We’re doing twitter outreach wrong

Imagine you’re walking down Times Square. A man in a ridiculous uniform walks up to you, hands you a flier and asks you to visit his restaurant.

If you’re like most people, I assume you’ll walk on. You’ll probably be a little irritated.

Well, Twitter is the Times Square of the 21st century. In fact, it’s also the Colaba Causeway and the Champs-Élysées and Abbey Road. However, no matter how crowded it is, you always have space to walk, to call out to a person (or a group) and have a conversation, without seeming creepy.

But yet, most of us are still doing the digital equivalent of handing out fliers. This ignores a basic quality almost everybody shares.

We don’t like being sold too.

We don’t like it when someone comes to us with an agenda. We know that person in the uniform doesn't really think of us as actual people. We’re simply walking dollar signs for him.

We like it when someone shows a genuine interest in us.

Imagine, instead, a man comes up to up and begins a conversation. He has no agenda (apparently), is interesting, respects your space, and is, you know, the kind of person you would generally like to talk to.

After, a degree of comfort has been established, the man could do three things-

1. Artfully the conversation towards food, and then tells you about his restaurant. He talks about his philosophy of food, and about the interesting ways his staff prepares french fries, and about this new Turkish dessert that’s on his menu.
2. You ask him what he does. He tells you ‘I run the restaurant you’re going to have lunch in tomorrow” and winks.
3. You’re a little hungry, or maybe you just want to lounge around somewhere for a while. You ask him if he knows a good place you can eat/chill. He says, “You know, I actually have this restaurant...”

Do you see the difference between the two approaches? Which one do you think is more likely to succeed?

What does this have to do with Twitter

Because twitter makes it so much easier to have actual conversations.

Here’s an example of what I was talking about. (I was consulting for a social network called for book lovers at that time)

The link that I posted in my last tweet is from my client’s blog. The blog got many times it’s usual traffic from twitter on that date. Maybe because the other client had over 24 k followers on twitter?

Twitter is way easier than Times Square.

You can do a hashtag search, find out people’s interests, and respond to remarks they make.

While on Timesquare, they could be busy because they have a movie to catch, or a meeting to get to, here they can reply at their leisure.

Not to mention that behind a computer screen, a stranger beginning a conversation changes from becoming potentially awkward to ego-boosting. (How do you feel when that notification bar lights up?)

So I just begin talking to random people on twitter?

Well, yes, although we can be a bit more nuanced.

Let me give you examples of how I’ve used this strategy across twodifferent verticals.

a) Content Providers

1. Think about your latest blog/video/podcast and try to identify one little ingredient that would interest people. (If nothing comes to mind, I suggest taking a cold hard look at your content). In the above example, it was Picasso’s Poetry.
2. Now think about a relevant hashtag, and search for the latest tweets on the subject.
3. Begin a conversation. (Remember, do not wear your uniform, do not be overly self promotional).
4. Steer that conversation on to whatever it is that you’re trying to promote. Subtlety is the key here.

Here’s an example of what not to do (and no, this wasn’t me):

You might be thinking that this is far too labour intensive. We’ll talk about how the effort pays off at the end of the article.

b) Retailers (both offline and online)

What is your best product- one that your customers are sure to love? It could be a t-shirt, a burger, a poster.

Repeat the three steps outlined above.

I was consulting for a night-food delivery service, whose popular food item was ‘The Big Kahuna Burger’- which you might remember as a fictional restaurant chain in Tarantino’s movies.
So I searched hashtag Tarantino with a location filter Delhi, and then this is what followed.

I’m told that the owner of the twitter handler has now become a loyal customer of my client. His favourite dish? The Big Kahuna Burger.

Is this approach worth it?

Only if whatever your sending your customer to is worth coming back for.

Like The Big Kahuna Burger.

I had a client who was running a blog as a part of his inbound marketing efforts. I tried this approach as a part of an effort to increase his blog readership. While there was a short-term spike, it didn't sustain itself in the long run, simply because the content in that blog wasn't worth coming back for.

However, if it is, then this can be a powerful method to drive leads and engagement in the initial stages of the businesses. It is labour intensive, but you get the best kind of customers- the kind that drive engagement.

My suggestion is to build up a small community of these people, to build up a critical mass, until you go after the influencers.

Influencers, of course, or a different game all together. I’ll be writing about how to get them on your side in a new blog post soon.