by
Tommy Walker
Big Taboo about Asking on Social Media
So apparently thereâs this big taboo about asking for things on social media.
On one side, thereâs a camp that says you should never ask for anything EVER.
You should provide high quality content, engage in the community, tweet, share links, comment (you know the deal). and you should always so amazing that if youâre patient, people to come to you.
Then on the other side, youâve got the camp that says, âwhy wait?â they use autofollow tools, DM everyone without regard, send mass emails to bought lists… Thereâs a name for these people – But Iâm guessing the editor probably wonât let me use it ;-P
The Middle Ground
Iâve recently discovered a middle ground that was surprisingly simple, and returned results that were pretty shocking to me.
Just ask via private message.
I know right? Who would have thought?
For years, Iâve operated with this fear that if I sent any kind of request through a Twitter DM or Facebook message, I would be instantly labeled a spammer and my online career would crumble in seconds.
But it turns out, with a little finesse & a personal tone, you can use private forms of social media and people will take action.
Twitter Traction – How to Ask and Who to Ask
In this article, Iâll show you an example of how Iâve used private messages en masse that resulted in one of the most commented articles on my blog. Granted, you canât spend comments, but those comments lead to guest post opportunities, mentions on other blogs and was the topic of conversation on a podcast. And more positive exposure never hurts, right?
The Caveat
You do have to provide value in your work. The person youâre asking should actually be getting something out of it. If itâs not advice, a good chuckle will do.
Whatever you do, do not waste peopleâs time. Send only that which youâre proud of and are willing to read 20 times in a row yourself. And be selective about who you ask and how frequently.
It also helps if your work already gets some traction on itâs own. It doesnât have to be crazy, but itâs nice if people you donât know are finding you without you having to push.
On to the rules.
Presentation — How to Ask
The presentation of your private message is all that that you have to signal to the receiver that youâre sending something useful. Get this wrong, you look spammer. Get it right, and youâre acting as a filter sharing something thatâs worth their time. Itâs a fine line, but Iâll show you whatâs worked for me.
Step 1 – Appear legit. Itâs very simple, add the personâs name. Crazy I know. But when you think about it, thatâs something a lot of Auto DM programs DONâT do, so taking the extra step really counts. Plus, when you see your own name itâs an instant hook to your attention.
Step 2 – Find some unique angle that will pique their interest. For example, Letâs say I wanted to drive conversation to an article I wrote about online manipulation .
This particular angle is controversy.
You might also use empathy,
humor,
drama.
Really, you could use any number of angles, just make sure itâs compelling.
You may have noticed that most of these use questions and all of them have a customized link.
When I combine all the elements; the first name, the interesting angle, the question and the link; Iâm trying to invoke the need to respond and click the link. The custom link just adds a little extra emphasis to the work the lines.
The first time I tested this, I DMed 34 people and 27 of them responded in the comments.
Now, like I said comments donât add to my bottom line.
But they did lead to a guest post, a mention on a podcast and someone dedicated a whole blog post to talking about the tactic ().
All of this earns impressions of my brand, and brings links back to my site, improving my overall trust factor.
Comments may not do anything for my bottom line immediately, but when playing the long game, all of these things matter.
Segmentation – Who to Ask
So, one of the major reasons why any of this personal asking stuff works is because youâre being selective about who to ask in the first place.
First, they have to be active on the platform. Seems simple enough, but looking at every single profile to determine activity is time consuming, and will most likely be the first thing anyone using this tactic will overlook – I know I did. But, spending the time now saves you from wasting time sending to people who arenât active.
Second, they have to have some level of familiarity with you.
You might think, âwell theyâre connected to me, so doesnât that qualify?â And I have to ask how many people are you connected to on social media with no idea who they are or what theyâre about. This is pretty much true for most social media platforms; except Twitter.
On Twitter, you can bend the rules a little. Hereâs how.
First- Go to FollowerWonk.com and click on the âcompare usersâ tab
Second-Type in your twitter handle, and the handle of another author who covers a similar subject matter, or writes similarly to the article youâre trying to promote.
Then check out the âfollowers of bothâ link.
NOTE: DO NOT SEND DMâS TO EVERYONE HERE!!!!!
All you want to do is find people who wouldnât be made too uncomfortable if you were to send them a Dm.
Even though Liz and I have some pretty influential people following both of us, I know I donât have a relationship with them the same way she does, and wouldnât want to risk making a fool of myself with really influential people.
However, if I sorted the influence list to show more ânormalâ people, I could find active twitter users that followed both of us who might also be more accessible
Again âANYONE WITH A HEARTBEATâ IS NOT A GOOD CANDIDATE.
Itâs important to make sure theyâre active, but itâs critical that you check out their feed to qualify whether or not you should send them a DM. If they only tweet about macrame and youâre promoting an article about boating, itâs not a good fit.
If itâs somebody you donât tweet with much, acknowledge that in your dm …
Hey Caylie. I know we donât talk much but [Insert Hook Here] http://bit.ly/Successful-Dm
This adds an extra level of human to what would otherwise be a fairly robotic process.
And, If youâre wondering how you could get some âin commonâ followers, here is a great article to get you started with followerwonk(but check followerwonk first, most people I tell about this technique are pleasantly surprised.)
A Word Of Warning
Obviously this CAN backfire if you go overboard with it.
I would not recommend DMing all of your followers for every single piece of content you put your name on.
I would also give a people a healthy period of time in between when you ask for something.
I would ALSO make sure you go out of your way to do something even NICER for them, without being asked.
And I would be sure to thank them privately for when they do contribute.
The reason this method works, and what separates it from being total spam, is that it provides a filter for useful content in an otherwise flooded environment.
If you get selfish and forget that itâs about filtering good content to the right people – well, Iâll let you imagine what happens next.
So, Iâm curious, have you ever tried direct asking before? If so what happened? If you havenât, whatâs the stupidest DM youâve ever gotten that was clearly sent out by a robot. Iâm certain we can get some pretty hilarious stories out of this one.
Oh, and if you know anyone who could benefit from this article,(or want to totally light it on fire) test this method out and letâs see how it works 😉
Tommy Walker is the host of âInside The Mindâ a show that fuses online marketing strategy with internet generation humor. Currently, he is conducting a crowdfunding experiment for Season 2, which proposes to do no less than flip the world of online marketing on itâs head. You can find him @Tommyismyname
Thank you for adding to the conversation!