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Grow Your Social Networks Organcially, Start with Twitter

Mon, 09/22/2008 - 8:54am — mDave

The days of randomly adding people to your artist or business social network needs to come to an end. When social networks were new it was the way people thought they could market their artist/band or business. It was effective at first but now that the newness has worn off so has the impact. It has become more of an irritation than a benefit to most. Artists and businesses need to work smarter now instead of the shotgun approach.

Artificial Growth and Past Mistakes

In the past on social networks acquiring as many "Friends" as possible gave the perception of allowing you to reach a wide audience. In my eyes this is a mistake which creates just irritation. For example on MySpace I see only businesses and artists adding each other and never have a connection. There for there is no value to either parties and dilutes the value of their respective social network.

Twitter is Different

Word to the wise for artists and businesses using Twitter; it is not a typical social network like MySpace or Facebook and should be approached differently. If you're not familiar with Twitter Wikipedia has a good explanation to get you started.

Twitter you either "following" or someone "follows" you. This is how Twitter differs than the others; adding many people to your "follow" list doesn't necessarily mean they will return the favor. It's not mutually agreed on like traditional social networks. But by creating compelling content on Twitter people will "follow" your thread because they see value.

Grow Your Networks Organically

Allowing your network to grow "organically" by creating compelling content in turn will want to "follow" or "friend" you making the network more valuable as a tool. Then you can get your message out through the clutter and build your brand.

Further Reading: