Blog yourself better, part 2
September 23rd, 2009
“Blog yourself better” was what I wrote at the start of last week. Did it work ? Well, in the sense that I was writing about … stopping me from thinking about my sore throat and chesty cough … yes, for a while. About as long as it took me to write the post !
But unfortunately, it was no match for whatever the virus is that I caught and am still fighting against 
Actually, my symptoms have changed and shifted: my throat and chest are not so sore but I still have a cough … though it’s different to the way it was before. Anyway, on the grounds that generally speaking I am lucky enough to be fit and healthy, I feel as if I ought to be doing better. Truth is though that whatever it is, this bug continues to suck my energy.
So every now and then, I have to take time out and have a breather. Well, more often than not, a little nap. Let’s face it, at the moment, I’d be a gold medal contender at the Sleep Olympics ! BUT … I have to say that whilst I have been suffering like this, I have been able to do some good things.
For example, I have been able to do some research on twitter, something that I have been long overdue in getting to grips with. I am steadily building my following and hope to break through the four digit barrier in the next couple of weeks. I am also looking in to a number of different tools to use with it, although IMHO, this is dangerous territory.
Why ? Because there are so many of them ! In some ways, it’s very possible to get lost down the rabbit hole investigating tools for use with twitter in the same way that it is when you’re actually using twitter manually. However, I have found one or two ideas which I think will prove useful.
I read somewhere recently that twitter has now gone past “The Threshold” where it’s a geeky, nerdy thing and that it’s now “Mainstream” … whatever that means exactly ! Whatever, it passed 50 million unique users this summer and growth continues at a seemingly exponential rate. I guess this puts quite a strain on the IT infrastructure. My own subjective experience is that at busy times, it just drops offline for very short periods. It usually comes back pretty quickly, but it must be something of a nightmare for their IT guys.
We’ve also seen Facebook announcing what look to me like “me too !” features, adopting the @name nomenclature as well. In terms of numbers, I understand that Facebook is still light years ahead of twitter. But, a recent report on brandrepublic.com suggested that it’s actually serving two increasingly distinct audiences. The report quotes Nielsen as saying that only 16% of twitter’s users are under 25. It goes on to say …
According to one theory, teens are more interested in Facebook than Twitter because their lives tend to revolve around their friends and Facebook is more oriented around friend groups.
Twitter however is better for broadcasting comment, ideas or products to the outside world, to people users have never met.
Evan Williams, Twitter’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “Many people use [Twitter] for professional purposes — keeping connected with industry contacts and following news.
“Because it’s a one-to-many network and most of the content is public, it works for this better than a social network that’s optimized for friend communication.”
Source: brandrepublic.com, 26 August 2009
Interesting, no ?
Meanwhile, back in the real world (whatever that is !), my researches have caused the seed of an idea to germinate. It combines the use of twitter with some of the ideas taught by my internet marketing mentor, Alex Jeffreys. As best I can at the moment, I am looking in to setting up a little trial and when I do, I’ll let you know about it.
Final word today: I will be dosing myself with all the necessary to allow me to stay up and listen to my co-student Rob Canyon give a totally unique talk to a strictly limited number of people. The title of the talk is How I Made $3,758 In 21 Days Online With My Double Click Blueprint Strategy. I know that Rob is a great marketer some I am signed up already.
The thing is that for tonight only, he will explain this strategy for free ! After that, he’ll be charging several hundred dollars for people to discover his secrets. Time is tight now and there’s a limit of 200 people for tonight’s webinar, so I can offer no guarantees as to whether you’ll get in. But if you have a chance, click on that link and follow Rob’s instructions. Hope to see you there.
Categories: General
Hey Roger,
Firstly I’m very sorry to hear you are not very well, I’ve not been feeling to great myself recently. I had some painful mouth ulcers.
I do hope you are feeling better again very soon, and that it is nothing too serious?
I’ve managed to build my following on Twitter to nearly 8,000 now. It’s taken me 5 months, but I’m quite proud of it.
I find quotes do very well on Twitter, and don’t know what it is about them, but people love them. Of course it depends what sort of quotes you are tweeting, I like to tweet, success, inspirational, confindence and friend quotes. They go down a treat, and I get retweeted all over the place.
I also have my Twitter account conected to my facebook profile now, so the quotes get posted there now too. They are just as well received on Facebook, as on Twitter.
So there’s a little tip for you, please do give me a shout over at my blog, or on twitter when you set up your trial of this idea you’ve had. I would love to hear more about it.
Take care, and get well soon, Roger!
Paul.
Hi Paul, thanks for the ideas on Twitter. I am slowly getting things together on the ideas that I mentioned in my post. The trouble is, having lost some time through illness, I have tons of stuff that I want to do !
BTW thanks for your good wishes. I am now well over the worst of it, though some of its effects are lingering, but I think that’s only to be expected I suppose. Hope that you’re back to full strength too ASAP !
All the best,
Roger
Hey Roger,
These are some great insights into Twitter and Facebook. For the longest time I avoided Twitter because I thought it would be no good for me. Of course that all changed after I read all of the successful internet marketers and businesses that could get their name and products spread to thousands, instantly.
As for the rabbit holes you could lose yourself in, Twitter fanatics have so many of them. I’ve chosen to just single out a could tools and websites and partially ignore the rest. There no need in complicating a very simple concept!
Get well soon, my friend! I’ll talk to you later.
Joe
Hi Joe, thanks for your good wishes. I am getting further and further up the curve to 100% again – see a new post coming soon which talks about this.
I think that it is going to be very interesting to watch the progress of twitter in the next few months. They have seen explosive growth this year – I wonder if they can sustain it.
All the best,
Roge
Hey Roge:
Judging by my teenager online behavior, – teenagers prefer Facebook because there are games on there. Which introduces a whole slew of entertainment, social proof, competitive survival play etc.
Cheers,
Thomas