♪♫ ♪♫ Ding Dong  Twitter Is Dead…♪♫ ♪♫

Well…

Maybe not quite YET…

What in the heck is John Reese … internet marketing big gun …

doing by DELETING his TWITTER ACCOUNT …???

Yesterday John told everyone on his mailing list that he was deleting his Twitter account…

He had 25K followers…Why on EARTH would someone with that big a following DELETE HIS ACCOUNT…???

After all… the more followers you have the more money you make right…???

Here is what John said in his 1st email yesterday…

Facebook trumps Twitter by a long shot.

I just deleted my Twitter account.
It had over 25,000 followers.

Here’s why…

About a year ago, I really loved
Twitter.  It was a lot of fun and
it was great for communicating
with people and for getting into
all sorts of discussions.

But as Twitter has grown, it’s
become full of NOISE.

Even, though, my follower
count has risen, the response
to my tweets has been on a
steady decline.  The reason is
simple…

There’s just more and more
noise on Twitter.  People are
following so many people
that single tweets are easily
missed in someone’s timeline.

* I’ve confirmed this decline
with many other Twitter users.

And it’s only going to get worse.

Now I know there are many
people that are going to DISAGREE
with me on this.  And that’s okay.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

But let me explain further why
I made this decision…

Certainly I could have just kept
the account and only checked it
every few days or so.  Heck, I could
have had one of my employees
manage it for me.  But I didn’t
want to do that.

And I came to recognize that no
matter how little I may have used
Twitter, it would still be robbing
my focus.  I’d still always wonder
if someone had “@” messaged
me to ask me something or if
something else needed my attention.

And THAT is what would have kept
me constantly checking it multiple
times a day like I had been.

For me, I feel like my time is much
better spent not using Twitter.  It’s
in my opinion, and again just my
opinion, that Twitter has become
an overhyped FAD.

I think it’s only going to become
more and more of a time-waster
for people, and it’s going to become
harder and harder to keep up with
all the noise on it.

Like I said, many will be sure
to disagree with me.  There are
many that believe “All things
Social Media” are the greatest
things since slice bread.

For me, however, I think time
and energy is much better spent
on fundamental areas of marketing —
like communicating with your list
(which I plan on doing more of)
and creating great content for
your audience.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll
return to Twitter.  But for now, it’s
goodbye.  Frankly, it’s only
been a few minutes since I deleted
my account and I already feel this
sense of RELIEF.  Just knowing
that it will no longer rob my focus
throughout the day makes me feel
good in knowing I’ll better focus
on things I want to get done with
my time.

I once had great hopes for Twitter.
I even stated I thought Twitter would
be more valuable than Facebook.
But now I really believe the opposite
is true…

Facebook is the king of all Social Media
and looks like it will be for many years
to come.

There’s no denying that over 400 million
people have created accounts on
Facebook, and according to Facebook,
HALF of their users (i.e. 200MM)
login at least once per day.

That’s absolutely incredible.

I’ve been having some great success
with Facebook Ads lately, as well
as testing other ways to market
from within Facebook itself.

Facebook trumps Twitter by a long shot.
And while it’s easy to get caught up
in using “all the channels available
for my business” one must never lose
sight of the 80/20 rule.

It’s just like traffic-generation has been
for years. There are 500+ ways to
generate traffic to a web site, but there
are 5-7 SOLID ways that trump everything
else.  Those are the methods you need
to be focused on and in many cases
ignoring the others.

I do think it’s not the marketing channel
that many believe it to be. The concept
behind Twitter is a strong one. The
marketing and relationship opportunities
(at least on paper) look fantastic.

There’s only one problem that no one
seems to ever talk about…

Many tweets are never even seen by
people “following” that person.

But, overall, I personally feel that
Twitter is a time and focus vampire.
The ROI from Twitter just isn’t
worth the time many people put
into it with spending hours of time
interacting with people.

I would like to make this CHALLENGE
to you…

If you’re using Twitter much at all, stop
using Twitter for one week. Don’t login
or check your account or stream or
anything.

Spend the next week using the time
you would use on Twitter to setup some
new PPC campaigns, test some Facebook
Ads, write some articles or blog posts,
or make an offer to your email list.

I guarantee you that you will make
far more money during this week not
using Twitter than if you were still spending
your time on it. And that’s the point.”

Here’s what John said in his 2nd email yesterday ….

“Is Twitter Dying?”

No, I don’t believe Twitter is dying.

Could Twitter completely go away
or be replaced in the near future?

YES.  Of course it could.  That’s the
nature of the Internet.  Just look at
MySpace.  No one ever thought
another social network would top
MySpace.

You can also look at Internet history.
Friendster came before MySpace.
Hotmail before Gmail.  ICQ before
Skype.

I think Twitter will be around for awhile.
HOWEVER…

I do think it’s not the marketing channel
that many believe it to be. The concept
behind Twitter is a strong one.  The
marketing and relationship opportunities
(at least on paper) look fantastic.

There’s only one problem that no one
seems to ever talk about…

Many tweets are never even seen by
people “following” that person.

Either their Twitter stream is too full
with the posts of other users they
follow, or they don’t login often enough
to catch tweets before they get pushed
“down the list.”

Very few Twitter users actually go
and click on a username and read
every single tweet they make.  That’s
not the nature of how Twitter works.
It’s all about the timeline and flow of
tweets from people being followed.

I do think Twitter can be an effective
SYNDICATION channel to auto-post
links to your new blog posts or other
activity.  Even if just a small percentage
of people following you catch those
URLs and you get ‘some’ traffic it
can be worth it — especially if you
automate the posting like many
are doing.

But, overall, I personally feel that
Twitter is a time and focus vampire.
The ROI from Twitter just isn’t
worth the time many people put
into it with spending hours of time
interacting with people.

Spend the next week using the time
you would use on Twitter to setup some
new PPC campaigns, test some Facebook
Ads, write some articles or blog posts,
or make an offer to your email list.

I guarantee you that you will make
far more money during this week not
using Twitter than if you were still spending
your time on it.  And that’s the point.

What I’m about to say is going to piss off
a lot of people… and that’s okay…. because
my ‘job’ is to help you grow your business
and make more money, and sometimes
you need to hear advice that has only
that in mind…

But when it comes to business, and for
making money, it’s about the FUNDAMENTAL
things that make business (especially
online) work…

– Serving a target market.
– Providing value to that market to
solve their problems.
– Lead generation.
– Building a list of prospects and
customers in that market so you can
follow-up, strengthen your relationship
with them, and also make offers that
generate revenue for you.

That’s it.  That’s what generates
millions of dollars.

Here is the 3rd email I received from John a few hours ago…

and  I am going to make a point here…I haven’t heard anything from John Reese in quite a while … I knew that he was doing SOMETHING with income.com…

BUT…if you don’t stay in regular communication with YOUR LIST…the old saying applies…”Out of sight…Out of Mind…”

John is launching something (he was alluding to it in his previous 2 emails)… what better way for HIM to GET people to pay attention to HIM again than by doing something really radical like DELETING his Twitter account…???

Or could it be that I have just gotten so jaded by all of the marketing “strategies” that I have seen people use that I smell a thinly veiled “buy my stuff” offer coming down the pike from a guy that is concerned about how well his LIST is going to respond…???

Ever since I announced that I deleted
my Twitter account with 25K followers
and shared my opinion that I thought
there were better uses for my time,
so many people have been up in arms
over it.

Many people have screamed…

“This is some sort of guru tactic!”

OR…

“It’s just a ploy because he’s coming
out with a new site that will probably
compete with Twitter.”

Let me ruin the suspense…

I didn’t kill my Twitter account as
a marketing tactic.

And, NO, I’m not coming out with
something that competes with
Twitter — not even close.

In fact, our new Income.com site
is PRETTY BORING in regards
to bells and whistles…

We’re simply putting more focus
on our email newsletter and launching
a new “Insider” program for those
that want more in-depth info, case
studies, etc.

THAT’S IT

The fact is, I deleted my Twitter account
BECAUSE I FELT LIKE IT.

It was a long time coming.  It was nothing
but a DISTRACTION for me.

WARNING…

Many people are saying that
Social Media tools are worth
using so much because it’s all
about “building relationships.”

You must VERY CAREFUL falling
into this trap…

Yes, you can certainly meet people
using those tools — I do all the time.
BUT…

There’s a difference in getting an
introduction to someone and constantly
engaging in MEANINGLESS CHATTER
with people.

Time is precious.  It’s the only limited
resource you have.  If you aren’t making
as much money or progress in your
business that you’d like it’s simply
because you are WASTING YOUR TIME
on things that don’t meet your strategic
goals.

This is a major difference between WHAT
WORKS and WHAT WORKS BEST.

It’s all about the 80/20 rule and managing
where you ‘spend’ your resources – time
or money.

Take out a piece of paper and write down
everything you spend your time on for
your business…

Then ask yourself… is every one of these
items the BEST USE for my time?

Anyway…this WHOLE thing has been very amusing for me to read about…Facebook is all a Twitter with the news ~ NO pun intended…;-) Here is a link to some really juicy reading if you want to see what OTHER folks have to say about it… Warning Stop Using Twitter ! John Reese Sparks Wild Controversy

Here are my opinions of this whole thing…Twitter can be a FANTASTIC TOOL if used prudently… I have close to 10,000 followers…many of whom I do not know personally…I have RELATIONSHIPS with maybe 300 of those people…I spend no more than 30 minutes PER DAY on Twitter…I simply have too many other things going on…

I use Twitter to invite people to connect with me on Facebook so that we can get to know one another better and on a deeper level…and from Facebook I invite people HERE to my blog so that they can get to know me even better. I communicate with people REGULARLY…that way they get accustomed to seeing my name in their email box…and I don’t send them offers every time I email them. So far…this has proven to work very well FOR ME.

Create a system that works well for YOU…don’t play the “GURU SAYS” game. The only right way to do anything is the way that gets YOU the results you are looking for…

I would LOVE to hear what YOU have to say about all of this… Feel free to chime in below !! If you like this…take a minute to get the word out…I appreciate it !!