Jim Connolly Marketing

Twitter: How I attracted more traffic and more followers by doing less

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As a marketing guy, I am always testing ways to make things more effective.  What follows is my experience, after a simple 5 day Twitter experiment, which was just a bit of fun, yet led to some interesting results and totally changed the way I use Twitter!

Here’s what I did and what the results were:

I elected not to tweet any links to this blog and then see what impact it had on my traffic.

Here is what happened.  By the way, you can join me on Twitter here.

Traffic from Twitter

Before I started, I expected to see a slight drop in traffic from Twitter.  Surely, if I am not Tweeting links here, fewer people would know about my posts – right?

Wrong!

Instead, traffic from Twitter increased by close to 300% over those 5 days.  This is reflected in the diagram later in the post.  Now, on the first few days, I sent a tweet out, which alerted people that I was not tweeting links to new posts here.  Obviously, those tweets had no links in them and didn’t generate additional traffic, as I monitored real-time traffic from Twitter and there was no measurable increase.  The reason was simply to let people know that nothing was wrong .

So, why the increase in traffic?

It seems this blogs readers and my Twitter “followers” picked up the slack!  Knowing I wasn’t tweeting links to my posts here, they did it for me.  Now, I am not sure how this would pan out if I carried the experiment out over 6 months, but certainly over the 5 days, my online network were a lot more active in promoting my posts.  I also saw lots of new faces showing up in my Twitter stream; people sharing my posts, who I had never heard of or seen previously.

Tuesday saw the highest traffic day to this blog in its history.  This was the result of several factors, ranging from some well connected Facebook and Twitter users sharing that days post, (which ironically was how to get more traffic using Twitter) and that post being featured on a number of popular sites, including webpronews. I have looked to see if these events could be traced to the experiment and it’s impossible to say yes or no with 100% certainty.

I am not a big believer in coincidences and I believe it’s entirely possible that with so many new people sharing my posts this week, it brought my blog to the attention of those publishers, Twitter users and Facebook users.

Here’s what happened to traffic as a result, compared to the past 6 months:

Blog subscriber numbers

One of the challenges with using Twitter to inform people of your latest posts, is that you eliminate the need for your followers, to subscribe to your blog.  In essence, you are training them not to subscribe to your primary social hub! If they decide to stop using Twitter or you decide to drop it for the next big thing, you can lose a lot of readers, very quickly.

For me, this alone is a good reason NOT to train people to use Twitter as the way to subscribe to your blog.

Some caveats

This was just a fun experiment, carried out over a very short time-scale; rather than the kind of marketing research I would carry out to get the heavy detail required for a fully-fledged project.  You should NOT use these conclusions as the basis of a change in your own Twitter use!

It is also extremely important to mention that the results would have looked VERY different, if I did not already have lots of great people, who regularly share this blog with their followers.  In addition, Twitter accounts for a tiny amount of my daily visitors here, behind; Google, RSS, Facebook, back links and Stumbleupon.  Once my largest source of traffic, Twitter has grown slower than all my other marketing channels.  In other words, I wasn’t risking much.

As I hope I have made very clear, this brief experiment was intended to see what the short-term results would be, by not using Twitter to share my new posts each day.  I had no idea that the results over such a short period, would be so interesting; which is why I intend to change my Twitter use over the longer term now, as I explain in a moment.

I find it interesting that the past 5 days coincided with my best traffic day ever and a sharp increase in follower numbers, see below.  Note, the numbers were increasing fastest from the 13th, not the 12th, which was the heavy traffic day.

Conclusions

For now, I have decided to only share posts on Twitter, which are related to Twitter (like this one) or posts that I believe have particular relevance to the people I connect with there.  Previously, I shared every post on Twitter twice: Once in the morning and again in the afternoon or evening.

I’m really curious how the numbers will look, over a longer period.  Any marketing professional worth their salt will tell you that you need good data to reach accurate conclusions.  On something like this, you need to be working with a larger set of data.  I will, of course, share my findings with you.

So, for the foreseeable future, I will be using my Twitter time primarily to share YOUR great posts and connect more with you.

IMPORTANT:  If you usually catch up with my latest posts via Twitter and don’t want to miss anything, subscribe to the blog or get new posts delivered direct to your inbox, using the “Free Updates” box at the top right of this page.

Get more traffic from Twitter with these 6 great headline tips

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So, you have all those followers on Twitter and yet when you tweet a link to your latest blog post…..nothing much happens!

Why did so few of those hundreds (or thousands) of your followers click your link; after all, it’s a great post?

Your headline let you down!

People will ONLY click your links and read your content, if the headline or title is compelling enough.  If just a small percentage of your followers are clicking on your links, it’s because the headline isn’t selling that link to your followers.  It’s not compelling them enough, to make them want to click through to your site and find out more.  Unless they do that, they will never know how great your posts are, which is why headlines are easily the most important element of your content.

Your headlines or titles are what open the door to your content.  To succeed, your content has to be effective too, but nothing happens until people actually READ what you have written and your headline is what either encourages them to read the first line of your material – Or not.  Get the headline wrong and you make it very hard for your content to get noticed.

6 headline secrets behind yesterday’s post

To show you what I mean, I will use the example of yesterday’s post, which was extremely successful.  It’s title was: Build a great client list with this 1 simple idea.  Here are six of the secrets behind it.

The headline didn’t try and do everything.  There was enough information in that headline to explain what the post was about and get the reader curious.  To discover what the “1 simple idea” is, the reader has to click through.  The more curious you can make someone, the more likely they are to take action; in this case click a link.

The headline was relevant to my readers. It was a marketing related headline and my friends on social networks connect with me because they are interested in marketing.

The headline made a compelling promise.  Every headline makes a promise to the reader.  The promise of that headline, is that if they click that link, I will give them some valuable information, which will help them with a huge problem; attracting better clients.  The post content delivers on the promise, which is essential if you want people to come back!  A great headline, which points to a post that fails to deliver on the headline’s promise, will cause people to feel cheated and stop them trusting your headlines and links in future.

The headline let people know it was easy. Part of the headline’s promise, is that they will learn this valuable information, quickly and easily.  It’s just 1 simple idea.  This requires little time investment from the reader, with the potential to learn some valuable business information.

The headline didn’t keyword stuff. Some people seem to believe that the only way to attract search engine traffic, is to stuff their headlines with keywords.  This is flawed for 2 reasons.

  1. You can SEO your posts, by making the version of the title which people see, different from the version which search engines see.  If you use WordPress, there are plugins that allow you to do this.  If, like me, you use the Headway WordPress Theme, (affiliate link) you don’t need to mess around with plugins, it’s there out of the box (along with a ton of other great SEO features!)
  2. Your content, including titles, should be written for people, NOT search engines.  If you try and write posts that appeal to search engines rather than people, even if someone does find your site on Google or Bing etc, it will read poorly and therefore fail to convert them into subscribers, clients or customers.

The headline wasn’t clever. Some people write clever headlines, which lack any compelling reason for a busy person to click their link.  They are often abstract or cryptic, rather than interest grabbing and inspiring.

Headlines are important so give them the time they deserve

There are very few things in life, which come with a guarantee, however, I can guarantee that if you make your blog post titles more compelling, you will definitely get more traffic from social networks and feedreaders.

Invest as much time as is required, to get your headlines as attractive as possible and just watch the increase in your blogging results.

Consider the source – ALWAYS consider the source!

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Here’s a quick tip, which can help you avoid wasting your time and your money.  It’s based around just 3 words: Consider the source.

Consider the source

Much of the information out there, particularly business related information, is biased.  As a result, a lot of people have either bought something they don’t need or they are paying for a service they get little if any real value from.  They bought into a sales message, often because they didn’t consider the source or realise how biased it was.

It’s not a case of people deliberately misleading us, pretending their products or services are just what we need when they are not.  In many cases, probably most cases, people genuinely believe that what they are recommending to us is the answer to our problems.  The thing is, they are often wrong and if we act on their recommendations without considering the source, we pay the price.

Consider the source: The problem with hammers

Abraham Maslow said:

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

Maslow’s point, was that people who are incomplete in their knowledge of solutions, propose the same type of answer to every problem they encounter.  So, if they are a keen user of a marketing tool which works for them, they will often believe that it is an essential investment for everyone in business.

An extremely common example of this kind of hammer and nail thinking is the way email marketing software is marketed. Yes, email marketing software, such as auto-responders, do have their place and for some people, they can be great; but unless you consider the source, you’d think you needed it, when you might be far better off using something more akin to your needs.

For instance, I don’t use email marketing software or email auto-responder services and I don’t write an email newsletter – Yet I have a rapidly growing email subscriber list of thousands.  Marketing genius Seth Godin, no longer offers an email newsletter either!  Why?  Because he doesn’t need to and neither do I.

We blog regularly and get emails in front of prospective clients all the time, because (in my case) over 65% of my readers receive this blog via email.  I use a Mailchimp account, which allows me to deliver these blog posts, via email, to anyone who selects it; using that orange box on the top right of my blog.  If I have something I want to promote, I don’t need to send anyone marketing emails.  I simply share it here on the blog and it will arrive, at a set time, in thousands of inboxes.  It works REALLY well and helped me sell almost £130,000 in services and products last year.

I recommend email marketing to many of my clients and my point here is certainly not to bash it.  As some of you may know, I once wrote a very popular marketing newsletter, which was extremely successful.  I’m simply using the way email marketing software and services are marketed as an example.  The exact same point could have been made using; networking groups, newspaper and magazine advertising, mailing lists, blogging, pay-per-click and just about every other form of marketing.

So, before you decide to part with your hard earned money, or act on some free advice, always consider the source.  Is the person being paid to promote a certain marketing tool?  Are they knowledgeable enough about marketing, to be able to give you the right advice?

The bottom line: When you consider the source, you get a fer better insight as to the quality and accuracy of the information.

How to improve all your marketing with this 1 great idea!

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Get noticed

Enthusiasm is contagious.  It spreads like a virus, infecting everyone who comes into contact with it.  In today’s post, I’m going to share some ideas regarding how you can tap into the viral power of enthusiasm, to improve just about every area of your sales and marketing!

Enthusiasm, sales and referrals

One of the finest testimonials I ever heard, regarding the power of enthusiasm in sales, is this:

A successful sale always starts with the transfer of enthusiasm.

As a direct result, by speaking or writing with enthusiasm, we increase the sales potential of every commercial interaction we have.  Of course, this also breeds confidence and when people feel both enthusiastic and confident about us and our services, they not only buy from us; they also feel confident recommending us to their friends too. Think about it, when was the last time you recommended someone or something, which you had a bad feeling about?  Never, right?

Enthusiasm in business

Given the incredible power of enthusiasm, I find it mind blowing that the vast majority of business owners sound so pedestrian, when communicating with the written or spoken word.  For example, we get those marketing emails and letters, telling us; “I have some information you may be interested in regarding our new XYZ service.”  Instead of; “I have a great idea to share with you Bob, which will be of genuine value to you and your business!”  The latter message inspires confidence and is motivating, for former message does nothing.

Some people confuse enthusiasm with cockiness.  They think that by standing firmly behind your products or services, that you somehow sound pushy.  The reality could not be further form the truth.  The reality is that by sounding meek and pedestrian when we speak about our business, we do ourselves a huge disservice.  We show ourselves to be less than we are and our services to be less than they are too.  We give those who see our messages every reason to doubt us.  That’s an insane way to market anything!

The power of enthusiasm in your business

If you genuinely believe that your business offers great value or amazing service, SAY SO!  Spread your enthusiasm all over the marketplace.

Here’s a quick tip.  Review your marketing messages, online and offline, and check to see if you have pumped your enthusiasm and passion into your copy.  Ask yourself:

  • Will people read what you have written and feel inspired?
  • Will people hear your message and feel motivated to call you, email you or visit you?
  • Will they hear what you have to say and feel compelled to learn more about you, your business, products or services?

If not, that message is almost certainly massively under performing.  Either rewrite these messages yourself or (recommended) find a copywriter who can put into words, the passion you feel for your business and your complete confidence in your products or services.

Photo: Kodomut

What’s your plan B?

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How good is your back up plan?

As some of you may have noticed, this site was down for around 25 minutes earlier today.  There was a problem, caused by a plugin that was creating gigabytes and gigabytes of data, which had been installed on one of my test sites.

Part of the problem, was that the database for this blog had became corrupted.  In other words, every post and every comment was unreadable and the sites were inaccessible.

So, I put my blog continuity plan into action

Plan B started with a call to the guys at WebFusion, where my dedicated server is based.  I told them my blogs were down and within minutes, one of their tech support guys, Oliver Burkill, had taken ownership of the problem and started resolving the issue.  He identified what was wrong and was then able to get the blogs back up, using back-up copies, which are generated each day.  What could have been a nightmare, was averted.  Though I lost some comments, the site was live and 100% stable again in minutes.

The 2 ingredients of my blog continuity plan were:

  1. WebFusion: A super-responsive tech support team for my dedicated server.
  2. Reliable, off site back-ups:  I had copy of each site, stored at a different location.

WebFusion:  Although this problem was nothing to do with by hosting provider, it did give me my first opportunity to see how they responded when there was a serious problem.  I want to start by saying that WebFusion sponsor this blog, though I was a happy customer well before that.

Since moving my sites to WebFusion last year, I have enjoyed 100% up-time.  That kind of 100% reliability is extremely important for me.  I want this site to be here, for you, when YOU need it. I want it to respond quickly and for you to have faith in it.  WebFusion’s response to my phone call (around 20 seconds) and their eagerness to take ownership of the problem, justified my faith in them completely. It has made me an even more passionate advocate of their dedicated hosting services.

By the way, I am not an affiliate of WebFusion, so I don’t get paid for you clicking on their links.  I recommend them because I trust them and consider them a key part of my blog’s team.

Is their service cheap?  No, there are cheaper providers.  Is it value for money? ABSOLUTELY!

Reliable backups:  If I had not implemented a back-up strategy for my blogs, there’s a very good chance that I would have lost most, if not all, my blog posts and comments.  The data files had become corrupted and I don’t want to think about how hard it would have been to rebuild almost 3 years worth of data (and that’s just this site!)

I have a service in place, which creates a back-up of my blogs and sends them to a separate server.  There are many services offering that facility, as well as some plugins for wordpress, which offer back-up functionality.  Whatever solution you pick, make sure you get something in place BEFORE you need it.  As they say, you have to back it up, if you want to get it back.  I use a back-up facility that saves my data on a different server, so that if the hard drives on my actual server failed, the off site back-ups would not be impacted.  If you have a commercial blog, I recommend you get the most reliable back-up solution possible.

All in all, the damage was confined to the loss of around 20 comments, which were left here in the period after the last back-up was made.  These were mainly on this post from yesterday.  I also lost around 25 minutes of up time.  When I think about the damage that would have been done had the past 3 years of posts and comments been lost, it blows my mind.  I would also like to publicly thank; Oli Burkill, Richard Winslow and Craig for their help today.

If you have a business blog and you value the content, make sure you have the best tech support, server reliability and back-up systems you can get.  Take action now, before you need it.

Never let a troll steal your dreams!

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I received a call earlier from a friend, who is also a fellow blogger.  After years of giving free information to her blog’s community, she added a relevant advertisement to the sidebar of her blog.

Seems reasonable, right?

Well, it turns out she was emailed by a reader, who is also a blogger.  He called her everything from a sell-out to a hypocrite.  He hated that she now had this small ad on the site.  She has over 7,000 RSS subscribers and his was the only complaint in the 3 weeks since she added the 250 X 250 ad.  I suggested she check his blog out.  It was a poorly-written, amateur looking blog, which hadn’t been updated since June 2010!

Trolls are gonna troll!

In my experience, one of the defining characteristics of people who seem to be going nowhere, is that they waste their time dishing out advice to others, rather than working on their own challenges.  They are happier to piss all over your parade, rather than build something of value themselves.  They choose to get their kicks by throwing stones at those with the attributes they lack, rather than working on their own personal or professional development.

The bottom line: Don’t allow these vocal, yet typically inept, people to get in the way of your goals or dreams.  In fact, their very presence is often a good indicator of your own success!