Twitter sucks…
There I said it, and someone had to. There are too many marketing types spreading the word about Twitter as if it’s the second coming of the Marketing Jesus.
But the truth is, Twitter sucks…
OK, so I use Twitter, and I like it, but as a marketing medium, I have yet to see any return whatsoever from it.
There are three main reasons Twitter just doesn’t cut it…
In many cases, your “tweet” will be seen only by less than 10% of your followers.
This is because as the Twitter stream progresses, your message moves down the page.
If your followers aren’t watching at the moment you make a post, they’ll most likely miss the message all together.
and… the more people your followers follow, the quicker your message gets pushed down the page.
In fact, those who follow 100 or more people, they won’t see a thing unless looking at the page immediately after you post.
#2: You’re competing with more than other dentists.
It’s hard enough to get your message noticed just in your local neighborhood, but on Twitter, you’re trying to compete with everyone… worldwide.
Every dentist, lawyer, and candlestick maker who jumped on the bandwagon is clogging the Twitter stream with their BS hoping that it will land in the right hands.
And… of all the dentists I see on Twitter, many of them are boring as hell, you included.
“Click here for a dental appointment” doesn’t cut it. Your message has to be good (and not boring) to get noticed and passed on.
My advice: QUIT BEING BORING!
#3: The connection on Twitter is loose at best.
This is a big deal. Word of Twitter does not equal word of mouth for the same reason that phone-sex does not equal real sex.
There is no intimacy, no face to a name, no emotion.
Rarely do many Twitter users actually know or meet those that they follow. They follow someone like Shaquille O’Neal or Oprah because they’re famous, not because they are really friends.
The whole point of this article is to let you know that Twitter is OK, but there are many more ways out there to build real relationships.
Get out of your mom’s basement and make a few phone calls, or better yet, put some pants on and go to that networking event and create some real relationships.
Twitter followers are just that… followers. Not real friends, not “connections” and definitely not reliable referral sources.
Be on Twitter if you like, but it (or Facebook, or email) will never replace true person to person, face to face communication.
P.S. Look around, look around a bit. Do you notice that the only ones making real money from Twitter are those selling “How To Use Twitter” courses?
