Yesterday saw the launch of the new program from Walter Bayliss called Totally Tweetable.
Let me start out by saying that I am a big fan of Walter’s sites. I use Instant Blog Subscribers every time I update my blog. It’s a great program. So I was very much looking forward to see what Walt’s latest project was going to be. I have to admit I was very disappointed to find out that it was a new Twitter marketing tool.
I like Twitter. I have Twitter setup as my homepage in my browser. I don’t tweet a whole lot but I am following some interesting people and I love reading my updates throughout the day. So when I started seeing automated messages sent by Totally Tweetable through the Twitter accounts of some of the people I was following I knew this was going to be a problem. I say “was following” because I have no interest in having my Twitter feed filled with advertisements. I have been unfollowing Totally Tweetable members since the site launched.
I was going to totally ignore Totally Tweetable until I started to see some glowing reviews from other marketers who’s opinions I respect. I figured I should join and take a look for myself to see if it’s as bad as it appears.
To be fair, Totally Tweetable starts out pretty good. It’s essentially a safelist/viral list builder. As a free member you can send an email (not a tweet) to 100 members every 7 days. You can earn additional credits to send your ads to more members by reading the emails sent by other members.
No problem there. I love safelists so that’s right up my alley.
The problem comes when you read your emails and claim your credits the program automatically sends a tweet from your Twitter account promoting the ad you just read. Yes, it’s good for the advertiser but it basically turns your Twitter into a spam account. If you read 20 emails a day to earn credits that means you are going to be sending 20 tweets a day promoting other people’s sites.
Why would anybody want to do this?
Want to know the fastest way to lose Twitter followers? Use Totally Tweetable.
It appears there are ways around this. You can create a fake Twitter account to use exclusively with Totally Tweetable. You can even skip the Twitter verification part to prevent the site from accessing your Twitter account. But what is the point of this? If your ads are being retweeted with Totally Tweetable you can bet that most of them are either going to garbage Twitter accounts or they are being sent along with dozens of other automated tweets pissing off that member’s followers.
I don’t know why Internet marketers have to try and turn everything they touch into a spam tool. Twitter is far too powerful to be abused like this. If you are a Twitter user you should be following people you want to follow and tweeting the things your followers want to read. Twitter is a “social” platform. It’s not for automated spamming!
To sum up… Totally Tweetable appears to be a good looking safelist/viral list builder that you can use to email your ads to other members. However if you link it to your Twitter account you might as well kiss all of your followers goodbye. If you choose to join make sure you setup a fake Twitter account or skip the step that gives Totally Tweetable access to your account.
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THANK YOU! Very honest and sums up exactly what I think as well sir. Great points. Such potential, but when you turn anything social into automation…It takes away from the main purpose.
Great post Jerry and I completely agree. I was very excited when I saw it was a mailer from Walt but as I started using it and saw that it was tweeting everything I immediately stopped promoting it.
Tried to work around the credit email/tweet issue by removing my Twitter username from my account, but now if you click the credit mails it bring you to the page where you HAVE to put in your Twitter details :(
Really don’t like the idea of having to create a fake Twitter account just to get credited for reading emails, so I think I may be deleting my account.
Shame really because Walt’s other programs are good.
Excellent post Jerry. Good facts without a lot of emotion.
Cheers!
Tony
Great points Jerry. Walt told me autotweet is off by default…and also recommend to keep it that way.
Thanks for the warning I hate automatic tweeters. Very well explained.
Thanks Darren for letting us know the automatic tweet is off by default will wait and see what happens. I can still see a lot of people using them hopefully I do not follow them.
Hi.
I understand what you are saying, but after really looking at Totally Tweetable, I like it. It looks like we only send a tweet if we actually want to. I just clicked on one of the credit emails and did get credits added to my account. There was a button there I could have clicked to get “more” credits for tweeting if I’d wanted to.
I see a lot of automated tweets coming from Sweeva members, too, but it only bothers me if that’s all the person is posting. If they are also posting their own ads & comments, it’s not bothersome to me.
I don’t see either Totally Tweetable or Sweeva as spamming.
Just my 2 cents :-)
Paula
I am with you 100 per cent on this one. I guess it will appeal the types which also use Skype as an automated sales desk.
I am sure I manage to annoy my Twitter followers quite well enough with my own originally thought up tweets…so I don’t need any automated program for help in that department. ;)
Hi Jerry,
Thanks for your review of Totally Twitter! I have to say that you do make some very valid points. If people are going to use it to just promote programs then I do see a problem with it there.
My intentions of using though was just for my Blogs and that was all. I do not promote too many programs anyway, so I would not do be using it for that. I thought it would be good though for expanding my followers on Twitter and then I would be able to meet more new people.
One point to make in favor of the site is that you do not need to really read the emails and earn those credits if you really do not want to. You are allowed to email a certain amount of members according to what your membership is.
For instance, Free members are allowed to email up to 500 members (that is without credits). So earning the credits is not really necessary.
That is my take on it, and I hope that marketers do not use it to be spamming others, and use instead to grow their following.
Thanks again for the great post!
Marilyn
Thanks for the heads up on this
Yes, it looks like it has already been changed. I believe the tutorial video inside the members area had the tweets being sent automatically every time you claimed credits. It looks like you now have the option to not tweet the sites.
I have always been against rewarding people for tweeting stuff in Sweeva. I think it’s great to give people the option to share something they find interesting but as soon as you start rewarding people for doing it people will go out of their way to abuse it.
My free membership says I can mail to 100 every 7 days. That isn’t very much. Especially when you consider how many members, like yourself, don’t plan on reading any of the emails.
I think you will find that in order to get the best results you will have to be active and read emails to earn credits. I am fine with that. Most of my business is based around that. But since most people want the maximum number of credits I think you will be seeing more people retweeting tons of garbage just to earn credits at the expense of their Twitter.
This program definitely has a lot of potential if used responsibly, however I suspect most people won’t use it that way.
@Paula… “There was a button there I could have clicked to get “more” credits for tweeting if I’d wanted to.”
That’s what we assumed as well Paula… that posting to their Twitter account was an “option” in exchange for an additional reward which other sites have done. However, as Jerry points out, having that ad automatically post to your Twitter account is a risky design to both your Twitter account and your branding.
We just talked to Walter and what we assumed the design was is what he changed it to prior to launch. Tweets and Likes are optional and not automatic. The total additional credit amount depends on the size of the members twitter account. You make a good point above Jerry but that design at least gives the member an option of supporting and tweeting something they support.
I totally agree… twitter is already full of automated marketing messages.. do we really need more? automating your social networks is like walking around with a tape recorder around your neck with pre recorded automated messages..
Not trying to alienate anyone (or myself) and no Disrespect to Walter but it’s not a good idea.. I got countless JV invites for this and had to respectfully decline every one, I’m not about to tell my membership base or especially my twitter followers that they should be using twitter as an ad exchange or automating their social networks..
I think the few members of this system who both track and actually pay attention to their tracking will be shocked at how ineffective generic marketing messages are on twitter or social networks in general
Hi Guys, Thanks for the involvement and the honest feedback. Just to clarify – the point of TotallyTweetable is never to Spam – but definitely to increase the reach of marketing. Tweets WERE automated – we quickly switched that off as we realised that Twitter is a Social tool where people should be able to choose what they send. so – the site does indeed work like safelist with just a standard credit based mailer. The viral benefit is now… as the timer counts down, you are given the option of tweeting that message and shaing it on Facbook too via a like – and if you deam the message is good enough to share with your circle of influence, you are thanked by us – and we add additional credits to your account. Nothing automated, all by choice.
Feel free to ask me anything at all and thanks again for the opinions. there Are people posting here that I respect and admire.
Cheers.
Walt Bayliss
Thanks for stopping by to clear that up Walt. I appreciate it.
Thanks Jerry – Oh and By-The-Way the free member Mailer is 200.
200 people every 7 days.
Cheers.
Walt Bayliss
Friends don’t let Friends drive drunk. And Friends do not send Friends business offers they personally are not involved in. Anything else is lying to your friend, friends join friends not businesses, and by sending them a business opportunity you are asking your friend to join you, When your friend joins and finds out you did not join will you still have a friend and will they quit the business. You may get sign ups this way, but I do not think they will stay and you have lost a friend or friends in the process. Deceived people will destroy your business through word of mouth in the chat rooms and social sites. Do you really want to sponsor deceived members?
I NEED people like YOU !
I really like Totally Tweetable. I watched the video in the members area and it said that you could post to Twitter if you want, so my heart nearly stopped when the TT safelist email said “you give permission to tweet this if you click on the link”… but I checked carefully and it did not tweet automatically, thank goodness because that would have made me stop using it right away. Otherwise it’s a fine system and I want to give it a run for it’s money.
Hi Jerry,
Cristina Munoz here from Australia and I think what Walter and Mark have put together here is ingenious and yes personally speaking I’m very selective about which messages I tweet, however the fact you can is brilliant.
Also I discoverd a little trick using totally tweetable that has increased my results, as I noticed a lot of members for some reason were not doing this trick, so I put together two video tutorials which shared this trick.
You are welcome to check them out at:-
==>> http://www.totallytweetabletrick.com
I hope it helps everyone get better results as a marketing resource like TT really deserves our support.
Warmly,
Cristina Munoz
Thank you Jerry for such a good review. I thought it was just me that didn’t like getting all those email. I used twitter but another account to manage isn’t for me.
I really don’t get the concept of sending your ads to other IMers unless you’re targeting IMers. Even then if the IMers are getting paid just to click on your site or banner or whatever, they’re just going to click, they’re not going to buy. So basically it all seems like a big waste of time. What you want to reach is the BUYING PUBLIC, not other IMers looking for exposure for their ads…
I agree but IM is a huge market. If you are promoting products and serivces that target other IM people then there is definitely a lot of money to be made in the IM niche.