Recently I
It got me thinking about how many people it could actually be reaching and the power of Retweets.
- I took a snapshot of 60 people that retweeted it and just in that small group I calculated 288,000 followers; and that snapshot is less than a third. Now I appreciate that not all followers are real people and not all those followers will be online at the time of that retweet but it still had the power to reach a lot of people.
- I often work off the figure that 10% of followers will actually see a tweet – now that figure is just in my head and I have no idea how it could actually be calculated – if anyone does know then pray tell. So even working on my 10% rule it still reached 1,000’s.
I kept in touch with Adriaan while all these Retweets and Bizsugar votes where happening and he gave me this quote;
“I was overwhelmed by the reaction to my interview with Sian for Bloggertone. I had not expected to get such a positive reaction from colleagues, friends and new followers as to how well they thought the interview read and how they enjoyed reading its contents. Whilst I felt a certain amount of regret that I had perhaps given away some of my twitter secrets it far outweighed the good I felt for sharing my thoughts with the online community. To be retweeted by a tweeter with over 75000 followers was also amazing. My followers increased by over 200 since the interview went out and I am still seeing the ripple effects as people are still retweeting the blog. I can’t say that we got direct business from the article but a lot more people know about us now than did beforehand! There is a hashtag going around called #poweroftwitter and this interview really fitted that bill. I definitely underestimated the effect of the blog and am now under even more pressure to start producing one myself for the hotel. I think part of the success was due to the way that Sian extracted the information from me……she put me at ease straight away and I really enjoyed the chat with her.”
Adriaan’s comment again shows his generosity by feeling good for sharing his tips with the online community. This comes across in his tweets which is why I think Twitter works so well for him.
Of course I think we did do well with the post for a few specific reasons:-
- Cliff House Hotel have a good, generous following on Twitter – that was what the post was about after all – and his followers helped get it out there with Retweets.
- Bloggertone is a respected platform to be published on and there is a great team promoting it online.
- Bizsugar is also a great website to put your business articles on and get them seen on a much bigger scale.
I tried to explain Twitter to someone recently who can barely switch on a computer and he couldn’t comprehend how I could reach so many people; people I’ve never met or spoken to and also a lot I haven’t even Tweeted with. It is hard to appreciate its power if you don’t use Twitter.
In the interview Adriaan mentions how just one of his tweets reached a man in Texas who had a film crew in Ireland and within 3 days they were in Ardmore and at the hotel. I have also been asked by a Tweeter in Portland, Oregon if they can use the piece I wrote for a marketing blog they are writing.
You just never know with Twitter so don’t dismiss it.
I often hear “I don’t like Twitter; I can’t do it; it doesn’t make any sense” and all I can say is give it a go, stick with it and persevere. Read blogs about how to use Twitter; get tips and advice from people using Twitter well. Just don’t think it isn’t any good because you’re not sure how to use it or maybe it scares you.
If you have an online business you really do need to be on Twitter. And remember from the example of @cliffhousehotel it’s not all about selling. That is a huge turn off. For me I think the #poweroftwitter is to be nice and generous and people will want to know you. What goes around comes around.
And it’s not just the power of Twitter, it’s the power of being online. It’s surprising how far away you can reach nowadays. Fellow Bloggertone member Elaine Rogers recently got an email from a guy in the USA to inform her that her last post was passed around his business networking group in New Jersey. “So if you ever assume your posts don’t reach far, you need to broaden your horizons” says Elaine. Have you got any good examples of the #poweroftwitter?
Image: “bird series: flock of martin bird/Shutterstock“
