try to respond to every @reply and real direct message sent my way, and I try even harder to thank those who retweet my posts. I would never send an auto-dm to my current followers- but when people first add me, I want them to get a feeling for who I am. Besides, I may never have a chance to interact with them personally otherwise. If people reply to my auto-dm welcome message, I am always ready and willing to engage them in non-automated discussion.
2. When I first got started on Twitter I benefited from a few kind Twitter users that showed me the ropes. One in particular named @michaelhyatt sent me an auto-DM welcome with some tips he had gathered for new twitter users. It was great information, and I really appreciated that, so I put together a few 1-minute videos of my own that try and do the same for other new users- I wanted to give them the same helpful tips that got me started on the right foot. My auto-DM mentions these free videos to new Twitter users.
3. My auto-dm doesn’t try and sell anything. I don’t sell the tips, in fact there isn’t anything for sale on my website, so the only benefit to me is the good karma. Twitter is all about passing on the good information, so I think it is only appropriate to mention these videos to my new followers.
The Wrong Ways to Use the Auto-DM
1. Don’t invite me to your money-making scheme- I don’t know you yet, why would I have that kind of confidence in who you are and what you are about to join your business venture?
2. Don’t invite me to your scheme to generate tens of thousands of followers- that is a turn off when I have never even interacted with you before.
3. Don’t invite me to connect with you on Facebook- if I have never had an actual conversation with you, why would I want the greater level of contact with you that Facebook offers?
4. Don’t invite me to your mafia wars, ninja dojo, or to give you a “gift.” Its not that I’m no fun- I just think there are better video games out there.
5. If you are going to use an auto-Dm, show some personality- let me know a little bit about who you are, not what you sell. Try and add some value in a way that is not self-promotional.
Everybody has their own point of view on the auto-DM, and I was back and forth on them myself as a new user- but now I think they have real value to help build relationships. What do you think of the auto-DM?
Part 1: Is SEO dead? No More Gaming Google.
by Guest Writer Charlene Jaszewski
Google has grown up and joined the rat race in terms of ranking your site for searches. It’s no longer what you know (content), it’s who you know (links).
In the olden days of search engine optimization (aka “SEO”), it was pretty easy to trick search engines: just stuff keywords in every piece of code and in your page content, and get tons of sites to link to you, and it didn’t matter who they were. But Google has grown up and gotten smarter. It can’t be fooled by trickery. This article will tell you how you make the most of your site content and links and impress Google (the only search engine that matters anymore). Read more
Voir Dire:No Twitter for Lawyers? Hear marketing pro Larry Bodine’s Take
Recorded June 30th, 2009
Larry Bodine, a legal marketing veteran with over 18 years of experience, recently came out clearly against Twitter claiming it was a waste of time, ineffective, and unable to deliver new business to attorneys. Has he softened on his stance since then? Listen in as Adrian Dayton grills him on the subject in this edition of the Weekly Voir Dire.
You will also find out:
- How firms can stick their toe in the social media pool
- The most effective strategies for developing more business if your firm has a current area of strength
- A great solution for verifying a return on investment from marketing dollars
- The keys to a productive marketing strategy for lawyers and other professionals (hint: you need a plan)
About Larry Bodine
Larry Bodine
Check out Larry Bodine’s blog: http://blog.larrybodine.com where you can order a copy of his new white paper Thinking Like a Rainmaker.
Follow Larry Bodine on Twitter
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Follow Friday Fever- Continued
Sarah Robinson sent me a direct message “reminding” me that I needed to write a new Follow Friday post (here is my extensive original)- but since I had already written a post today I decided to write it up, and have it posted Friday while I was in Lake Powell on Friday July 24th. So while I was enjoying wake boarding, reading, and lying in the sun- you were supposed to be enjoying this post. My auto-post feature didn’t quite work, so here it is- better late than never.
Here are a few of the great new people I have met in the last week or so:
Brooke and I share a passion for social media, and we met in a friendly argument through the comments section of Gini Dietrich’s blog http://spinsucks.com. After checking her Twitter stream I realized we are on the same wave length, and RT’d a few of her posts immediately.
Barry Moltz asked a question about Health Care and social media on Twitter which led me to his website. I ended up watching his 5 minute video (hilarious by the way) all about entrepreneurship. We share a common energy and love for building businesses- this guys knows his stuff.
Glad to meet Gina through our common friend Marc Warnke who I mentioned in my longer follow friday post. Gina is a connector with a great vision. I will forgive the fact that she prefers Facebook to Twitter.
I met the man who goes by “Ed” a couple of months ago, but I want to send out a special #followfriday thank you to the man that man responsible for the best blog carnival, http://blawgreview.com. Nobody knows Ed’s true identity, and he want to keep it that way. One thing I can tell you for sure, he is a great one to follow. We also met for breakfast this past week, he didn’t tell me his true identity- but he gave me some hints.
Not only did Charles author an outstanding book for professionals entitled The Trusted Advisor, he also runs a montly Carnival of Trust which each month collects the best articles on trust throughout the internet. He was kind enough to allow my website to host for the month of July. You can see my take on the Carnival of Trust here.
Learn the Golden Rule, Thrive Online
Give and ye shall receive, it’s not that complicated. To grow your business, your brand, or your following online there is really only one thing you need to do- GIVE. The more you give, the faster you grow. Here are three different business models that are all thriving because they have learned the value of giving.
Foiled Cupcakes
Mari Luangrath started out with one goal- deliver the best cupcakes in Chicago. She learned very quickly that the best way to sell cupcakes was to give them away. She started very simply by offering free cupcakes to the 400th person to follow her on Twitter. Two weeks later she was offering free cupcakes for the 1000th person that followed her on Twitter. The Chicago social media scene was soon buzzing about Mari and her awesome cupcakes. She now has over 2800 followers and in less than 2 months has shared her cupcake sweetness with over 100 Fortune 500 companies in Chicagoland.
Ontario, Canada Estates Attorney
Michele Allinotte was a young estates attorney ready to build her own book of business. So she asked herself, what do my clients need more than anything else? They need to be prepared for the death of their loved ones! So she created the “Peace of Mind Personal Inventory” which is just a simple checklist that helps families put all of their vital information, accounts, and phone numbers in one place. She gives this document away for free online, in exchange for an email address. With this simple tool she has built her brand, grown her prospect list, and most importantly she now has a growing reputation as a giver.
Alexis Martin Neely, Estate Attorney, Pro Giver
Here is a list of the free information available from Alexis’ website:
# FREE Law Business Manifesto “How Every Law Practice Owner Can Get Beyond the Broken Law Firm Business Model and Into Your Dream Law Business”
# FREE Audio Class “How to Get Off the Marketing Merry Go Round and Cash Flow Roller Coaster and Find the Freedom and Money You Deserve”
# FREE Subscription to my highly acclaimed weekly Law Business Revolution briefing memorandum.
# PLUS, I’ll be sending you over $22,500 of practice-building gifts
Alexis has built and sold a million dollar law practice, and is now building a multi-million dollar consulting business and she builds her prospect base through giving away quality content for free. She now has thousands of attorneys on her mailing lists, has spoken on CNN, Fox News, and many others. Her consulting business is booked solid. Was it expensive and time consuming to create all those free products? Sure, but the results speak for themselves.
When I was speaking about this article to a friend she asked, “Didn’t Seth Godin (the marketing maven) come up with that marketing concept?” referring to this whole idea of giving first. He refers to this as “permission marketing” but you don’t need to look too far back to see that it certainly wasn’t Seth’s idea to start a relationship off on the right foot by giving. Nor was it the grocer’s original idea to give out free samples of new products. This is an ancient concept, and it is proven worldwide time and time again. When you give you receive.
Attorneys like most professionals have some great insights to give, they just need to take the time to organize their knowledge, and package it in a digestible format. Make it available online, spread the word, and if what you give is valued and really helps people, not only will you make the world a better place- you will thrive in the online marketplace and gain a reputation as a giver.
I want to thank you for reading this article by giving you a little something special I have put together called the Rainmaker Alert, I do hope you’ll enjoy it.
10 Things Every CEO and Managing Partners Should Know About Social Media
The following list of 10 was reported in the article 10 Ways IT Managers Can Deal with Social Media. It is essential that every Managing Partner and CEO read it as well, because they are the ones making decisions as they relate to social media. Please pass this on to the decisions makers, it provides some essential insights.
1. Be logical
Although it’s easy to fear social networks, the reality is, most social networks don’t pose the kind of security threats Windows does. Furthermore, most social networks don’t pose the kind of threat e-mail phishing scams do. Is there are a danger? Of course. But it’s not the biggest danger IT managers need to face.2. Remember social networks have value
Social networks have some real value. Companies who give employees access to them can use employee profiles to promote their business. Happy employees will talk about their employers in a good light. It makes the company look good. And it might eventually bring in better talent.3. Social networks are promotional tools
Having employees using social networks is a great way to promote business products or services. Think of social networks more as a public relations arm, rather than a security hole. Are there threats? Of course. But IT managers might just find that the benefits of promotion far outweigh the security issues that might arise.4. Blocking only makes it worse
As Sophos pointed out in its study, blocking social networks is a bad practice. It only makes employees want to find ways to access their profiles through other means that have a higher likelihood of causing security issues in the enterprise. They will search for anonymizers. They will look for holes in security. And in the process, they might find some real trouble on the Web.5. Education is important
Security software and hardware mean nothing without education. If employees don’t know what they’re doing or they don’t know what to look for as issues arise, the company will have a higher likelihood of being affected. IT managers need to tell employees what to look out for. When they hear about security outbreaks on a network, they should alert employees. It’s about being proactive.6. Corporate policies work
Just allowing employees to access their social networks isn’t enough. IT managers need to develop a corporate policy governing access to the sites. It should include some basic information on using social networks. It should also remind employees not to divulge sensitive information at any point while being social. It might seem rather simple, but it could help keep corporate data safe.7. Block the fringe
It might sound counter-intuitive, but IT managers should be blocking “fringe” social networks. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo and FriendFeed are just fine. But don’t allow employees to access social networks that have a limited community. They tend to not be as regulated nearly as well as popular social networks and they could cause trouble for the company. And most employees probably won’t notice anyway.8. Be open
Although it might be a pain to have to deal with every little employee issue, IT managers should be willing to have an open door policy with employees who want advice or answers to social networking questions. Do they want to know if they should open a file sent to them? Do they have questions about their privacy settings? If so, answer them. IT managers are the experts in that field—employees are not.9. Be educated
In order to answer those questions, IT managers need to be educated on social networks. Don’t just use them once a week, get involved with their growth. Read popular Web 2.0 blogs to stay up on the latest news. Know when new updates launch. Have a real understanding of all the features. It will make it easier to address issues.10. Go social
What better way for IT managers to truly embrace social networking in the enterprise than to join networks themselves? Become part of the community. Understand the employees’ passions. It could mean the difference between safety and danger.
Don’t try and build a fence around social media within your company. Your employees will try and find a way out, and you might not like the results. Use social media deliberately, that will give your firm or business the best chance of success.
Use LinkedIn to Identify Referral Sources
Forget everything you know about social media. Forget Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the tinyurl.com. Lets just get back to basics, the bread and butter of most law firms- referrals. The #1 source of legal business for most firms of any size is referrals. Why are referrals so effective for bringing in business? Referrals add credibility and make individuals in the market for legal services feel more at ease with the nerve racking decision of hiring legal counsel.
Does the telephone bring in business?
The grand debate over whether or not social media works to bring in business is framed the wrong way. Asking whether social media works to bring in business is like asking whether the telephone works to order pizza. The primary value of the telephone and social media lies in facilitating conversations that would not have been possible otherwise..
To maximize referrals attorneys need to maximize the quality contact they have with each potential referral source. Attorneys need to stay at the top of their clients mind. How does an attorney do that? They can go to every golf outing, all the cocktail parties, and the charity auctions- but seriously, who has time for that? Besides- won’t those events mostly consist of the same people?
By using social media Attorneys can stay connected with all of their current clients. They can publicize their latest articles, share pictures about winning the golf tournament, or the great outcome of the latest IPO. More importantly than sharing about themselves they can keep up to date with what is happening with their current clients. Social media provides a window into the lives of an attorney’s clients. This window also provides opportunities to develop referrals.
Social media makes it easy for attorneys to identify potential quality referrals. Let me give you an example, say your firm does all the legal work for the major real estate developer in town, and the attorney that handles his work is connected to him through LinkedIn. With that connection an attorney can easily go to CEO’s LinkedIn profile and see who else the CEO is connected to. Which builders do they use? Which insurance/benefits company? Where do they buy lumber and building supplies? All of these contacts can easily be identified through a single connection on LinkedIn. Then it is simply a matter of following up through the CEO and asking for an introduction. Could this have been done before social media? Absolutely, but it wouldn’t have been as easy- and it would have most likely required using the telephone.
To learn more about how lawyers can bring in clients using social media- grab a free copy of the Rainmaker Alert. In addition, I invite you to join me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/adriandayton
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