Isn't this fishy?
Marketing gurus on twitter suggest that if you want to connect with people... Interact with their content for like 2 weeks before reaching out.
I mean if your goal was to reach out, why the pseudo relationship?
Isn't it fishy?
Note: of course it works. Just like Growth hacking tactics, at least when they first came out.
Trending on Indie Hackers
It's better than just going straight to the ask and at minimum it forces the marketer to invest time into understanding the target.
Id' second this.
Well said, Matt
No decent marketer would reach out if they never understood a business...
Although they may not interact with your public content m.. They would be studying if you are great fit.
But the force-interaction... That's what I'm talking about.
My secret plan is to immerse myself into this community to get to talk to Courtland Allen for my master's thesis research on micro-startups and the IndieHackers scene, which is why you'll see me some more in the forums in the upcoming weeks.
Will report back if this strategy pays off ;)
Cheers, Fabio
👀
😂 😂 Now that you've come out plain... Isn't this going to disrupt the plan?
It would have been more interesting if you replied to this post after you've accomplished your goal 😈
Haha this community is all about transparently sharing goals and milestones with each other so it's only fitting to act out in the open I'd say 😁
😂 😂 Yeah, that's true.
It's honest, actually 😄
Spotted Allen in the comment section, aha.
Good luck. If you don't mind, would you tell us the end result?
I think it depends on how you approach it.
In Cialdini's Influence, he talks a lot about reciprocity: the idea that if you provide people with value, they're more inclined to return the favor. A simple example is a sales person taking a client out to lunch with the hopes it may help to close the sale.
There's also the idea of commitment and consistency: you interact more with whomever it is you're trying to connect with, and a relationship gets formed over time.
Now, you can take these concepts and act on them in a little bit of a naive way: liking all of their tweets, randomly replying to them, etc. Without really paying too much mind to it and giving things much thought. I've seen a lot of marketers recommend this sort of thing. Especially when they recommend timelines like do this for 2 weeks, etc.
What's missing, and I think what it is that you're touching upon, is: authenticity!
That's why it feels fishy.
If you're a marketer and you're trying to connect with someone, it absolutely is a good idea to interact with their content and engage with them: so long as you're doing it in an authentic way. You're authentically bringing value to their social media presence. You're telling them, hey, I'm on your team! You're contributing value to them without making a big ask yourself.
Perhaps you reply to another person who asked them a question in a tweet, and you provide an answer. Or, you ask a really great and pointed question in a reply to them, giving them the opportunity to give you an equally great answer in the public space. People in authority positions love giving answers and having the platform to give them.
This is where reciprocity comes in to play.
As human beings we naturally want to help others that help us.
The way I look at it is: instead of looking at rules like "interact with their content for 2 weeks before reaching out"... focus instead on building a relationship.
Maybe it takes only a week. Maybe 2. Maybe longer. Just be natural about it, and check yourself to make sure you're being authentic. Ask yourself: am I doing this so that I can get this person to do something for me, or am I doing it because I believe in their cause, and think that we'll both be able to find some mutual value from one another?
Just my two cents!
That's no 2 cents 😄
That's a million dollars. And you hit the word — Authenticity.
Oh man, I love the way you put it in the right context.... Adding time frames is the wrong measure...
Build relationships.
Good book reference, clear from that angle why people recommend it, but it's like you said it's all about being authentic and providing value yourself, not random spam.
Agree, I actually think this is a generic marketing issue though!
For example a lot of platforms blacklist people that self-promote / market their product on their platform. You are encouraged to "disguise this" as some sort of question / advice / something that the people on that platform would find helpful. But if you / your product can potentially help the people in that community, why should you have to hide talking about this, behind something else?
On one hand, I think it's to reduce spam because you can't fake interact for 2 weeks straight.
Would be mad if anyone can pull auto interact for 2 weeks straight.
And I agree with you, if your product can help why disguise?!?!?
That is very true! I guess I just prefer the approach of doing your homework on the person that you want to connect with and then reaching out directly, stating your intention, as I feel like they would interact better knowing that you laid all cards on the table already.
That being said I have no clue if this applies to twitter too as I've only started using it for marketing recently and twitter interactions seem quite different to the b2b ones that I'm used to.
The Authenticity and honesty is all that's needed... No beating round the Bush.
I think it applies to twitter... I observed some replies to certain influencers tweet seems pretty wierd.. Its obvious they are kissing asses... You know.
Why I had to ask this question here on IH.
What differences have you observed on twitter? And which B2b channel were you coming from?
That's fair! And completely get what you are saying about twitter, I noticed that too. IH defo feels more honest! Sometimes even brutally honest haha.
In terms of b2b I did upwork for freelance work & linkedin + cold emails for my first startup (this was a matching software that would pair employers with people best suited for their jobs) & lately just direct outreach for the businesses that are on my platform (CtrlAlt.CC)
I feel like on the b2b side you get to address people individually, which makes it easier to talk to them more openly, as they are not in front of their audience performing, which I think is what happens on twitter. But again, I am far from an expert on twitter as I just started using it like this 😅