Art Meets Commerce

A lot of folks new to Twitter make the mistake of assuming that beefing up one’s follower count is the entire point of the service. Truth: It means nothing.

Who could blame them? The number is prominently displayed, it’s understandably a bit of an ego boost when a new person signs on to receive your updates (let’s call it the “You Like Me, You Really Like Me” syndrome) and bigger numbers just look cooler (case in point: infinity+1). But if you’ve got something to market, it’s a big mistake to focus on this.

It’s about goals, really

If your goal is to get a ton of followers, well, that’s easy. There are dozens of services that create fake Twitter accounts to follow yours, and you can reach 10,000 followers in a couple of days without breaking a sweat. They’re reprehensible, and not worth linking to, but you can find them if that is truly your goal (and if it is, you can stop reading here).

But why the heck would that be your goal? Don’t you, uh, have something you want people to buy? Isn’t that the point? If it is, and your follower list looks remotely like this, you’re doing it wrong:

If you’ve got a show to market, a product to sell or a site to promote, millions of fake followers will be just as effective as never joining Twitter in the first place, and every minute you spend getting fake followers is a minute lost from focusing on the bigger picture. In Machiavellian terms, Twitter is not the end, it is the means. What you want is to cultivate a highly-interested, dedicated and engaged group of followers—real people who will interact with your brand, spread positive word of mouth, participate in contests, respond to requests to rate your stuff and vote for you in polls, and, more than anything, actually buy whatever it is you’re selling.

Lead, Don’t Follow

Rock of Ages (a Broadway client of ours) has seen incredible success from the Twitter account we created for the show. When we pose a question to our followers, we get dozens of responses. When we post a discount, we sell dozens of tickets. When we hold a contest, we get hundreds of entries. And yesterday, when we expressed (faux) outrage over being tied with Shrek The Musical on this NYTimes poll of Tony Award Nominees, the vote total in all five categories shot up dramatically (and ROA now actually leads several of the categories!). No hacking involved, simply motivating the most dedicated fans to spread the love on behalf of the show.

It’s a lot harder to build a community like that, which is why so few are doing it—especially in the marketing world where it’s relatively easy to impress clients with big numbers that mean nothing. But the payoff is real. Focus on leading, sharing, communicating, teaching and learning, and actual live people will find you and start to make your job easy.