The 7 Indispensable Links to Twitter Success

This is Chapter 56 of the forthcoming book, Trajectory.  It is the last chapter that will be made available prior to publication later this month.

Indispensable Links to Twitter Success

There are seven indispensable links between a desire for Twitter accomplishment and actually accomplishing unbridled success — and the chain between them is only as strong as its weakest link.

As you begin any Twitter campaign, and as you work it daily, keep these seven ideas paramount in your mind.

1. Tweet Substance, Not Sales:  The first and foremost link to Twitter Success is that you must tweet substance and not sales.  This one link – if weak – will guarantee failure.  More than any other mistake, the belief that you can tweet incessantly about your products and services without diminishing otherwise useful Twitter activity is wrong-minded and foolhardy.  There will be plenty of time for sales activity later when it is appropriate, but if you try to sell too early all your effort will be wasted.
2. Tweet on Target:  If you follow the Trajectory Formula carefully, you will have a coherent strategy in place before you begin to tweet.  You will have assembled a Twitter following from your target market.  And you will know precisely what they want and need.  Now that you have done all these things right, the next link in the chain is to Tweet on Target.  Simply stated, this means that you will tweet an engaging combination of original articles — and the recommended articles of others – that target with precision the wants and needs you have previously identified.  In every case, remember that you are writing for them, not yourself. 
3. Tweet Copiously:  Your tweets should be plentiful in number, full of thought and exuberant in expression.  You can’t do that in the limited space Twitter allows, so your tweets need to be signposts, directing your followers either to full articles you have written or similar articles written by others.  Forget Twitter’s genesis as a “what are you doing now” banality, and turn it into something much more.  By tweeting copiously, you will set your brand apart.
4. Tweet Deferentially: Your followers deserve polite respect and courtesy.  The practical implication of tweeting deferentially is that, among other things, you must value their time and attention.  You must provide a quantity of useful information, without deluging their Twitter stream.  Since you are tweeting in large numbers, how do you avoid drowning their Twitter stream?  The answer is BufferApp.com; a website that schedule’s your Tweets throughout the day.  Tweeting deferentially has an added advantage.  By scheduling with care, you can accommodate different subsets of your market, in different countries worldwide; expand your activities to 24 hours per day; and maximize the return on your time investment.
5. Tweet Consistently:  As will be discussed later in Chapter 65, consistency is perhaps the most important link in the chain of Twitter Success.  Presuming that you are following all of the elements of the Trajectory Formula, doing so inconsistently will minimize if not destroy your work.  Particularly during the period when you are building Critical Mass and Escape Velocity, you must be consistent.  Early in the campaign you will establish your daily routine – a routine your followers will come to expect – and you must maintain it.  Yes, that means working every day, at least for a period of sustained effort.  The mathematically precise upward trajectory we have discussed earlier is only possible if it is undergirded by consistency.
6. Tweet Systematically:  At the beginning, when you are trying to remember the daily steps to take, building a Twitter following will seem arduous.  At times it will be frustrating and you will wonder if all the effort is worth it.  Just keep doing it — precisely the way I recommend — and soon it will become systematic.  That does not mean it will ever be mindless – everything you do from now on will be professional and painstaking – but it will require less intensity and mental energy than writing blog articles, for example, and completing your daily schedule will seem relaxing by comparison. 
7. Tweet Tirelessly:  Finally, the last link in the chain of Twitter Success is that you must be tireless.  By this time, I have certainly warned you sufficiently that Social Media is simple, but it isn’t easy.  It is crucial to remember that all of this effort is building very significant value into your business.  Keep pushing yourself.  Never give up.  Every day in which you expend maximum effort, is one day less until you realize the comfort and security that tireless effort promises.