Social Media Guide

Yes, I said “Less Followers”. It’s not a typo. I’m not crazy and it’s not a clever headline for a post that will turn into the opposite in the third paragraph.

Let me first do a formal introduction, this is the second installment of the “Striking Six” Blog Series that involves 6 online mavericks sharing knowledge on how to craft an inspirational and powerful online presence. Each one of these awesome and mystery bloggers are revealed on each post when it’s published so you have to keep up with the series. Exciting isn’t it?

The first installment of the series was revealed a couple of days ago by Mars Dorian with his edgy style and message to change the world. Here is the link to The Guerrilla’s Guide To Attracting Your “Right” Audience.

Back to our topic in hand… and why “Less Followers” is the new “More Followers”. I’m inviting you today to disregard all those posts you’ve read about how to build huge communities, get more followers and likes, including mine. This has nothing to do with administration of all those Twitter followers and how hard it can be if you have too many because it’s clear that with the appropriate tools we can easily manage and filter information however we need.

Influence doesn’t spread by getting huge numbers. Audiences are built by truly connecting with individuals, one at a time, getting your message across and making people fall in love with it.

Community Growth

Community growth is usually part of a social media strategy for brands. Metrics and tools are setup in order to measure, benchmark and do projections. This should NOT be your case. As an entrepreneur/blogger you should put your focus elsewhere and with patience, communicate with individuals on a regular basis.

If you are able to craft remarkable content and products, and promote them, your audience and online community will grow organically. There is nothing healthier than that. But I hear you say “there is nothing new about that”, let me explain…

We are used to getting mixed messages, we’ve talked about this at SocialMouths. The people that tells you to stop worrying about numbers lists every single counter on their blogs and on the other side of the fence, people telling you to get more followers. We create pressure to be seen as successful, we worry about social proof. Those mixed messages only deliver more confusion.

So what happens now? The difference is that we are starting to embrace those small audiences. Now building tiny communities is cool, it’s appreciated. Today “Less Followers” is the new “More Followers.”

Following People Does Nothing

Let’s be honest, following people on Twitter is a vicious circle that ends at “you follow me, I follow you back”, we’re happy to have a mutual connection but there is never an exchange of words between the two.

What do you think would happen if you stop taking the initiative of following people? do you think people would follow you because what you put out there is plain awesome and they’re interested, or do you think your growth will suddenly dry?

Let me share a story with you. Earlier in my life I was lucky to get some extensive sales training that, at the moment I thought it sucked and I did it just to earn more money. Most of it is just a blur now but among the things I still retain is this: If you want to close a solid sale, try to unsell it at the end, give your client the opportunity to change his/her mind before processing the order.

At the time it sounded like I was gonna make less money and probably get fired. See, most people buy on an impulse and by doing this I was taking that out of the equation. It’s like trying to only make meaningful sales. Crazy, right?

Later in life I had the opportunity to have a business with a great product and service that allowed me to be confident enough to run a call center without written scripts and shady selling techniques and made a killing for 7 years. It happened organically. I didn’t have to go knock on doors or try to push something that people didn’t want.

The point is that if you focus on connecting with the right audience, as Mars says, your tribe will be solid and open to receive more of that magic you deliver week after week.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should hide or make it hard for people to find you. You should connect with people and you should promote your content and services. Regularly.

A New Breed Of Fearless Bloggers And Digital Entrepreneurs

Do you think you will still be able to be build an audience by just delivering who you are? Without having community growth be a task? It sounds to me like a good exercise to see if you are actually dropping pure awesomeness on a regular basis, because that spreads out on its own.

I’m a big observer of the internet and, let me tell you what I see today. Besides the bloggosphere growing like there’s no tomorrow, there is a new breed of bloggers and digital entrepreneurs that not only spread awesome shit but are also willing to take creativity to new levels, are ready to break all the rules and are not afraid to build one relationship at a time.

I’m not afraid of mentioning people and recognizing when they kick ass. Here are a few people you should pay attention to if you wanna know what I mean, you probably already know them but just in case: Srinivas Rao from The Skool Of Life, Jonathan Wondrusch from By Bloggers, Fabian Kruse from The Friendly Anarchist, Ashley Ambirge from The Middle Finger Project and Thom Chambers from In Tree Houses among others. These people don’t sit down in front of their computers to randomly follow people, they are building amazing audiences one relationship at a time and focusing on crafting epic shit to put in front of those communities. It seems to me like they even keep those audiences small on purpose.

Nothing Is ASAP

Building an audience doesn’t happen overnight, even if you go out there and take the initiative to follow people massively. No matter what social media “gurus” tell you. Sure, you get social proof when you display massive numbers on your blog or social profiles, I’m not gonna deny that but I think it has been proven that there is a lot more to it. People out there are able to create awesome without it.

Do yourself a favor and forget ASAP. Let your tribe grow organically.

The New Social Media To Do List

Wanna play the real game? Change your social media strategy, focus on creating epic stuff and let people follow you because they can’t get enough of YOU. The following To Do List will help you:

• Stop following people on Twitter
• Stop worrying about followers/following ratio
• Stop sending Facebook Page suggestions
• Stop using email opt-in popups on your blog

So how do you connect with like-minded individuals and start meaningful relationships that will eventually turn into raving fans? Good question. Let me see if I’m able to illustrate this and answer that with another question. Would you walk down the street passing out business cards? sure, why not (stupid question). Now, would you expect a meaningful relationship to be born out of that approach?

What happens if you introduce yourself as you would in real life? or if you complement somebody for his/her work? what if you turn your Facebook Page into a Q&A forum to help your audience?

The formula to play a bigger game is to:

• Be human
• Be creative
• Drop the random following

What Do You Think?

Thanks for reading, now it’s your turn. I know this is a topic with many different opinions, what’s yours? express your thoughts freely in the comments sections, disagreements are always welcome!

Market Me Tweet promises to be a game changer. In my opinion this replaces Tweetdeck.   When you post your messages to Twitter, no matter which of the popular applications you use, did you realise that you’re giving away valuable real estate and backlinks to someone else?   If you use TweetDeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite, or virtually any other application, go check your Twitter feed now and you’ll see what I mean. Every single tweet you post on YOUR page has THEIR name on it, plus a link back to THEIR website.   And organizing yourself on twitter is time consuming. Did you ever just want something that will help you grow your following, without seeming spammy?   Something that makes you a twitter superstar in your OWN NICHE?   Well, this is it.
The proof :

Did you know these are actually hyperlinks pointing back to these company’s websites?

So every time you send out a tweet you are advertising this company’s product.. with link back to their website.

You are promoting them for free.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could capitalise on this valuable piece of web real estate by,

• branding your own tweets with your business’s name
• include a link back to your website, blog or Facebook page

Just like this,

Well you can and this is show you how.

The team at PieDog Media have just released an update to their already feature packed and extremely powerful, social media management tool called MarketMeTweet.

To give you an idea of some of its features, this video provides a nice overview of MarketMeTweet v2.0,

With access to real-time information becoming the norm, can your business afford not to be using social media?

MarketMeTweet is for businesses (small and large), as well as bloggers, power-users and even newbies.

If you have a brand and use social media, then MarketMeTweet is for you.

MarketMeTweet lets you easily promote your business online, attract new customers and make more money.

This video steps through the process of setting up and configuring your brand,

Once you have set this up,  every tweet you send out will be branded with your own URL,

Features :

Unlimited Accounts

When we looked at other Twitter business services, the first thing we noticed is the confusion in the choices of accounts and limits. Businesses often have many personas, so we’ll never limit the Twitter profiles you can add.

Brand Management

This means that every tweet you send is branded with a link back to your website. You can send your customers to a twitter related page on your website.

Scheduled Tweets

When it comes to business, we know you’ve got better things to do than Tweeting at all hours of the day. That’s why we created ‘Scheduled Tweets,’ a way you can accurately schedule as many tweets as you like, up to a year in advance!

Schedule on iPhone, Android, Blackberry – *New Feature*

With our Google Calendar integration, you can now schedule tweets on the go using your iPhone, Blackberry, or Android device – and anywhere you can access your Google Calendar!

Twitter Management

No other Twitter business software has a comprehensive management side. See your friends timelines, replies/mentions, easily manage and delete direct messages, groups, search and more! Customizable Panes & Expandable Interface!

Facebook Integration – *New Feature*

Schedule to your profile page AND  unlimited fan pages! View your facebook activity in a gorgeous interface that makes keeping up with friends and contacts a breeze.

Location Targeting – *New Feature*

This is new, location targeting, that’s right, its time to get excited. Now your matches for new followers can be in the same place as you, making the quality so much higher!

Reply Campaigns

Now this something we’re really excited about at MarketMeTweet. This is a feature we built from the ground up – It allows you to find users in your niche and start conversations, and it’s completely user controlled to maintain the highest quality!

Free Updates

We listen to our customers, that’s how we were able to create this product. Without you this product couldn’t exist, and to say thank you we will be continually supporting and upgrading this product for all licensed users!

Auto RSS Tweets – *New Feature*

For Maximum Exposure! Import your blog feed directly into MarketMeTweet! Post automatically or schedule. Tweet your posts to all accounts at the same time!

Email Mentions – *New Feature*

Get an email letting you know who has @mentioned you on Twitter so you never miss a thing!

Language Targeted Tweeting

No longer grow a mass following of unresponsive users who aren’t relevant! Build a following of users who speak the same language! You don’t have to to fit MarketMetTweet – MarketMeTweet fits you.

Multiple Computers

Now this is revolutionary! Thanks to our MarketMeTweet software engineers we’ve discovered a way you can take your marketing data anywhere you go, and from whatever computer you wish to access it from!

Price

We wanted to give as many people as possible access to this tool, so we offer 4 pricing options, so getting started with this app a no-brainer! And, we have money-back guarantee!

Twitter Search

With our search feature you can easily keep up to date with all the latest tweets from the Twittersphere. You can keep up to date on who is searching you and your company, and respond with deadly accuracy.

Ping.fm Integration -*New Feature*

Have a Ping.fm account? Use MarketMeTweet to post using your favorite service!
*This product will use the Ping.fm API but is not endorsed or certified by Ping.fm.

Smart Following & Unfollowing Algorithm (user controlled)

Keep control of your account! Carefully crafted by our Software Engineers, we offer a way to find highly targeted followers, and unfollow those who aren’t enriching your account.

Group Management

It’s hard to break through the clutter in a crowded marketplace. That’s why we created groups with Twitter Lists, an easy way for you to filter your friends tweets and keep up to date!

Multiple Twitter Accounts

This is completely unlimited, so you can run multiple twitter accounts from a single application, making your life easier and more concise.

OAuth Secure

New requirement from Twitter is OAuth security encryption, and we have it! What does it mean? Well put it this way, we NEVER store your Twitter username or password. Now think about your other tools…

Post To All – *New Feature*

Have more than one Twitter Account? Facebook Profile? Fan Pages? You can post to all with one simple click! Harness the power of one-click broadcasting and get a surge of traffic!

Plugins & API

If you’ve had a look at MarketMeTweet and think “hey, I have ideas for plugins and apps….”   Well, we have ideas too!  That’s why we’re considering opening up our API for you!