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Getting Rid of Ad Blasting Zombies Once and For All

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Visit A Little Bookseller

Will you come on a trip with me? We’re going to visit a little bookseller in the centre of town. His name is Peter and he’s a lovely gent. Come on. Let’s go and sit for a while on his comfy sofa. Pack a flask of your favourite hot drink. We can sip tea as we read.

Sniff the air as we push open the heavy door. Do you smell it? Indescribable isn’t it? But it’s books. Beautiful books. And look, there’s Peter, chatting with wide-eyed customers. They’re transfixed by the story he’s telling them.

I was here a month ago. The air wasn’t so calm and quiet that day.

The heavy door was held open by one of those wooden door-stop things and a neon board outside shouted to passersby. “Come in. Everyone welcome. The more the better. Tell me about you!”

And in they came. Everyone.

I saw a man in a pinstripe suit. He walked up to the lovely Peter and gave him a flyer for his car hire business. Then he turned around and gave one to each of Peter’s customers.

There was a red head called Nicky. I know her name was Nicky because she had it blazoned across her teeny tiny fuchsia pink t-shirt. “Want me to paint your nails?” Nicky Nails asked me.

Before I could reply, she was gone. She repeated the same question to first one person, then another, then another. Always moving. Never stopping for a reply.

And who could forget Mr Teeth, the dentist? The irony was, his own gnashers were less than perfect. But this didn’t stop him handing out lollypops emblazoned with his logo to anyone who dared to find themselves within lollypop thrusting distance.

Eventually Peter decided that enough was enough.

He unceremoniously evicted all of his visitors and closed the door to his glorious establishment.

Until today.

You and I are his first customers. How did we get here? I brought you here remember? I’ve known Peter for a while now and I knew you’d get along famously.

These days, Peter doesn’t let just anyone in. Before people come through his door now, they must pass a test. He checks people out for their conversation and friendly banter. But you came with me, so you’re good.

So what do you think of our little journey? Think it’s all been a bit farcical? Nothing could happen like this in real life could it?

I’d urge you to think again.

Have you been on Twitter recently?

Maybe you’ve read all the frustrating tales of social proof and authority by numbers.

I made a decision today. I’m done with playing the numbers game. No longer is it cool (and therefore by extension profitable) to have 10,000 followers who do little more than shove flyers in your face or invite you to take a lolly pop.

Instead, I’m opting for conversation and engagement

Every morning I would wake up and check what my Twitter world had been doing in my absence. Specifically, I looked to see if I’d acquired any more magic numbers while I’d been sleeping.

I’d look, click and duly follow back.

Did I check to see how these new humans would add to my Twitter experience? If they came without a profile picture I might click through to see if anyone else was following them, but did I read what they were about? Nope. Do you?

I dare you to think again. Twitter is a wonderful place for meeting new people, sharing your stuff and having a great time. Does it matter if you’re only talking to 200 people? What if those 200 people so adored you, they’d tell the whole world and Auntie Pearl the next time you have something new to offer?

It’s time to think again dear friend

Starting today, find one person in your Twitter stream and reach out to them. Start talking to them about them. Find out what they love, what makes them smile, ask them what their favourite colour is.

Or if you really want to test your network, ask a question. If no one answers you know you’re in trouble and it’s time to try it my way.

Here’s to fabulous conversation and down with the ad blasting zombies

Who’s with me?

About

El Edwards writes Heaven and El, the happiness blog where she’s on a mission to spread smiles and rid the world of boring words. She's also the founder of UK registered charity Give A Brick where she uses social media to empower unconditional love and giving.

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{ 56 Responses }

  1. Mike says:
    We could check for the engagement of our followers in our tweet by seeing whether they click or retweet our tweet and whether they reply to us by I wonder how we can find those engagement audiences? by search for people who are mentioning our topic and then filter them out?
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Mike :) The best way to find an engaging audience is to stop thinking of Twitter as your audience and instead, think of Twitter as your cocktail party. Send @ replies to people when they send out a 'good morning Twitter' message for example. Say hello. Wish them a good morning. Ask a question. It's also easier to talk to people if they can see a face to relate to. I would highly recommend adding a nice photo of yourself to your profile instead of your logo. Likewise, why not add your real name to the bit where it says 'name'? Then when people you follow talk to other people, look at their timeline and if they're also talking about stuff you find interesting, follow them. Most of my friends on Twitter are people who were friends of friends first. :)
  2. Vernessa Taylor says:
    Hi El! Like Neil below, I use a Twitter app to manage the incoming tweets. While I sometimes look at the full stream, mostly I just peruse the panes I've set up to keep tabs on people, companies, and key words I have a strong interest in. That's what helps me to develop relationships. But, like you suggest, I would like to get better at engaging and having conversations. Great job on highlighting the "elephant" in the room (as Marion said :) ).
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Vernessa :) If you'd like to get better at engaging and having conversations, just start. Scroll down your list of people who you have a strong interest in and when they say something that tickles your buttons, send them an @ reply and talk. A quick hint for you that I learned a few months back from the delightful @MarkDavidson When you join or start a conversation, put the person's name at the end of your tweet. It means your message will be visible to a lot more people and it encourages others to join the party. Let me know how you get on and don't forget, if you want to practice talking, you can always start by saying hello to me. ;) El (@heavenandel)
      • Vernessa Taylor says:
        Thanks, El, I'll take you up on that! Happy tweeting. :)
  3. Brian D. Hawkins says:
    The sad thing is the ad blasting zombies don't even have to work at it, they're all automated. I spend more time unfollowing than I do tweeting. Everyone gets exactly one chance. Once I see a tweet that looks anywhere close to automatic I unfollow and ban. If I don't see some @s and retweets I unfollow.
    • El Edwards says:
      Hey Brian :) I have a suggestion if I may? (Forgive me for not waiting for an answer. Feel free to just ignore me. :)) You talk about the time you spend unfollowing the zombies but why not just not follow them in the first place? Do you use something to automatically follow everyone? Turn it off. ;) Instead, every few days, just have a look at your follower list. When you get new people on there, click and have a peep at what they're about. If you don't like it, don't follow. It is a bit of a time drain but much, much better than having your feed clogged up.
      • Gurl says:
        Hi! Another way to vet followers before you follow back is to use a twitter client and have new followers column. Then you see who's followed you recently and can then click to go to their profile to judge if you want to follow them back. Hope this helps :)
  4. Dennis Edell says:
    I'm pleased. I'm always pleased when I see another step into the light, away from the dark side...so to speak. I've said since Twitters day 1 that auto-following, mass-following and all the ridiculous tools to do so were just, well, ridiculous. lol Welcome. :)
    • El Edwards says:
      Thanks for the lovely welcome Dennis. And I'm delighted to have pleased you so. :)
  5. Tinh says:
    I think engagement is really important and I assume that it can bring more benefits rather than regular tweeting without conversation. Very interesting article EL :-)
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Tish :) Too right it can! It makes me giggle to hear you describe the ad blasting zombie method as 'regular tweeting'. I wasn't around these parts in 2006 but I hear Twitter was created for conversation. What made people decide it should be used for ad blasting is anyone's guess. I've added you to my followers. Send me a reply (@HeavenAndEl) and let's get this conversation rolling. I'm confident you're going to love it!
      • Tinh says:
        Great @EL to hear that you have added me to your list :-) Interaction is the best way to build up trust with our followers and get them more envolved in what we are talking about and much more in the future :-)
  6. Colleen says:
    "Instead, I’m opting for conversation and engagement..." Amen to that El! In our niche, folks are falling all over each other to see who can have the most followers. Sadly, their clients or customers are not following them, but their competition. I'm with you on opting for conversion and engagement.
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Colleen. Lovely to meet you. :) Interesting that you should mention customers. It makes me giggle to see social media type business people collecting followers as exuberantly as my son collects pebbles. They offer to help people who need advice about Twitter and Facebook, people like my sister-in-law. And where is she? Not on Twitter or Facebook. ;)
  7. Marion Anderson says:
    El This was an "emperors new clothes" moment or if you are not into fair tales - you named the elephant in the room. You stood up and said what many of us have actually been thinking but assumed that we must be missing something. Your story telling has really got the message across. I am going for a radical rethink about how I use it. Thank you for the new insight.
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Marion :) I love fairy tales and your analogy rocks! Thank you :) I actually had no idea how many people were feeling the same as me. I was just given this wonderful opportunity to put it out there. It's reassuring though to find I'm not alone. Here's to a revolutionized Twitter experience! :)
  8. Felicia says:
    I really liked the way how you delivered your post, very creative and it really kept me reading until the end even if at first I was kind of "huh?" on how I was imagining the things happening in Peter's establishment. Yes, a simple hello from someone is just that - simply a greeting, but if someone asks you how are you and what are you up to nowadays, then that can spark a rather nice conversation. I believe this simple gesture usually strengthens one's bond with others.
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Felicia :) Yep, I agree totally. Just saying hello is going to get lost in the noise. But asking a question is great. Throwing in a little humour is fun too because on a platform that can get saturated with noise, a little fun, sparkly, banter can help you stand out from the crowd.
  9. Cindy says:
    There should be a good balance between advertising yourself and 'being' yourself. I think having 10,000 followers doing the same thing and advertise at the same time, your tweet that should stand out remains unseen.
    • chuckusa says:
      Exactly. When I first came to Famous Bloggers, my number of followers and following was small but then it grew. Ironically it grew with people who seem to have a lot to say on twitter so all of a sudden my twitter screen has so much that i can barely read any of it. I try to pick and choose what seems interesting from a glance imagine that my tweets get lost on many of them as well. I guess Twitter can be a positive and a negative at the same time.
      • El Edwards says:
        Hi Chuck :) If you find you can't keep up with stuff, the best thing to do is to just keep an eye on your @ replies initially. These are the people who are talking to you directly and are the ones you don't want to miss. But your strategy of just glancing and seeing what grabs your interest will work well, especially if you start weeding out the ad blasters. ;)
    • El Edwards says:
      The best way to stand out in a crowded noisy place like Twitter, in my experience anyway, is to be interested in other people. Yes, I do send out links to my latest blog posts, probably about four or five links per day, but compared to how many RTs I send out and how many @replies I send, this figure is minuscule. I'm a massive advocate of talking to people. Ask someone about their day. If someone kindly RTs something of yours, thank them (of course) but use that opportunity to engage them in conversation. I didn't start this as a strategy, I'm a naturally chatty person. But it really is a great way to have fun and engage with people so now, if there was a special flag to fly for doing it this way, I'd be up there holding the pole. :)
  10. chuckusa says:
    El, This is probably one of the best articles I have read on line so far. I have to say that I was completely surprised to read the first few lines of this article and wonder how an article like this was posted on a site that was meant to provide tips on blogging and social media. My curiosity lead me to read the whole thing only to realize your story was making a point and man does it make sense. It's interesting to find people like you who can look at things from a more positive, more common sense point of view. I pride myself in applying common sense to as many things as possible in my life yet I never thought of looking at Twitter (and there for every other social media system out there) this way and now I feel more complete after reading this excellent article. I always say I learn something new every day and today I have learned something new. Thank you El. May I also add that you have an awesome website which i plan to take a good look at and follow as anything that can make me happy is a good thing. 2 thumbs up.
    • El Edwards says:
      Thank you Chuck. It's bedtime here in the UK and you've just sent one lovely Welsh lass off to bed with a smile on her face. I love telling stories and using them to draw people into a piece of writing. Glad that my tale for today has hit all the right buttons for you my friend. :) So have I tempted you onto Twitter? Be sure to say hello to me (@HeavenAndEl) and I can introduce you to some lovely people to get to know. Thanks too for your kind words about my place. I look forward to showing you around. Enjoy the rest of your day. El
  11. Neil says:
    Hi El, Good for you. I have a Twitter app, and don't really pay much attention to my home feed. I have all the people I follow in a few panes, so I can see what they're up to without all the "flyers". Most of the time I don't follow who follows me, because I don't think they really care who they follow, just getting their numbers up. Take care, Neil
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Neil. Great to meet you. :) I agree with you. Some (many?) people just follow others because they're hoping to get a follower back to boost their numbers but I wouldn't automatically write everyone off. If someone follows you, why not check out their recent tweets. You might be surprised to see they've been involved in some great conversations. What methods do you have for finding new people to follow?
  12. Brian says:
    This is an awesome post. The "ask a question" test is really the best way to get a quick judge of how strong your Twitter reach truly is. I know plenty of people with 5-10k followers that probably wouldn't have one response. What's the point of tweeting anyway if there is no one actually listening? Thanks for the great insight!
    • El Edwards says:
      Hey Brian. Thanks :) I feel honoured now because when I asked my question a week or so ago I got loads of fabulous replies and I have less than 300 followers! Your observation is proof (if any were needed) that it's about more than a number. Thank you. :) I checked out your Twitter stream by the way. You look like a guy who enjoys a chat so I hit the magic follow button. Looking forward to your tweets.
      • Brian says:
        Haha I definitely love to chat. It's really great getting to know some fellow bloggers too. Send me a tweet anytime, because like most people in the industry...I'm almost always awake and I'm never too far away from a computer.
  13. Ana says:
    Took me a while to figure out where you were going with the story, El. I absolutely agree with you; and your description of Peter's "old" store was hilarious, but so true. I have several accounts and I don't do much with most of them, but the one I do care about is where I spend my time and engage with folks. And love doing it. Best, Ana Hoffman
    • El Edwards says:
      The story teller in me is delighted with your initial unsureness. I hope you will forgive me. :) Twitter has the potential to be a lot of fun. I've met people who have gone on to be very close friends and yes, we continue the conversations in person or via email and Skype but without the joy of Twitter, I'd never have met these new friends.
  14. LadyBizBiz says:
    Precisely my sentiments. Love the imagery El. I applaud your dedication to blogging and just in case you hadn't realised it I believe you have ascended to a higher bloggosphere. Conversation and engagement is best. It's not that I'm that focussed on 'pull marketing' either - I just believe it's good for the soul. I now fine tune my participation in Twitter - I never auto-follow, I always scan through a new followers Timeline before making a decision to follow or not. If their unique Tweets appear interesting I drill down into their website and blog, and I might leave a comment too if something really interests me. I find this process helps me to decide if I have a potential connection with a new follower. Nine times out of ten when I connect with someone in this way it turns out we do have a 'real connection' and we go on to have great conversations often leading to connecting on LinkedIn and then exchanging direct emails. However, I can also report that it sometimes doesn't end in 'happy times' - one blogger took offence at my ID when I left a comment on his blog and he decided I was a spammer, despite the fact that I left a really, really complimentary comment! Doh! He obviously hadn't bothered to look at my profile or website! He did eventually apologise for calling me a spammer and suggesting I was a bot! And El you'll be interested to know that I often use commenting on blogs to spread the word to new peeps about some of the most dynamic individuals I have met through Twitter - today I left a link for @GiveABrick on a Los Angeles MomBlogger's site she was talking about Alexa scores and I wanted to illustrate how well people can do in improving their scores, so I told @JessicaGottlieb about YOU and GIVEABRICK! x
    • El Edwards says:
      I don't know what to reply to first. Your final paragraph is super, duper exciting (thank you, thank you xx) but your first was pretty swell too. ;) And you're right, even with the best systems in place, things can still go wrong which can leave a bitter taste in the mouth. The great thing in that situation though is when you have a collection of lovely people to back you up. And you're a brilliant example of the power of Twitter. How many miles is it from your house to mine? 15? 20 tops? And yet we'd never met prior to hooking up online. :)
  15. Ben says:
    This is why I don't really check my feed anymore. Like others here I use list for keeping up to date with the people who really matter. To be honest thought these days I just check my replies, DMs and search results carrying my name. Why? Cos otherwise Twitter, link email before, can be a massive timesuck and you can lose hours in it. Amazing imagery here El. Great post
    • El Edwards says:
      I have to be honest and say I have a slightly different method for using Twitter. I do scan my Twitter feed off and on throughout the day. Call me nosy if you like or maybe it just meets my need to connection but I love finding people to have a quick natter with. But you're right, it is possible to lose hours to Twitter so I make sure I shut it down before tackling something that needs my attention. Glad you enjoyed this Ben. Appreciate the compliment. :)
  16. Caileagh says:
    You are absolutely right El. I've been doing some house cleaning of my Twitter following myself. Before I follow someone I look at what they've been tweeting before I click the "Follow" button. If they are of a different political persuasion or tweet about non-sense, or are nothing but spammers, I do not follow. Why should I subscribe to tweets from someone who aggravates or angers me? That's just downright stupid. Like all other things in my life, I want a quality experience. I am not doing reciprocal follows just to be nice. I'll follow only if it is beneficial to me personally, my career or my future. And I don't expect everyone I follow to follow me back. I may have nothing to say that is of interest to them. I think the adage, quality before quantity applies to Twitter too. Great read. Thanks.
    • El Edwards says:
      Hey Caileagh. :) Like Jenn @southrngurl6489 before you, it sounds like you have a great method for finding like minded people to engage with. You've just reminded me of another method I have of finding great people to chat with. From time to time I'll have a look at who my friends are talking to. (I don't know if that's possible from the web but Hootsuite and Tweetie have that as an easy option.) Because I follow people who have already proven themselves to be interesting and engaging, it's easier to trust their judgement about the people who they follow and it helps me find even more like-minded people. :)
  17. Justin Germino says:
    I myself am thinking about trimming the # of people I am following, the reciprocal follow just isn't a great system and finding people to follow is hard. This is where twitter lists come in, you can add people to lists and see their tweets without having to follow them. Leveraging Twitter lists allows you to keep up on everyone you want without the nuisance of directly contaminating your all friends stream.
    • El Edwards says:
      I agree with you Justin. The reciprocal follow is a bit hopeless. I'm all for social proof but my sole purpose for being on Twitter is to make people smile. That's impossible if you have a stream full of people shouting and badgering you with lollypops. I use lists on the @GiveABrick twitter account because it has so many more followers than little ol' me and @HeavenandEl but I like your suggestion of following whole lists rather than individuals. Sounds like a great idea.
    • Josiah says:
      I agree. @El: Great story, loved it. It definitely made the post more interesting, if we could all do that, i'd be reading all day! I think tists is a great way to filter without limiting the number of followers you can reach.
  18. Gurl says:
    Hey El, Great story to show how Twitter can be if you are following the wrong people. I am very lucky to have mostly people like you that I am following. I've always checked out new followers before I follow back. I am always flattered that these people think I am interesting, but if they are not interesting to ME I am not likely to follow back. Well done my friend. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your guest post rampage as you called it the other day ;)
    • El Edwards says:
      lol Thanks Jenn. Glad you liked the story. It sounds like you have a great method for building a quality collection of people on Twitter. Delighted to be one amongst your number my friend. :)
  19. Laura Davis says:
    Again, the argument comes down to quality versus quantity. For most high end bloggers and internet users, the answer is quality. But for newcomers and spammers, quantity is always going to be most important.
    • Lennart Heleander says:
      Hi El - A really good article. Laura Davis – you are totally right on it. Quality before quantity and that is one of the reasons I don’t have Twitter, its take time and I have not extra time to control or answer all.
      • El Edwards says:
        Hi Lennart. Thank you. If you ever decide to join us on Twitter, be sure to say hello to me. As you may have gathered, I love to talk. :) @Laura How would you define a newcomer? Because to a certain extent, I agree, when someone is brand new to Twitter, it does help to have a few people following you back so you don't get mistaken for a spammer. But thanks to plugins like the one on here where you can add your Twitter username, visting some of your favourite blogs will help the newcomer find quality people to follow. Start talking to these people, be interested, and they will follow you back and your connections will increase.
        • Lennart Heleander says:
          Hi El Yes, I have put you on my favorite list over interesting and nice people, so when that day comes, when I have more time over……
          • El Edwards says:
            Great. Thanks Lennart. :) I look forward to tweeting with you one day.
        • Laura Davis says:
          @El I would define a newcomer to Twitter as someone using it for the first 6 months or so. It takes a while to start communicating with people and making quality relationships. After that introductory period, you might want to start weeding out some of your followees and only having quality people on there.
          • El Edwards says:
            6 months eh? Only another two to go for me then. ;) To be fair, I was tweeting for @GiveABrick for a long time before setting up my site and personal Twitter account so I imagine I might not be your regular Twitter newbie.
  20. Trevor B. Reed says:
    I really appreciate this level of imagery! I think that the question test is a good indicator of your actual reach. Also, even if you get a few responses, who are they from? Are they from people who you already know, or are they from friends you met on Twitter? If you have enough followers, you can get a perfect score on Twitter.Grader, but what does that really mean for your bottom line? Think of what your goals are and how you plan to achieve them.
    • El Edwards says:
      Hi Trevor. Lovely to meet you and I appreciate the compliment. :) The line about tweeting out a question came from personal experience. I sent out a simple tweet asking what makes people happy. As a result, I made three new friends (thanks to followers re-tweeting my initial question to their followers) and two of these lovelies have since gone on to become readers of my blog and have donated to Give A Brick. Not bad from one question to less than 300 people. ;)
  21. Christine Livingston says:
    Hi Eleanor, What a great story! It's funny to find your reflections of Twitter here. Just this weekend, I've been wondering whether I might change my own approach. Like you, I have grown a little tired of the follow me/follow back routine. I've been wondering who I follow and who follows me that really count. I've been thinking that less is more, and switching off to people who only ever followed me because I'd be a number or might help them promote their stuff without any concern for the whole relationship and reciprocity stuff that I think is the best of social media and Twitter; people that I send these reach out messages to who never answer because their Mention list is too full. I have some awesome friends and colleagues, all thanks to those deeper conversations. But it's time to focus down on the people that matter, find new people who matter to me, and switch off from those inbetweenies!
    • El Edwards says:
      Thanks Christine :) The thing is, since I stopped following back as a matter of routine, two things have happened. I can now scroll down my main feed (I use the Twitter app for iPhone for this and it just pops along effortlessly) and see what's happening easily. I jump into conversations with people I wouldn't have happened upon before. The other cool thing is that now, the ad blasters leap off the screen at me so I can quickly check them out an unfollow as necessary. It's a win-win situation. :)