Will John Reese’s Marketing Tactics Break Twitter?
There’s a little brouhaha brewing on the blogosphere with bloggers Duncan Riley and the folks over at Mashable calling out John Reese for advocating Twitter as a branding/promotion mechanism to aid their marketing efforts.
And John has posted a response at his income.com blog.
So what do the bloggers think about Jason Calancanis’ twitter posts that he has 9,000 twitter followers?
Is he “gaming” twitter?
I would think that since Jason’s post is appearing in their “related posts” widget, it’s an implicit show of support for the post.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but if you’re following thousands of your followers, I’m pretty sure you’re not reading EVERY update.
And if you’re not reading EVERY update, isn’t that insincere to follow them in the first place?
But back to John Reese “breaking” twitter.
Blaming John for the abuse of twitter is like saying handguns are responsible for killing people.
Last time I checked, people were responsible for killing people. Twitter is just a tool.
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On another point, I think John is wrong when he calls the 2 bloggers “journalists”.
Journalists reporting news create content based on facts and attempt to present a balanced perspective.
At best, the reply pieces are opinion/editorial pieces, which give you license to go outside editorial objectively and present a wholly subjective view.
I’m not the greatest fan of John’s other project, BlogRush, as you might tell from my previous posts. It’s just a tool, a piece of technology, not any kind of miracle cure by any stretch of the imagination.
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I don’t think John’s tactics are going to break twitter, but there’s certainly a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) being sowed on the blogosphere.
12 comments on Will John Reese’s Marketing Tactics Break Twitter?
1 Pingbacks & Trackbacks on Will John Reese’s Marketing Tactics Break Twitter?
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[…] Will John Reese’s Marketing Tactics Break Twitter? – There’sa little brouhaha brewing on the blogosphere with bloggers Duncan Riley and the folks over at Mashable calling out John Reese for advocating Twitter as a branding/promotion mechanism to aid their marketing efforts. … […]
Sam Harrelson
June 20, 2008 at 7:38 am (16 years ago)I love how you have to follow him to get the great results.
Of course this isn’t going to “break” Twitter (though it might break some records for lame marketing).
I’ve been using Twitter before any online marketers (Oct 06) and tried to show how great this could be for responsible marketers. And yes, Twitter does work wonders if you’re not an idiot.
John is just one more traffic whore grasping for straws.
Seriously… fail.
John Reese
June 20, 2008 at 9:58 am (16 years ago)Andrew – great post! As for Jason Calacanis, he currently has 28,259 followers. He did a giveaway where he promised to give a Macbook Air when he hit 20,000 followers and so that skyrocketed him. Kevin Rose (at #1) has over 40,000 followers. He’s been plugging his Twitter account on Diggnation and other videos. He also did a giveaway… a new iPod 3G. It’s just simply smart marketing by those guys.
As for Sam Harrelson who commented above…
How am I just a “traffic whore grasping for straws”?
I always love how people sling mud and don’t actually give DETAILED REASONS. So, Sam, why don’t you enlighten me and tell me why you say I’m a traffic whore. Oh, is it because I asked MY CUSTOMERS and newsletter subscribers that already voluntarily spend money with me and/or dedicate their time to read my newsletter to also receive communication by following me on Twitter? GASP. THE HORROR.
I never said they had to follow me or they wouldn’t get great results.
Give me a break.
Sam Harrelson
June 20, 2008 at 10:53 am (16 years ago)Whatever, John. Your emails and “marketing” efforts are lame.
“*******VERY IMPORTANT********
MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW ME!”
Good luck with that. I’m sure that it’ll be as “successful” for you as BlogRush.
Jim Kukral
June 20, 2008 at 11:16 am (16 years ago)John, what people have a problem with is that you’re always marketing. Everything you write is marketing copy. Even your post about this topic over at income.com has a huge spin on it. Instead of just being real and talking, you’re always marketing.
That’s what rubs people the wrong way, especially in Twitterland, which is supposed to be the sanctum away from marketing talk.
Look, I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong in terms of the products/services you sell. You’re also a brilliant marketer. I respect you greatly and envy your success.
However, what you don’t get is that sometimes, and especially now in this 2.0 social thing… that you gotta turn off the marketing speak and start being real. Cut the full-court press and start talking to us, instead of selling to us.
You can argue all you want that you have every right to market on Twitter, but don’t expect people to give you a free pass. Social 2.0 requires a softer touch. It’s not like writing up that sales letter and hitting send on the email.
You may want it to be like that, but it’s not.
John Reese
June 20, 2008 at 11:41 am (16 years ago)Sam – my marketing efforts are lame because I’m encouraging my customers to make sure and follow me on Twitter? or I guess it was the use of all CAPS and how I said it? Seriously, I’m not trying to be a wise guy here, but I just don’t get your point. You’re saving I’m a lame marketer because I’m using persuasive copy?
Jim – I’m not always marketing. Have you seen my Twitter archive? I’ve only promoted a few of my blogs out of the near 600 posts I’ve made. I’ve never promoted an affiliate URL or the URL to a product of my own.
Jim Kukral
June 20, 2008 at 11:52 am (16 years ago)Whether you are or you aren’t (always marketing) John, you’re perceived that you are. And perception equals reality. By that I mean, you’re not going to be easily able to change what people think.
Your success was achieved through awesome marketing, and that’s your brand, so naturally when you do anything you’re going to be targeted as “he’s just trying to make a buck”. And frankly, even your “real” copy reads very “sales letter-ish”. You’ve been writing that content for years and I’m sure it must be hard to try and turn that off. I get it.
I think you can see how naturally anyone can be offended by that? We all create personal and business brands that become our skin. It’s who we are. We can’t all of a sudden one day say “that wasn’t me or that’s not who I am” and just will it to be that way.
You are defined by your actions, and your actions has been enormous marketing success through information products and businesses. Nothing wrong with that. You’re not one of the sleezy guys that you are being lumped in with.
But you’re going to have to live with the fact that a lot of people don’t like your brand and your products and your marketing and will lump you in with all the junk. Nothing you can do about it.
John Reese
June 20, 2008 at 12:02 pm (16 years ago)Jim, very well said, thanks.
Johnny Hope
June 20, 2008 at 5:35 pm (16 years ago)Hey John,
I subscribe to your list because your area of expertise is web traffic.
Your email message regarding twitter is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for when I subscribed, and it didn’t come across as marketing or “sales letterish” at all.
Even if it did… who cares. You’re a successful marketer socializing with other like-minded marketers (for the most part).
The value of your content speaks for itself.
I’m glad you capitalized the part in your message about following you on twitter.
If you hadn’t, I probably would have just skimmed over your email and missed the point of it.
You are clearly demonstrating to your list (of people who want to get more traffic), HOW to get more traffic by doing what YOU do on twitter that results in more traffic.
So, long story short. I subscribed to your list to learn new and innovative ways to get traffic, and you are definitely delivering.
Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t sweat the goofballs.
Remember, just because Web 2.0 allows EVERYONE to voice their opinions, doesn’t mean you have to care what every knucklehead with a blog post says.
You can’t please everybody. There are always those who are looking for the negative and will find it or manufacture it.
Stick with the winners. By their blogposts ye shall know them.
-Johnny Hope
dee
June 21, 2008 at 12:26 pm (16 years ago)John – Just deliver and people will shut up. Those with any brains will.
Evan W.
June 21, 2008 at 9:16 pm (16 years ago)I don’t think what John is doing is going to endanger anything…I’m for the guerilla marketers! Lol. Practically every social media services can/is being used as a marketing device. If the man wants to create a following and use it to get ahead then thats what he’s doing…why criticize? Nothing is really sacred in this industry. All the people that claim to speak for affiliate marketing and say this is right, this is wrong…seem to be doing just that…judging others. I’m totally sick of people in affiliate marketing trashing other people because they dont like their tactics. Affiliate marketing is a wide-open field that allows people to generate revenue however they are able to, with whatever tool. Believe me you won’t ever be able to keep anything sacred and holy….my 2 cents…
john
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