NOTE: I was hoping to launch a bit later with more than this one article, but the timing is right.

Viral Twitter marketing schemes are pure bunk. Attention Interest Decision Action (AIDA,MLM) schemes vs proper Social Media and Trust Marketing.

There are currently two Viral Twitter schemes out there promising to generate a lot of followers with little effort. In this post I’ll contrast the pitch for this with what is emerging as a more sustainable marketing strategy for social media.

There are two good examples, one in each camp and I’d like to de-construct their messages a little in order to show you not only how they differ but also why one represents an evolutionary step and the other represents a web-based take on the same old carny, snake-oil salesman, infomercial detritus of both distant and recent lore.

I’ll start with the old-school first because it’s important to end looking toward the possibilities.

But before that, just take a quick minute to examine what is being promised, lots of followers. Is there real value in this? Why? Keep that in mind as we continue.

Ryan Wade created a very basic php script to use the Twitter API to send updates automatically. It is far less sophisticated than some of the web-based services than can schedule, time and run analytics on your tweets. Their effort seems to be mostly that of marketing, and it’s a low key, take it and use it if you want approach, as can be seen here:

Fair enough, at least until you get here:

Aaahh, the inner sanctum. At least he doesn’t hold it ALL back from you. He is kind enough to provide a php script that anyone could write in about 15 minutes.

If you want to try it, use a throwaway twitter account. You should probably keep one of these handy anyway because more of these schemes will come up and there can be something learned from them up until you get to the ticket booth where the secret (That you gotta pay up to see the bearded lady), is revealed.

One thing that remains constant is that when a new technology gets popular, the newly arriving people have less and less tech savvyness about them and will be willing to part with a little cash to make up for the time lost in being late to the party. The people running this racket are positioning themselves right there at the tent entrance.

What’s even more interesting is what happened a few days later. Someone else took this idea, a Twitter API script, packaged it with ‘Twitter success secrets’ and cut the price by 70%.

You may have noticed that in marketing that the less value the product has, the louder the carny has to shout. There is valueable information out there on the internet for sale. The value of it can be explained in a clear logical fashion and examples of proven results can be given…and then there’s the stuff that has no value, the barker has to manhandle you to the ticket booth and rush you to a decision to buy. That’s A-I-D-A Attention, Interest, Decision, Action. It’s fun watching some of these guys at work and it’s stunning how these methods have changed so little over the years. The progressive steps in that method are clear to see in the screen shots. The final call to action, with the very low special price is at bottom. Bada bing, bada bang, bada boom.

Look at what you are promised:

Twitter can help expand your business, you can dominate your niche with twitter. There is no explanation of how this is achieved. At least a hint of how this would work could help push the book.

Red flags – Ah yes, learn from the mistakes of others

Avoid mistakes that noobs make – learning might also solve that problem

…And the end of the rainbow,

The list goes on, but if you count the number of words that indicate certainty, money and ease, you’ll see that this is a standard informercial/Carny pitch. At the end is your call to action, $8.95 for all your dreams come true. And PS: the system is PROVEN.

But look at Mr. McCaffrey’s twitter account, The two screen shots are taken about an hour apart. In one hour, 50 new followers. The system that works for him is the system that he’s selling, not something of real intrinsic value. The number of followers represents curiosity seekers who went ahead and filled out the form. Tomorrow, he could have thousands of followers, all while providing no real value.

If his system had real value, he would have had those thousands of followers BEFORE, he started selling/promoting this ‘product’. No doubt, by the time he gets up to 19,000 followers, he will claim that the secrets in his book were responsible for the big numbers, the screen shots prove otherwise.

OK, another Carny debunked, now I know how the great James Randi feels. What is the point of doing this? Because I want to contrast this approach with the real direction that Twitter, microblogging and social media in general are headed and I want to point out the differences in these approaches in order to show how Social Media marketing can focus on creating real value that comes from experience, insight knowledge and vision, rather than cheap parlour tricks.

Let’s look at another approach to social media marketing, or rather, I’d like to let Perry Belcher introduce you to it. He makes his own points very well in this video I’ll add my own afterwards.

The list he provides is an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to leverage microblogging and other social media to draw attention to their value proposition. His last point is particularly salient given the presentation that preceeded his introduction. His overview is quite general in that it doesn’t go into many of the mechanics as to how exactly one goes from 1 to 10,000 followers but the principles he points out are very much the same as what other sucessful tweeters have cited as their source of success. What’s nice about these general tips is that they are enough for you to benefit from while at the same time starting your own journey leveraging the service. All businesses differ and you may find some tricks along the way that are part of your own cusomized approach. Right there, that’s an asset for you, it’s knowledge. If you just drag a bag of tricks out of the same book that everyone else is reading, what is so special about you? What is your advantage?

Take a look at his account Here, you’ll see that his method, or rather, advice is PROVEN, and he’s not even selling anything yet. Also, contrast the methods and energy used by the two. In the McCaffrey’s case, all you know about the proprietor comes from a black and white photo of him wearing sunglasses.

In the second case, you get a whole video, it’s freely available and everything is spelled out and listed for you. There’s not secret information. Perry and I would feel comfortable calling him that, has an approach that is helpful, enthusiastic and excited about the possibilities of an information medium where the climate consists of sharing knowledge. This instance requires that the proprietor has another skill or product somewhere else down the line waiting for anyone who happens to be interested in it. His method is to cast a wider net, open his doors for business and gladly help anyone who wanders into the shop. In real life, keeping a store open costs alot of money. On the internet, a wordpress account is a trivial cost, so this second approach is financially viable.

When you see how Perry, and many others besides (Including the big Tweeps like Scoble and Kawasaki), do this the contrast is quite sharp. That first guy (McCaffery) is really trying to pry a credit card out of your hands. There is the urgency of being in on the ground floor, promises of rapid growth, ease of use and very little work. These are all signposts, or to use his words, ‘Red flags’ that indicate what your dealing with.

Social media, it’s transparency quick feedback, and openess made it possible to, at least in my own opinion, debunk the claims made by the McCaffrey. I managed to do this in just a few minutes. The bulk of the work was in knowing where to look for ways to verify claims that were made, as well as a quick glance at the PHP code in Ryan’s special recipie for success (All 30 lines of it). Which McCaffrey claims was part of his own product.

Carnys have historically relied on some tools that are not available in the setting of the Internet. First, they relied on secrecy that audience members were allowed to sit in their chairs but not to wander behind the stage where all the ‘magic’ was being prepared. Bouncers or other obstructions were put in place to ensure that sceptics were kept at bay. In the internet, those bouncers don’t exist, as I said, it was very easy for me to wander back stage.

Second, they relied on the temporary nature of their presence. The shows generally went on for a few days and then disappeared to the next town, it was unlikely that an irate customer would chase the carnival to the next town to recover the dollar that he’d been bilked out of. Most people would have chalked it up as an education, and besides, it was entertaining. Fair play, in a sense. But there is no second internet, Mr. McCaffrey cannot pack up and go to the internet a little further down the road. The best he can do is get a new Twitter account and run the same show again. If he does so, however, he’ll loose all those followers he obtained and that large number of followers is his only credential. What’s worse is that unlike the poor sap who got soaked in one town and doesn’t have time to chase his dollar 100 miles down the road, I or another skeptic, can post this article and others can link to it. Rather than the incident being forgotten, notice of it grows.

Third, this idea that his information is special or secret, is rather silly. Sooner or later, if he does have some special sauce, the word will get out. As it is, most people will do a series of searches for free information first before considering paying for something

Finally, a word about the value to you or anyone else of having a lot of followers. By itself, it’s just a number and no more than that. It isn’t until you engage those who follow you with the information that they expected you to have that they become the kind of followers you want. You don’t get the followers you want until you become the resource leader that they expect, it’s a fair trade. Having traffic for it’s own sake isn’t good for much more than selling a product that promises to generate traffic. What is desired is quality traffic and quality traffic is obtained by getting involved with people that are genuinely interested in what you are talking about.

Beyond just contrasting old-school and new-school, the other aim of this article is to contribute something to the preservation of a dynamic in Twitter and other social media that is based on creating value for others to make new things out of. Number generating schemes don’t do that and while it is unlikely they will ever be stopped, recognizing them for what they are should prove helpful in deciding how to spend one’s time and money in building an online business.

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