Twitter Hits the Mainstream: Internet Marketers Rush To the Burgeoning Site

Twitter users looking for proof their beloved communications forum has become a mainstream tool need only scrutinize their followers list.

There they’ll find a lots of friends, family and assorted acquaintances of course. Increasingly, a regular Twitter user will find that a growing number of Internet marketers have become followers too.

The marketers, who go by many names, offer a slew of ways to get rich quick over Twitter. It is reminiscent of the dot-com boom some 9 or 10 years ago, when anyone with an e-commerce site believed he or she would soon be independently wealthy.

Of course, many an Internet dream was dashed soon thereafter. The same is true of Twitter. It may be a fast-growing and (somewhat) effective communications tool but Biz Stone and Co. have yet to prove Twitter can be used for measurable marketing and/or advertising activities.

There are signs such a claim can one day be made; the growing number of users and cottage industry of Twitter-oriented applications that have been created gives it such potential.

But claims of $4,000 per tweet among others are at best difficult to believe (at this point in time.) Twitter may be entering the mass majority but it’s still early days. It’s therefore more difficult to generate the returns Internet marketers promise.

Twitter newbies should heed at least the following three points before entering into an agreement or using the tools of Twitter-oriented tools offered by Internet marketers.

• If it’s too good to be true, it probably is, as the old proverb goes. It’s true (for the most part) that you can turn Twitter into what you want it to be, whether that’s a business tool or a means to communicate with friends. But the chances you’ll become rich by using Twitter in any shape or form are remote at best.
• Beware of false prophets. This is an adjunct point; Twitter isn’t hard to figure out. Those that claim to be experts don’t really know that much more than you even if you are new to the Twitter game. Be wary of those that try to prey on what they see as the ignorance of others.
• Try before you buy. This is a basic tenet of the bricks-and-mortar world. Too often, it’s ignored in the online world. Ask marketers to speak with customers – not just the best ones either – to gauge whether the service or tool is worth your time.  Any hesitation on the part of the marketer to heed your demand should be treated as a warning sign.