A number of people contacted me yesterday, with a link to this post on Seth Godin’s excellent blog. In his post, Seth warns people about using Twitter. His argument is that it’s easy to be misunderstood, so you should avoid it for anything important or controversial, unless you want people to “assume you are an ignorant jerk and move on.”

Twitter would look very different to Seth Godin

I believe we have to look at this through Seth Godin’s eyes, if we want to understand his point and see why he doesn’t use Twitter.  Of course, Twitter would look very different to Seth, than it looks to you or me.  He hasn’t got hundreds of ‘followers’ – he’s got millions of ‘fans’ who would love to chat with him.

As you might already know, Seth Godin has banned people from commenting on his blog.  He says the primary reason he has banned comments is because:

I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning.

If Seth is genuinely as obsessive about this as he suggests, with the huge following he has, he would find it impossible to use Twitter the way we do. People often disagree with what you say and it’s easy, as he points out, to be misunderstood.

Seth Godin is a very clever man and a superb writer too.  However, in my opinion, I think his reasons for not using Twitter and for warning people about it, are perhaps less relevant to the rest of us, than they are to him?

I believe Twitter is a great form of communication for 99.9% of us.  Believe me, lots of people get a great deal from Twitter; including me and most (if not all) the people I chat with there.

I also think that Seth’s good friend and business associate Robert Scoble @scobleizer, proves that you can be controversial on Twitter and people will not just ‘move on’ – As Seth stated.  Robert currently has over 40,000 followers and can be extremely controversial in what he says about business, politics and technology.

Over to you!

Have you found Twitter useful? If so, in what way has it helped you or your business?  Share your thoughts, and include your Twitter username, if you would like people to contact you!

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How many times have you heard that; “first impressions count”?  Well, it’s true – first impressions count for a great deal – especially in marketing.  This is because, the first impression a business or a person creates with a potential client, is what forms the foundation of their relationship with them.

If that relationship is built on a bad foundation, it will fail.  After all, no one buys from a person or business that they have a ‘bad feeling’ about.

For example

I was contacted online last week by a total stranger via my Twitter account.  This person’s initial message to me wasn’t an introduction or even a simple hello – it was a full on sales pitch!  What was this person trying to sell?  I have no idea!  I just deleted his message as soon as it was clear what he was doing.

Approaching a total stranger with a sales pitch, instead of a friendly introduction, demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of how sales and marketing works!

Affiliates beware

Sadly, this kind of shoddy marketing is used by the huge majority of small, online businesses.  I get emails on a daily basis from strangers who want me to become ‘an affiliate’ of their latest ‘wonder product.’  Even though these people have not bothered to call me or build a relationship with me, they expect me to attach my good name to their business and product – neither of which I know anything about!

If you want to make a stack of sales online or offline, make sure YOU focus on creating a great initial impression in the mind of your target market!  Then, ensure that everything you do builds positively upon that strong foundation.

By the way, you can contact me on Twitter any time.  My username is @jimconnolly

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