Have you ever read a book that offered a great idea and wondered if it really worked? That’s precisely what I felt after I read Twitter Power by @Joel Comm (here’s the book review). In the book the author outlines a 30-day plan for “dominating Twitter.” So from November 14, 2009 through December 13, 2009 I conducted an experiment. In the process, I discovered these six critical facts about my Twitter use. Has your own Twitter experience revealed similar eye-openers?
Six Things I Discovered From My Twitter Experiment
By on December 17, 2009
Final Tally – Midnight, December 13, 2009 – Did It Really Work?
By on December 15, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 172 Followers: 194 Listed: 9
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 30 – December 13, 2009 (Sun): Have Fun!
Above you see the final tally as of Midnight, Day 30. In fairness, if I used the same criteria as in all other previous days, the number would have been reported as of the following morning: 202 followers. Who estimated the closest? @mikegastin, who guessed 207. If you’re interest Mike, I hit 207 late on the 31st day. Now, before anyone says anything, Mike was also the first person to guess – on Day 13 – so he really did do the best job.
@mikegastin wants a free trip to Aruba as a result of his grand prognostication. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything the budget for prizes, so the notoriety of the mention represents all I have to offer. Hopefully, it’s good enough. On the other hand, Mike might be pleased to know Continue Reading “Final Tally – Midnight, December 13, 2009 – Did It Really Work?”
Day 30 – December 13, 2009 (Sun): Have Fun!
By on December 14, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 170 Followers: 184 Listed: 9
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 29 – December 12, 2009 (Sat): Find Followers on Your New Timeline
It’s the last day. Where will I end up at midnight tonight?
You might notice a steep jump in followers between yesterday and today. I must attribute it to one thing: @chrisbrogan started following me. The total increase of 24 followers represents more than a 15% increase in followers in one day. Yes, I know we started with a low base, but I can’t discount the significance. I certainly can’t say it had anything to do with what I did yesterday. I was having fun teaching my daughters how to tweet and how to blog. OK, OK, I did get into a few conversations, including the one that led @chrisbrogan to follow.
Also, for the first time since the start of this experiment, I’ve got more followers than people I follow. I don’t know exactly what that means, but it must mean something.
As I near the end of the road in this experiment, I can say I’ve learned a bunch of things. I’ll compile them and present them as separate blogs – bite-sized pieces if you will. Tomorrow I’ll post my preliminary conclusions. They may surprise you. Because I’ve been holding back a vital piece of information from you. It’s a piece of information all good experiments require.
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.
Day 29 – December 12, 2009 (Sat): Find Followers on Your New Timeline
By on December 13, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 165 Followers: 160 Listed: 10
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 28 – December 11, 2009 (Fri): Create a Second Timeline
Here we sit with less than 48 hours to go in this experiment. We (my daughters and I) started a new timeline – @MightyMovie, a classic movie quote Twitter account meant to direct followers to my daughter’s classic movie teen review site. Cesidia takes care of the reviews and Catarina takes care of the quotes. I did this most of the day with my daughters. The going was slow at first, but I think I created a monster in Catarina.
And then @mikegastin asks me something that takes me back to my newspaper days:
@ChrisCarosa Did you break the @chrisbrogan story?
Continue Reading “Day 29 – December 12, 2009 (Sat): Find Followers on Your New Timeline”
Day 28 – December 11, 2009 (Fri): Create a Second Timeline
By on December 12, 2009
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?
Continue Reading “Day 28 – December 11, 2009 (Fri): Create a Second Timeline”
Day 27 – December 10, 2009 (Thu): Have Fun!
By on December 11, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 152 Followers: 137 Listed: 8
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 26 – December 9, 2009 (Wed): Drive Followers to Purchase Without a Special Offer
Charlie Brown snowflakes – don’t you just love them? I do.
Today’s the day I substituted for Monday. Today, instead of having fun – well, I guess this is sort of fun anyway – I try to drive followers to a blog – my blog – ChrisCarosa.com. Here’s the strategy I used: Every other tweet I tell the followers I’m tweeting the daily results of Chris Carosa’s 30-Day Plan to Dominate Twitter Experiment all day. In between, I send them a link to a different day’s update. Oh, yeah, as for the header, I used @joelcomm and #TwitterPower. Will this repetition annoy people? I’m about to find out.
Continue Reading “Day 27 – December 10, 2009 (Thu): Have Fun!”
Day 26 – December 9, 2009 (Wed): Drive Followers to Purchase Without a Special Offer
By on December 10, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 149 Followers: 120 Listed: 7
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 24 – December 7, 2009 (Mon): Drive Followers to a Blog
Forget driving followers to purchase with our without a special offer. All the reasons cited in Day 23 – December 6, 2009 (Sun): Drive Followers to Purchase a Special Offer remain valid on Day 26. Here’s a more interesting thing I did. @mikefixs told me about twitalyzer.com. This is a neat little tool that rates your Twitter presence on a variety of scales. You don’t have to buy into its rating philosophy, but it’s good to review and consider. For example, it’s not all about followers. Twitalyzer gives you credit when you retweet or are retweeted, among other things. Take a look. At least it’ll cause you to think.
Hey, I finally did send an @message to @CoachJudy. It was late at night, so I’ll have to give it a day to see if she responds. The biggest news: @joelcomm decided to follow me. Of course, I followed back and asked how he liked my experiment. This, too, was late at night, so I’ll suspect I’ll have to wait for a response.
I’ve continue to notice I’m getting a lot of really odd followers from places all over the world. I think they’re marketers, so I’m not following them. When they unfollow in less than 24 hours (or even less than 36 hours) they confirm my suspicion. What’s the point of having 60,000 followers? What can you possibly get them to do? That’s the story I want to hear.
Tomorrow’s the really big day. That’s when I attempt to drive readers to my blog ChrisCarosa.com. I suggest you stay tuned…
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 27 – December 10, 2009 (Thu): Have Fun!
Day 25 – December 8, 2009 (Tue): Drive Followers to Subscribe
By on December 9, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 148 Followers: 122 Listed: 7
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 24 – December 7, 2009 (Mon): Drive Followers to a Blog
Subscribe to what? That is the question. Heck, I just checked and I don’t even have an RSS feed up on my blog yet. Here’s what I’m discovering during my 30-days jaunt with Joel Comm and his plan to dominate Twitter. There’s nothing to dominate if you don’t have a purpose. Said another way, domination means nothing if you have no product? What’s my product? Now that’s a very deep question. Here’s a very deep answer:
Continue Reading “Day 25 – December 8, 2009 (Tue): Drive Followers to Subscribe”
Day 24 – December 7, 2009 (Mon): Drive Followers to a Blog
By on December 8, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 148 Followers: 118 Listed: 7
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 23 – December 6, 2009 (Sun): Drive Followers to Purchase a Special Offer
That was fun while it lasted. So last night’s plan looks like it fizzled. Maybe not. Remember, the above statistics reflect only those few hours from late last night to early this morning. No doubt folks are just now receiving their new follower lists.
In other news, CoachJudy still hasn’t followed. That disappoints me. She usually keeps her word. She’s also usually on the ball in terms of her social media presence.
Here’s the reality for today: After spending much of the end of last week preparing for culmination of my year-long the IYA2009 outreach project the beginning of the year – the final top ten countdown of AstronomyTop100.com presentation at the Strasenburgh Planetarium last Friday evening; and then after immediately going to work with the GearFreeze kids over the weekend for Sunday’s Finger Lakes First Lego League Regional Championships at the University of Rochester; I concluded I needed to spend some quality time with my laptop at the office. In truth, work’s been a relaxing relief through all the buzz of last week. I really like my work. I can’t tell you about it (government regulations prevent me from doing so), but it does offer loads of fun.
Here’s the result: I’m switching today’s step with Thursday’s. So, today I’m having fun. I’ll drive followers to a blog (my blog) on Thursday. I hope Joel Comm doesn’t mind.
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 25 – December 8, 2009 (Tue): Drive Followers to Subscribe
Day 23 – December 6, 2009 (Sun): Drive Followers to Purchase a Special Offer
By on December 7, 2009
Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 148 Followers: 115 Listed: 7
Missed yesterday? Go here to read what happened on Day 22 – December 5, 2009 (Sat): Combine Your Social Media Tools
So how do you drive followers to purchase a special offer when you don’t sell anything? Joel Comm figured (correctly, it turns out) not all his readers would have items to sell. He came up with a brilliant idea. If you don’t have anything to sell, sell someone else’s product through an affiliation. Then, to get a special offer, you just need to get your affiliate to agree to give your followers a special offer.
This whole gambit presupposes I want to sell. I’m not sure I’m there yet. Remember, as I prattled on about in Day 18 – December 1, 2009 (Tue): Start Putting Your Tweets Together, I’m not even 100% sure I know the true objective of the ChrisCarosa Twitter account. If you’re reading this, maybe you can pop me a line and let me know what I’m all about. Perhaps you’d rather I reveal the rest of the yesterday’s story?
Continue Reading “Day 23 – December 6, 2009 (Sun): Drive Followers to Purchase a Special Offer”
