Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 156 Followers: 147 Listed: 9
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 27 – December 10, 2009 (Thu): Have Fun!
Do you love watching classic movies? I mean movies that have withstood the test of time. Made more than 25 years ago (that would be 1984 for all you Orwellians in cyberspace), you can still view them in their entirety to this day and still not notice the ravages of time. Perhaps you’ve seen a particular magical scene over and over, but its message resonates as if eyed for the very first time. Wouldn’t it be great to pass these moments on to the next generation? After all, whether we admit it or not, these cinematic features have framed our lives. They’ve become a legacy for us to will to our young.
But, what do adolescents think of classic movies? Without the benefit of our years of living, will they take away the same meaning? Will the aged reels of celluloid unwind the same emotional response in them? I’ve finally figured out a way to discover this once and for all. Would you like to me to share it with you?
Yes, I started a “second” timeline (it’s actually my fourth or fifth, but who’s counting). It’s @MightyMovie and it’s being run by my daughters. They’re tweeting classic movie lines. On some days they’ll tweet a famous actor. On others, they’ll tweet classic movie themes. Every once in a while they’ll tweet lines from a classic movie but let you guess what movie the lines come from. Maybe they’ll even give the line and then 15 minutes later give the movie and the character (or actor). I don’t know. It’s their show. They’re responsible for getting to 100 quality followers as quickly as they can.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, you might be curious to discover the fruits of yesterday’s labors. It appears my little exercise in copywriting generated a modest amount of success. It caused a sharp jump-up in total page views at ChrisCarosa.com (according to Google Analytics as well as bit.ly). The peak represented the largest number of page views in two weeks (when I published what was essentially a gossip piece that named a lot of names). The number of unique visits coming from Twitter suggests I’ve got a yield that far exceeds direct mail. In addition, the repeating headline actually appears to have driven readers to the original post describing the experiment.
You might wonder: What’s the significance of all this? With less than 150 followers, I really didn’t make a dent in the blogger circles. However, imagine if I had 150,000 real followers (let’s say I’m a movie star or a famous blogger). Those small percentages equal thousands of individual actions. That’s Chris Anderson’s Long Tail. Yesterday’s diminutive game does not make for a scientific study, but it does provide some interesting anecdotal evidence.
The other significant conclusion we can draw may apply to any concerted campaign like the one I undertook yesterday. It seems, according to twitalyzer.com, both the Influence and the Clout increased (among other things, but these are the most telling). Even as twitalyzer admits, none of these things might matter to you, but measuring and analyzing them gives you a hint on how best to construct a Twitter-based marketing promotion.
Something else happened today (well, really yesterday). I had a conversation with @problogger about his upcoming blog concerning how to find a topic to base your next e-book on. Today, when the post was issued (i.e., when I actually read it) imagine my surprise when I discovered what he wrote answers his earlier post: The Importance of Having Your Own Product to Sell. Doesn’t that sound familiar (as in my whining the past few days)? If you have similar questions I have, I highly recommend you read @problogger’s post.
This weekend means two things: Time to put up the Christmas tree and the last two days of the thirty day experiment.
How many followers do you think I’ll have after 30 days? Click here to enter your guess on my Survey Monkey survey “Chris Carosa’s 30-Day Plan to Dominate Twitter Experiment.” There’s no prize, but the fan who guesses the closest correct number the earliest will “win” and I’ll mention you if you want me to.
Find out today’s results on Day 29 – December 12, 2009 (Sat): Find Followers on Your New Timeline
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