SocialMediaBust

Automate participation on Twitter? Sacrilege, but readers who follow me and read my articles will know that I'm convinced that the time and effort to interact with friends and followers on social media cannot be justified by most businesses. The reason is that human interaction doesn't scale. True interaction with 100 people on Twitter involves 100x the time it takes to interact with one person.

Most of the pundits try to beat business owners and operators over the head by telling them that they MUST interact, rather than broadcast into the social media space, but the hundreds of thousands of silent failures using Twitter suggest that it simply doesn't work well.

So, that leaves automation. Automation refers to using the computer to take on social media/twitter tasks that would normally require a human to do. For example, you can automate following people who follow you, or you can automatically stop following those that stop following you. You can schedule tweets so they are sent automatically according to a schedule.

Automation trades off personal contact and interaction (not completely) for volume, and the ability to broadcast into twitter streams. Clearly you woudn't do this for a personal account, but if you want to have regular information broadcast, it's worth exploring as a business strategy. Given that over 92% of Tweets generate no discernable response from readers, it makes sense that volume can play a role in your use of Twitter.

Automation Options

There have been a number of  options to automate some of the functions associated with using Twitter for business. I've used a number of them over the last few years. For example, you can use several online systems to auto-tweet new items in feeds. There are other platforms that will handle auto-following or auto-unfollowing and help you find people you follow who have gone inactive. However, none of the services provide automation of all the functions one might want to use in pursuit of effective marketing.

Enter TweetTwain. TweetTwain provides a number of automating options that  will probably fill most business' needs. In fact there are so many, I haven't yet explored them in the free version, which is the one I'm talking about here. Before you read on, here's the capsule comment. 

This is the most sophisticated Twitter management tool available for businesses marketing on Twitter. It has some amazing capabilities and offers analytics and even a few features I would not ever have thought I might need. There's a lot of innovation here. BUT, there's a caveat, so read through to the bottom.

Here's a few of the things you can do with TweetTwain Pro (the paid version):

• You can monitor and analyse clicks on links you include in your tweets. That will allow you to discover what works and doesn't work, and that's a critical function for businesses.
• You can find people to follow based on keywords and you can automate this process, while deciding things like how many people you would like to follow, how often, etc.
• You can monitor your brand.
• You can schedule your tweets.
• You can have auto-replies sent that are keyword triggered, so the responses are tailored to the original messages. That's pretty amazing.
• Set up multiple rss feeds so new items are sent to your Twitter accounts.
•  You can import and export tweets, which means you can create a tweet file, for example, save it in csv format and import it so they tweets can be sent on the schedule you want. It makes it very convenient since you don't have to be online to set things up. You can write you tweets on your ipod for example, and then transfer.
• Supports multiple Twitter accounts.
• Finally not only will TweetTwain help you with Twitter, but it also can be used with Facebook.

I can't do justice to the program and its features, so I'll direct you to the TweetTwain site, at which you can look at the features in depth, or better yet, download the free version to test it out. The url is: http://www.tweettwain.com/ .

There is a high quality, professional looking pdf manual you can download, even if you haven't yet purchased TweetTwain Pro, and there's also an online tutorial and screencasts to get up to speed. Unlike hosted solutions or more fly by night companies that peddle Twitter related software, it looks like this company has already committed itself to making the software easy to use and documented its features properly. A support ticket system exists if you need extra help.

Cost? According to their web page they have a promotional deal on for just $67. Money back guarantee. That seems to be a reasonable free for the available features.

There "Might" Be A Catch

The possible catch has to do with Twitter policies. Generally speaking their terms of service do NOT allow automation of most functions, and in the past they have taken action against software makers or platforms that make automation too easy. In the past Twitter has made it a condition of access to its system that companies remove elements of their services that allow too much automation, such as auto-following or auto-unfollowing, and scheduling tweets in a way that allows scheduling the same tweet more than once.

Enforcement has been inconsistent and spotty which is why you will find services and software offering all kinds of features that Twitter has frowned upon from other vendors and as indicated in their policies. The "punishment" usually involves denying a company access to the Twitter API (the way a program accesses Twitter). To be clear it's the company that offers the service or the software that is punished, and NOT THE USER (the user would be you).

That could be a problem, since it is possible that Twitter will decide to block the use of software such as TweetTwain Pro, in whole or in part, presuming that blocking is technically possible. It's no different than if you use other services to auto-tweet rss feeds, or schedule tweets or for following and bulk unfollowing. Technically all of these things could be deemed unacceptable and stopped.

Blame Twitter for this. It`s fair that they set up and enforce their rules as is their right, but it's not reasonable to have inconsistent enforcement. In fact, often it seems that Twitter doesn't much care. Once in a while it takes a stand against one or two service providers, while letting others continueto do identical or similar things.

So, there might be the risk that you could buy the software and a month or two down the road, have it blocked by Twitter. Hard to say how high the risk is. Personally, I don't find that a scary problem. The cost of TweetTwain Pro is low enough that there's not much risk here. The worst you can do is end up with slightly less useful software than you were hoping for. 

Now, one more thing. Automation can get YOU into trouble, if you become greedy or unreasonable. If you think you will benefit from sending huge volumes of tweets in short times, you won't. You'll annoy people and you'll get banned from Twitter (hopefully). If you want to automate getting followers by churning (following people, getting them to follow you, then unfollowing), you'll probably have your accounts suspended or worse, permanently closed.

No program, no software can replace good judgment that respects the rights of others. Use this software and respect others and the principles Twitter is suggesting you apply, and it's a good deal. 

After some long consideration, and after working on this book for 18 months, I've decided to shelve the project indefinitely. Starting writing projects, then stopping is not that atypical for me, and while I don't say I'll never do this book, I believe that it's a time sensitive topic. it will do no good at all to write a book about the social media bubble burst (in 2012) AFTER the fact.

The point of the book has always been to help businesses navigate what is certainly some of the most extreme hype and hope I've seen in the last 25 years. While social media isn't going anywhere, although individual companies are already starting to get sold, or just "wink out", its benefits are still largely undocumented beyond the success stories bandied about. The failures, which vastly outnumber successes, probably by a factor of at least nine to one, are never heard of, for obvious reasons.

My Reasons For Cancelling "Giving The Business To Social Media"

Sheesh. There's lots of reasons, both personal and business. I have a huge amount to say about social media and business and how the hype overshadows the reality and I have about 200 manuscript pages already done. A lot of the work is finished. However, here's some of the reasons I'm not going to release it as a book.

Personal Reasons:

First, and to be blunt about it, I've spent all the time on social media sites that I'm prepared to spend, and if I go ahead with the book, it will mean a) continuing to keep up with social media developments before publication, and b) then keeping up after. I can't imagine a worse punishment for anyone with three ounces of working gray matter than to HAVE to read social media content on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Twitter, in particular, seems to make even smart people sound incredibly stupid as they seem to revert to spouting either fortune cookie slogans, or otherwise partial truths. After all it's hard to capture any truth in 140 characters, and I've found only one or two people capable of being quotable on a consistent basis (Brogan, Goden, for example). However even those good at it are really passing on stuff that sounds profound, but almost always isn't.

Second, in terms of quality, clicking links posted on social media is a loser's game at this point. Links often go to articles that aren't representative of how they are portrayed, or blog posts that say exactly the same thing as the other 700 blog posts on the same topic, made the same day. I'm so often disappointed by both the quality and lack of accuracy of the landing pages, I can't be bothered any more. Look, the truth is, most people aren't that original, and most people aren't producing really innovative thoughts. I don't claim to either, but I sure like to find them, but I'm not on social media. It's all rehash of rehash of rehash.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing you if you spend time on social media connecting to your real world friends and family members, or even meeting some new people and forging relationships. I prefer to interact face to face with people, or through email, for reasons I'd have thought are pretty obvious -- just as I prefer sex with a real person IN person that...well, cyberwhatsis.

I happen to think Facebook is a very cool medium for connecting with friends. It's just not for me, but I have many colleagues who use it in very positive and PERSONAL ways.It's just not for me.

Bottom line. I find most conversations on social media too spammy, self-serving, dull, boring, superficial, and often misleading. I've never been a fan of watching average, regular folks talk about stuff they know little about. And, I simply don't find the brighter intellects that I want to learn from online. I find the wannabees, and successful marketers who appear to have things to say, until you a) think, and b) start asking them questions.

Business Reasons

Marketing issues, at least for writers, tend to plunk themselves down in front of you and glare, even before you have finished your book. I write about subjects for which I have passion (helping businesses navigate the social media propaganda is one), but I also write for READERS. At some point in a writing career, you realize that without people to read what you write, the whole writing exercise becomes way too "internalized" to be healthy or useful. If you cannot reach your market, and therefore convince people to read your book, then it fails on two levels. First you spent a lot of time communicating with nobody (golly that's alot like social media, actually), but second, you make no money.

Both are important to me, but the first, believe it or not is more important.

I've been running this blog and this site for long enough to come to the conclusion that it's unlikely I'll be able to use them to sell (both literally and figuratively) the book content to my target markets. The faithful members of the "Church of Social Media" simply aren'  interested in having their biblical wisdom questioned, and in any event, the this site doesn't have sufficient reach to make it work.

I'm not writing a book for 100 readers.

And, I'm  not interested in marketing the way the successful folks do who have written books on social media. Let's face it, even I could swing it, do I want to travel around going to social media conferences meeting the people I've loudly criticized? Why would I want to spend time with these folks? Or immerse myself in the social media/marketing world?

Well, I don't.

I suppose if a major publishing company said: "Robert, we've seen your posts and commentaries, and we'll lay a $50k advance on  you for this book", I'd probably go for it. Or, if I had a website that attracted a couple million social media business people interested in the full picture (not the empty cheerleading that passes for knowledge these days), I might even bite.

But, no. Neither of those is the case.

More interesting projects are on my calendar, and in fact, I figure I have enough books I want to write to keep me writing for at least the next ten years. I just released If It Wasn't For The Customers, I'd Really Like This Job, and it's the first in a series of books I'll be doing. I have a second edition rewrite of Performance Management - A Briefcase Book, due for McGraw-Hill, and then I'm going to work on a project, quite different in scope and style, that I've wanted to do for a good six years.

There are so many topics where I have a passion, and I don't feel like I have to talk a shower after interacting with people also involved in the topic (as is the case with interacting with social media zealots).

Regrets? You Bet

Ah, well, you don't write 200 pages of a book, then basically toss it, without regrets. It's a bit like a broken romance, but as with romance, there's a time to walk away. I feel we (and I mean all of us using social media) need reputable, unbiased truth hunting people to look beyond the superficial claims, the bogus research, the ignoring of information that doesn't "fit the bias", and so on, and I think business, in particular is going to find out rather unpleasantly, that social media is not a boon, but is just an additional "responsibility" to take on -- one that generates no return on investment.

It may take a long time for some business to realize this, and I was hoping to spare some pain. Then again, there are hundreds of businesses each day abandoning their social media initiatives, so they have discovered, sometimes through costly experience, that much of it's about hype. Still, I feel bad for the companies, and employees who WILL fall over the next two years in the social media sphere. It will happen, and it's already starting (i.e. check out how Twitter's new "rules" for developers" are going to affect employment and multiply that by 100x).

Finally, there's the ego thing. I was really looking forward to the eventuality of saying "I told you so", when the social media bubble bursts, venture capitalists bail, companies are absorbed and closed down, and, sadly, more people lose jobs and revenue. I'd like people to say: "Hey, that Robert Bacal predicted this crash back two years ago", but hey, who am I kidding?

I'm not interested or willing to do the things to reach that level of celebrity and I wouldn't like it even if I "got there".

Finally, I'm unsure what I'll do with this blog and this site. The original idea was to integrate it with the book, and I'm loathe to put a lot of extra effort into a blog on social media. I'm not sure we need 17 million blogs on social media, and I'm pretty sure, I'm not that interested. But yet, just a little interested. We'll see. Mind you, I have a number of other websites for which I DO have a passion, and also need my attention, on subjects like management, customer service, small business and conflict management.

The content of the book is, in my view, outstanding, and it's a shame not to release it in some form, probably pieces of it as I did with 

Giving The Business to Social Media Research (Kindle). Then again, nobody got to read that, so again, do I want to spend even minimal time creating content nobody will read? Nah. Over 92% of tweets create no response in anyone. I'd hate to work ever so much harder on content and have nobody read it.

PS. I should add that there are people garnering readers for their books on social media. If you want to do what's required to do that, and you love it, more power to ya. I hope you add something besides the rehashes. For me, I don't think I can make it work so enough people will benefit from what I think I have to say. My flaws. Nobody else's.

PPS. I haven't found anyone yet writing what I was writing, but there's some really good thinkers -- not a lot -- who are holding up some mirrors to the social media world. Jaron Lanier, for example. A few others who's names escape me. Go ye forth and look for perspectives that DISAGREE with your beliefs, and you will probably finally understand social media. Sadly, you won't be reading me.