Follow Up To My 30 Day Twitter Experiment
Mar

30 days ago, I published a post about my Twitter strategy and how I wanted to change it in order to better build my brand. I was finding that many of my interactions were of the automated kind and it wasn’t how I wanted to build my business.
So I threw down a challenge of sorts to see if I could begin using Twitter more effectively to build relationships. Today I want to share what I’ve found.
I can say with all honesty that I did not reach all my goals, but I did put forth much more effort than I previously had. With that being said, here is what I accomplished.
My Stats
Followers
- Followers on February 27: 940
- Followers on March 28: 1055
- Increase: 12%
This number would have been higher if Twitter didn’t decide to suspend a bunch of my egg followers! All in all, I lost over 100, which threw off my stats. Of course, these followers mean nothing, so it wasn’t really a loss.
Traffic
- Direct visits from Twitter from January 28 to February 27: 344
- Direct visits from Twitter from February 28 to March 28: 457
- Increase: 33%
My Tweets Retweeted:
- Had a 86% increase from February 28 to March 28 over the previous month
Miscellaneous
- I started a mastermind group and chose the members largely based on the relationships I had built on Twitter
- I have been contacted by a few well known bloggers who have offered to help me with various projects. It’s been a HUGE help!!!
- I have been receiving more emails (which I love) from people looking to either share their story or from those looking for help
- My @Mentions have gone up significantly, indicating more conversations. I actually started counting them manually (because I’m too cheap to pay for a service that will do it for me), but lost interest after 5 minutes.
Tools I’ve Discovered
I love finding new tools for Twitter and there is definitely no shortage of them available!
Here are some of the more interesting ones:
- Unfollowr: Just follow this Hitler looking dude and you will receive DM’s from time to time telling you who unfollowed you. Many people don’t care, but I find it to be helpful.
- WhatsMyTwitterAccountWorth.com: Just type in your Twitter ID and you will find out how much your Twitter account is worth. Of course, this is absolutely meaningless because there is no way to tell how that figure is estimated and also because nobody is ever going to buy our Twitter accounts. Kinda fun though!
- Buffer: Buffer is an application that allows you to store posts in a “buffer” to Tweet at a later time. So as you’re jumping from post to post, you can add the ones that are Tweet worthy to it and they will be sent out according to how you schedule them. That way, your followers don’t get flooded with Tweets. Also, how many times have you forgotten to Tweet a great post? A lot probably. Now, you can just add it with 1 click via the Chrome extension and it’s all set.
- Tweet Old Post plug in: For months, I was scheduling my tweets manually with HootSuite. This free plug in allows you have your old posts automatically and randomly tweeted at specified time intervals. Although I’m not a big fan of sending out too many auto tweets, I do think this is a very useful tool for generating interest in older, forgotten posts.
A Few Standout Results From You!
When I wrote my post last month, I had a number of people either leave a comment or email me letting me know they wanted to be a part of this experiment.
Below are few people who made the commitment to using Twitter more effectively and you will see by the results, that they were definitely committed!
Debbie from EuropeanTravelista.com
- Follower count went from 19 to 264. An increase of 1,289%
- Her traffic is up over 200%
- Her comments have increased by almost 340%
- She has also received two guest post opportunities, which would not have happened otherwise
- When she started this experiment, she had received 1 Retweet. She now gets multiple per day
- You can follow her @eurotravelista
What Debbie had to say:
“I would have to say this Twitter Challenge has been very successful for me. It has taken a lot of time but the payoff is there plus it was fun.
For me, the biggest challenge is getting everything scheduled since I am also still in “the grind” of a full time job. I will definitely keep on with the Twitter challenge since it can only do good things for my blog.
Thanks, Steve, for issuing this challenge! I found it to be a fun way to jump in and was just the impetus needed to make me tackle something completely new!”
Kathy from WorkingForWonka.com
- Follower count went from 6,000 to 6,800. An increase of 80%. Most importantly though, they are quality followers!
- The quality of her Retweets and @Mentions has increased
- She has formed new relationships by reaching out to her followers and to those who either sent her a DM, Retweeted her stuff, or @Mentioned her.
- She even had a chat with Gary Vaynerchuk! I know that it’s not an easy thing to get a response from him. I’ve tried..
- You can follow her @workingforwonka
What Kathy had to say:
“The bottom line is that Twitter shouldn’t just be about the numbers. Improving the quality of my tweets, my follows and by default my followers, it makes the whole experience more beneficial to everyone. And a lot more fun!”
Adrienne from OnTheRoadLessTaken.blogspot.com
- Follower count went from 1,439 to 2,160. That’s an increase of 50%
- Was offered part-time work on a social media project through her connections made on Twitter
- Getting more @replies and developing more relationships
- Through her personal interactions, her click rate was higher and the time people spent on her site went from 1:45 to almost 4 minutes
- You can follow her @adriennemay
What Adrienne had to say:
- Follower count went from from about 100 to 460. An increase of 360%
- Is now receiving 25% of his blog traffic from Twitter as a result of new interactions
- Went from virtually no Retweets to getting multiple ones each day
- Has formed 20-30 relationships with Internet marketers and web designers
- You can follow him @thinkmarketact
What Eric had to say:
“Because of interacting more on Twitter I have built a couple really good relationships and got a lot of input on my blogs look and feel.
I also have learned more in a month on twitter with reading blog posts recommended by people I trust than I would have if I would of went to the book store all day every day for 2 weeks straight.
I think Twitter is amazing and I don’t know why I did not get it the first 5 times I tried ;-)”
My Takeaways
This has been an awesome month for me as well as for those who took part in this experiment. I’ve made some great new connections and have been focusing on making friends instead of contacts.
Here of some of my takeaways from this past month:
- Don’t get too caught up in the numbers. It’s tempting to focus on all the statistics ( I love the analytics), which I point out in this post, but the real value is in the quality, not quantity.
- Focus outward. Spend twice as much time promoting other peoples content as your own. It works.
- Try to actually help people. Answer questions you see posted, take an interest in someone’s story, share your knowledge. You’ll be amazed at what can come from this approach.
- Follow up. When someone takes the time to send you a personal message, answer them! Personally, I like to visit the blog of everyone who sends me a message. If I like what they are doing, I will send them an email letting them know that. Believe me, this is very
powerful!
I want to thank everyone who joined me over the last 30 days and I hope you all continue what you’re doing. It’s clearly working for you!
See you on Twitter….

David
Great experiment Steve. Keep focusing on making quality connections on Twitter and I wouldn’t worry so much about the numbers.
If you really just want to up your follower account, checkout Twiends.com. You can add 100 follows pretty quickly (about half will unfollow after a few days. But like I said, these aren’t quality follows so they are just for show.
Steve
David,
My plan is to keep working on relationship building, although I am such a numbers person, it’s hard not to get caught up in them…
I wouldn’t go as far as trying to add followers just to add them, but I don’t like seeing my count go down…
Harriet`
Great experiment Steve. I love Twitter but I’ve been going off it recently so maybe I’ll try an experiment like yours and see if I can get some more followers and maybe it’ll make me more interested!
Steve
Harriet,
Twitter can be great if you have a network of people who are interested in what you are doind. It’s very disheartening when you tweet out questions and nobody acknowledges them. Get back in there and start creating a thriving community!!!
Richard @ Lifestyle Design Unleashed
Really neat post – and nice to hear that you are getting some solid results with your challenge. I am making a conscious effort to dive deeper into Twitter (which is easy because I love it!) so it will be interesting to see my own results over the following months. Thanks for the real-world stats and a dose of inspiration we all need from time to time.
Steve
Hey Richard,
Twitter has been a great resource for me and I only wish I had more time to devote to it. Nothing is more frustrating than being involved in a great conversation and having to sign off becasue I’m at work. Good luck with your newfound approach to Twitter. I’m sure I will see you around..
Eugene
Ah yesss…using Twitter as it was intended to be used. This is awesome stuff Steve! I definitely don’t spend as much time on there as I should. It really is a great tool if you utilize it correctly.
Adrienne May
Thanks for including me in your challenge!
Steve
And thank you for crushing my stats with yours!!!
Riley Harrison
I have just decided to get serious about twitter so this post was very timely. and the comments are also very helpful. So thanks a lot; it’s really appreciated
Riley
Steve
Riley,
Glad you found it helpful. Twitter can be an incredibly powerful tool if used effectively, so best of luck to you!
Debbie Beardsley
Hey Steve, Thanks for issuing the challenge and including me in your recap! It really was fun to get moving on Twitter.
Steve
Debbie,
You kicked some serious butt, well done! Keep it up now…
Mike Stenger
Good stuff man. I think it’s important to note that as far as traffic is concerned, search engine bots should be taken into consideration for some of that. Search engines crawl Twitter just like they do other sites.
By the way, I noticed you don’t have a mobile version of your blog. Not a big deal for me (Have an HTC Evo) but others might not have as fast of a smartphone or connection.
Steve
Hey Mike,
Good point. I don’t really pay much attention to the analytics anymore. As long as the numbers are going up, I’m happy!
Mike Stenger
Oops, forget the mention about a mobile version of your blog. After I posted my comment and the page refreshed, it displayed the mobile site 🙂
Marco Lee
I had also been doing some experimentation with twitter but I don’t know If I have been losing or gaining lol. So far I’m cool with it.
Follower count by last March 5000 tops
Follower count by today Apirl 4865
Things I did.
1. I did unfollow people that were inactive during the past six months using ManageFilter. That’s the reason why I think my number of followers dropped.
2. Gained some new followers because of TV exposure
3. Gained some followers because of engagement or @mentions
4. Experimented with funny twitter messages 🙂 (Don’t know if it has great effect but some retweeted I think)
5. Now, I’m sending out “Twitter Tips” and Business quotes. Got a little retweets from that, and will pursue this more.
Engagement is still the key. Also, again like you said. It’s not about the Quantity of the followers but the Quality.
Steve
Marco,
By my math, you are losing them 🙂
With 5000 followers, I’m sure you have a bunch of spammers as well as people who only follow you when you follow them.
When you flush them out, you will inevitably lose some or most of them. Also, Twitter does purges and dumps all the spammers once in a while which will reduce your count.
All of this is unimportant because it’s all about quality!!
James M
I’m late to the party, but here are some additional tools to help create better exposure for your posts and understand your followers:
Triberr – you join a tribe, and your tribemates will tweet out the posts in your RSS feed daily. Each tribe is 7 members, you can be a member of multiple tribes, and the default tribe is 15+ members. All this adds up to a lot more retweets and visits to your site.
ThinkUp – ThinkUp is an analytics tool you run on your own server. It pores over all the data from your Twitter account to point out who tweets the most, who has the most klout, and so forth. Developed by Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. Awesome stuff.
triberr.com
thinkupapp.com
Steve
James,
Thanks for the tips.
I like the idea of Triberr but am not crazy about the fact that you retweet everything that your tribe posts. Sometimes, we publish subpar articles and I don’t want to auto promote that. Never head of ThinkUp-will check it out.
Dino Dogan
Hey Steve,
You can run Triberr in manual mode in which case the post line up in your cue and you can check them out before letting them go.
hth
Steve
I did not know that. Good to see you back here for a visit!
Dino Dogan
Fo shizzle 🙂
Our intention is to build a platform that makes sense for bloggers. So our first driving decision is how does this help a blogger? Especially small and medium sized bloggers.
We are fortunate to have built a platform people really care about and they give us plenty of feedback, to which we respond by building a better Triberr experience.
Good to be back my friend 🙂
Steve
I think it’s a great tool and will help a ton of people build their businesses. Given that you are a blogger, Internet marketer, and social media buff, I think you have a great understanding of what tools will be most beneficial. I’ll be back to check out Triberr again soon.
Kathy Ver Eecke
Steve:
I know I’m jumping back in the conversations late! (Can’t believe it has been 6 weeks!) But I just found a new resouce….well, new to me. And I don’t think you mentioned it. Have you heard of or used klout.com? (http://beta.klout.com) It is AWESOME.
Just link Klout to your Twitter account and it gives you an overall ‘influence’ rank. It tells you what categories you are influential in, how you compare to the average user, totals all your mentiones & RTs and (drumroll) tells you your true audience size based on all those stats. So, despite the fact that I have nearly 7K followers, my real audience today is only 2K. It show that my influence has dropped over the last 30 days, which makes sense since I’ve been otherwise occupied.
I hope this isn’t duplicate info for you, and that you find it as fascinating as I do. Wish we’d had it in place before the 30-day challenge. Would have been a great way to track results! May start my own challenge again today. You in??
Kathy
Steve
Hi Kathy,
Just a little late to the party….
I’ve seen the Klout score before but never really looked into it (until today). It looks pretty cool. I think another Twitter challenge might be in order with the Klout score as the determining factor!
I’ve got a few things I’m working on at the moment, so maybe we can start it in June??
Kathy Ver Eecke
Excellent, tho I’m sure I’ll be obsessively tracking it already. 🙂
John Leach
Thanks so much for this article. Stats can be so addictive. I don’t plan on my blog being my “thing”. But I am going to try your experiment from the standpoint of promoting software development and my android apps as that is my passion.
Steve
John,
Good luck with the experiment! Try to focus on helping others and building relationships. It will work 10x better than a bunch of self promotion.