English: The Mad Hatter, illustration by John Tenniel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
`You might just as well say,’ added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, `that “I tweet when I sleep” is the same thing as “I sleep when I tweet”!’
At least that is what the Dormouse might have said nearly a century and a half on. I don’t know about you, but while I am very interested in social media, and indeed social media marketing, I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about either, but I do my best with the marketing bit and I try to learn from others. I buy in some help, mainly in the area of on-line learning. I also belong to various Facebook and LinkedIn groups, and follow the most interesting marketers on Twitter.
Many of the lovely people who run the various groups or whose pages I “like” send me marketing messages from time to time. I always like to know about new content. Who doesn’t? The content for so many is what sells their paid stuff. It is the same for me in that it is content which convinces people that I and my business are the right people to help them.
However it is a well known rule of Twitter that you do not sell, but you offer valuable content, with just the occasional “infomercial”. Otherwise you end up annoying people and being unfollowed, which is unfortunate if you hope that now and again a follower will buy from you.
So why is it that some nice people with huge Twitter followings and successful blogs in terms of visits seem to achieve this while sending out automated marketing emails and Tweets to their blogs morning, noon and night? It is not even as though most of it is new stuff. Some email me daily or overnight every night with the same content, over and over again.
I am inclined to unfollow / unsubscribe, and in some cases I have. However, I would like to know whether relentless pushing of the same stuff is effective in selling, and whether the mantra about not selling on Twitter is valid in social media marketing best practice?
I would love to know what you think because I am as confused as Alice was at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
