Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How I attracted 8000 Twitter followers in 14 weeks!

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As this morning saw me attract my 8,000th ‘follower’ on Twitter, I thought it was a good time to share with you, how I have built my network of Twitter Associates thus far, (I don’t like the word ‘followers’.)

Some background

Whilst a few social media / marketing people have more followers than me, I have attracted almost all of my followers in just 14 weeks – NOT 12 months or 2 years!  I also did this without the benefit of thousands of blog readers, legions of ‘fans’ or famous blogging friends. 

I have also managed to build a targeted network of Twitter Associates, not just NUMBERS!  My network on twitter is composed primarily of; business owners, entrepreneurs, bloggers and those linked to marketing, PR or social media. (The exact same people who use my marketing services.)

I believe building a network of Twitter Associates is not just about attracting numbers!  It’s about attracting people, who are in your target group and then earning their trust.

The three key words here are people, attract and trust.

People

The people I associate with on Twitter are NOT my followers; they are my equals.  We are part of the same online network.  I refer to them as my Twitter Associates, because we associate with each other on a level playing field, using Twitter.  The only time I use the term ‘follower’ is (like in the title of this post), when I need to give people a quick point of reference.

You see, this is a two way deal with me, I follow all those who follow me, unless they are spamming me of course. With me there’s no tribes and no leaders – just people who want to connect!

Does an equality-focused approach actually work on Twitter?  Well, there’s anywhere between 1 and 3 million people using Twitter, (apparently).  As I write this, I am high in the top 1% of all Twitter users, based on ‘followers.’  I don’t say this to impress you, but to impress upon you the effectiveness of treating people as equals and with respect!

This means communicating rather than dictating.  It means engaging people and listening to what they say. It means taking time to help people no matter how many followers they have, just because you like their work.  It means becoming part of a network or community, without feeling the need to lead it!

Think of the people YOU buy from, enjoy the company of and recommend to people.  These will tend to be people you trust, people you like and people you value – NOT people who treat you like some dumb ass follower!

Attract

There’s been a lot said about the power of attraction, with some referring to it as the law of attraction. Whatever your thoughts on the subject, we know that cause and effect play a major role in every area of our lives.

If we want to attract people, we first need to make ourselves attractive to them!

On Twitter, the most attractive people are those who share – rather than just self-promote.  They are the people who take time to answer questions and engage people in dialogue.  They are the people who look for ways to connect others and help them thrive.

One of the fastest ways to attract the interest of another human being, is to show your interest in them first!  We all like to feel valued and when another person takes time to notice us, it makes US feel good!  Don’t wait for people to follow you – develop your network of Twitter Associates by looking for great people and FOLLOW THEM FIRST!

This means that you not only attract more people, you ALSO get to develop a network of associates who are the kind of people most suited to you and your business.

Use the Twitter Search facility to identify people who ‘tweet’ about things you are interested in, and follow them. Then, introduce yourself and add something of value to the conversation!

Trust

We live in an age where; diets promise we can lose 20lbs in a month, we can have rock-hard abs with just 3 minutes exercise a day and where we can become rich in weeks (if we just buy that $29 ebook!)

We expect results immediately, yet developing trust takes time!

Paradoxically, I believe one of the reasons my network grew quickly, is because I took my time!  I am simply not influential enough to develop a network that big, that quick, all by myself!  I rely massively on the help and co-operation of others and that only comes after people trust me enough to recommend me to their Twitter Associates.

I see people using auto-responders when I follow them, with links to sales pitches – because they come to twitter expecting immediate results! Who is going to recommend someone like that to their Twitter Associates?

I get people I have never heard of, telling me to send a message to my Twitter Associates, recommending they follow them or visit their website/blog!  Who is going to recommend a person like that to their Twitter Associates?

I mentioned earlier, the importance of treating people with respect, as equals.  This is a great way to earn people’s trust and their good will.

When this happens:
– People will recommend you to their Twitter Associates.

Also…
– People will go and visit your site or blog.
– People will enquire about your products or services.
– And people will buy from you. I’ve recently sold over $30,000 in services / products via people I met on twitter.

Your tips, ideas and suggestions!

This post is based on my experiences and observations as a twitter user.  I’m certain there are many, many more ways to develop a valuable network via twitter…

AND this is where YOU come in!
What kind of things make you more, (or less), inclined to press someone’s follow button?  Share them here and please feel free to include your twitter username, if you would like new people to discover you!

…. and if you found this useful, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed!

Marketing Guru’s, equality and attraction

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Recently, I have started getting a lot of emails from people; asking me a version of the same great question.

Here’s the question:

Jim, I hear that you don’t use any form of paid advertising or link exchanges – yet your posts often get dozens and dozens of comments. According to alexa.com (or whoever), this new blog gets lots of traffic. How are you doing this?

So, what’s my ‘secret’ then?

My secret is simple. It’s all down to Equality and Attraction!

Equality

I provide marketing material for people just like me; small business owners and those who work in sales / marketing.  If I know what I am doing, you should fit into that group too.  We are all totally equal here.  I don’t buy into that Internet celebrity or marketing guru bullshit. I’m just a normal person who happens to run a successful marketing business. I have the marketing answers you need and I work hard to get as many of them to you, in as clear and interesting a way as possible.  I don’t have a tribe; I have a network of friends and great contacts.

This is a level playing field, where you and I are part of the same marketing community.

Guess what?  That means when you email me, I always email you back.  When you comment on this blog – if your comment requires or requests an answer, I give one, always.  If I like your work, your blog or your product, I promote it for free – you won’t even know most of the time, until you check your stats, sales (or Twitter follow numbers!)

marketing guruMy readers seem to like my guru-free approach to delivering the marketing information they need and helping them succeed.

As a result, you recommend this blog, my RSS feed and my newsletter to your contacts.

You are the reason a 3 month old blog is attracting so much attention. You are the reason I don’t need any paid advertising.  You are also the reason I continue to do this; even though I have been financially secure for life since I was 29 years old (I’m 43 now).

That’s despite starting off in life broke; with no connections, the son of immigrants and covered in scars and even a gunshot wound from a violent childhood in the slums. I’m proud to say that I earned my money selling millions of pounds and dollars worth of ‘goods and services’ – NOT selling books or seminars on ‘how to sell!‘

Although my primary focus is always on giving, I have already generated thousands of pounds / dollars worth of sales for my business, from this new blog.  I did over £7,500 worth of business from enquiries here in the first 10 days alone. If you have a website or blog and you would like to attract more business or leads, here’s how I do it.

Attraction

My work is all about attracting sales and enquiries –  not chasing them.

Why?

Simple – people hate being pestered by salespeople!  They hate being pursued by overzealous networkers (online and offline.)  They hate having unwanted advertising thrust upon them.

People LOVE to buy things but they HATE being sold to!

Here’s how people often get it wrong
This morning, I decided to help my Twitter followers build their follower numbers and get some traffic to their blogs.  I asked them to send me the URL of their blog.  Then, I sent another message out to around 4,500 people – with a link to all the blogs that had been sent to me.

What do you think happened?
Within minutes a couple of people decided to send THEIR blog over and over again; so their blog address appeared multiple times in the link I sent!  I received over a dozen messages from people telling me they had blocked these users and some had even advised their followers to block them as well.

That’s because people hate being pushed, pestered, chased or pursued.  Whenever someone tries to use these tactics to generate sales, they come up against resistance. What a hard way to generate new business!

marketing guru advicePeople come to this blog looking for free marketing ideas, strategies and information.  They come here to connect with people and ask questions through the comments section.  So, that’s what I provide.  I don’t ‘push’ anything.  In fact, there is only ONE page on this entire blog where you can learn about my marketing services.

You attract sales, leads and referrals by being attractive.  In the online world, this means making your site or blog as valuable to your ideal profile of client / customer as possible.  You do this by focusing on delivering quality and quantity. It requires a mindset, where you are prepared to give high quality information away for free; not just the watered down free stuff you see on most websites or in free ebooks!

If you keep all the good stuff back for your paying clients, how is a prospective client going to know how brilliant you are?

You need to make your blog or website an Aladdin’s cave. This means, when your prospective clients or customers arrive, they need to believe they have just stumbled upon a goldmine of great information.

If you sell widgets, make YOUR site or blog THEE place to find out everything they need to know about widgets!  If you sell a service (like I do), use your blog or site to showcase your expertise. Show you really know your subject, answer people’s questions and position yourself in their mind as an expert in your field.

Of course, we are not only attracted to people, groups, blogs and sites that offer great value – we love to SHARE them with our friends and contacts too.

I always advise people to take a look at their marketing and decide if it is genuinely attractive to prospective clients / customers or not.  If you are not sure or you just want to make your marketing even more attractive, ask yourself the Aladdin’s cave question, which I touched upon earlier.

“Would someone visiting my website or blog immediately think they have just stumbled upon a goldmine of great information?”

If the answer is no, look for as many ways as possible to add massive value!

Online networking & attraction

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As some of you already know, I use Twitter; the micro-blogging tool, to keep in touch with some friends, clients and contacts.  I have three thousand followers and really enjoy interacting with them; they are a BRILLIANT bunch of people!  However, I know that many of them find it hard to get new followers, so I decided to do something to help!

My idea

I wanted to develop a list of my followers, who were all interested in networking – so people could build their Twitter follow lists. I sent my followers a Twitter message (called a Tweet), asking them to send me their name and their username, if they wanted to go on this list.

Only around 70 of the 120 or so replies I got were actually usable.  The remainder were sent without a name, or were emailed to me via the blog, without a Twitter user name! Obviously, because so few of the messages were usable, it became way too time consuming for me to continue and the list has been closed.

Two important lessons I want to share with you

Firstly, Twitter is a wonderful tool, but it is limited. It only allows you to post 140 character long messages. This means it’s great for getting short, direct messages out, but lousy for explaining things.  I’m sorry for not being clear enough with my request – But that’s NOT the reason I’m writing this!

There was a second, far more valuable lesson here!

Around a dozen of the messages I received were borderline abusive or very abrupt.  So, as a marketing man, I wanted to know how that kind of online networking attitude was working for these people.  Here’s what I found….

I decided to take a look at their websites or blogs, using a few of the well-known online research tools – just to get a very general idea of how many people they were attracting to their sites.  Not one was registering even average traffic numbers.  Then I took a look at the blogs of those who had blogs, and saw very few comments or signs of reader activity.  Finally, I noticed that none of them had more than a handful of followers on Twitter either.

Whether building a network of clients online or offline, it seems the same rules apply:

People are attracted to attractive people
– and they are repelled by repellent people.
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When I talk about being an attractive person here, I don’t mean physically attractive – I mean attractive in relation to one’s personality and actions.  Even ugly, bald guys like me can be attractive as people ya know!

The way we interact with people online is REALLY important.  If we try to help people, speak well of people and focus on delivering quality to people – we will attract the help and co-operation of others.  However, if we speak ill of people, are abrupt with people or focus too much on ourselves – we will attract very little positive response.

What have YOUR experiences been with online networking?

Do you have any tips you would like to share with your fellow readers?  If so, please leave a comment below.

The power of attraction marketing

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I am going to show you how to use attraction marketing to attract leads and sales!  Please do not confuse this with the so-called ‘law of attraction!’

In fact, if you use the ideas I am about to share with you, you will never have to chase; business, income, sales, clients or leads ever again.

The power of attraction on people

Have you ever noticed what happens when a beautiful woman or a handsome man walks into a bar? That’s right – people look at them. In fact, people will often walk over and offer them a drink or simply strike up a conversation with them. The reason we call these people ‘attractive’ is because they (literally) ‘attract’ the attention and interest of other people.

What does this have to do with you and your business?

The most effective businesses use the power of attraction in order to attract sales, clients, readers and customers! Just like the attractive person who walks into a room and gets everyone’s attention, these businesses gain the attention and interest of potential clients by being attractive.

If you decide to use attraction marketing, you can quickly sky-rocket your results without having to make cold calls or ‘sell’ anything to anyone. It’s a wonderful, zero-stress way to grow your business.

Attraction marketing in action

For example, I use the power of attraction for 100% of my marketing! People find my blog and my marketing newsletter ‘attractive’, so they forward them to their contacts, colleagues and friends – helping me attract more people. These new people then do the same etc, etc…

Without me spending a penny on ANY form of advertising, (pay-per-click, affiliates or anything else), there are now millions of people who know all about my ability to help them produce great sales results. So, when my readers decide they want someone to look after their marketing, they give me a call.

Clients should be attracted NOT pursued!

Most businesses get it the wrong way around. They choose to ‘pursue’ new clients and customers; unaware of just how much they are damaging their chances of success and their reputation. Even though people are not responding to their mail shots, email marketing or calls; they just keep on grinding away regardless.

This approach costs a fortune and the results are dire!

That’s because people universally HATE being; pursued, pestered, hassled or chased.

  • This is why people are so rude when you cold call them!
  • It’s also why people hate being sent spam email!
  • AND why we all avoid over-eager salespeople!

Using attraction marketing in your business

Here’s an example, from one of the most competitive industries on the planet; the recruitment business. A client of mine used to call people and was often the 4th or 5th recruitment company to call that same person that same day!  He knew something needed to change, and quickly, because it was getting harder and harder to reach potential clients.

I suggested he set up a simple, low-cost website, aimed at candidates (people looking for work). The website was then packed with hints, tips and ideas that were designed to help people find the perfect job. He then wrote to the top 100 HR people in his target market – Not asking for business, but asking if he could interview them for his new website.

Guess what?

Not only did he manage to meet with stacks of powerful decision makers, many of them went on to become clients! The interview was an attractive proposition, which attracted a great deal of interest.  These powerful people actually CALLED HIM to arrange a time for their interview! It totally changed the way they positioned him and his company in their mind, compared to his competitors, who were hounding them for business in desperation.

A low cost website and the marketing power of attraction was all he needed, in order to achieve stunning sales results.

So, stop chasing new business

If people are not replying to your mail shots, marketing emails or returning your calls, they are telling you something.  They are telling you that your offer or marketing is NOT attractive to them!

Like my example of the recruitment company earlier, you must find a way to market your services so that you become irresistible.  You see, when you use the power of attraction to generate sales, you spend 100% of your time speaking with people who are:

  • Already interested in you and your services.
  • Already aware of the value you offer.
  • Ready to proceed.

Conclusion

No matter what industry or profession you are in, the power of attraction can slash your marketing costs, take the stress away from selling and transform the way your future clients think of you and your business.