I gotta be honest with you. I”m not sold on the “hype”.

And I’m not coming from a non informed position. I’ve had great friend and successful marketers lament about how great twitter is. How they’ve sent out one Tweet and generated many leads for a few seconds of effort.

I’ve bought about just about every products that’s come out on twitter to inform myself on how to use it, and how other’s are using it.

BTW: If you don’t know what twitter is, it’s kinda like this blog, except you can only type 140 characters for each message. It’s called “micro blogging”. You can sign up for an account in a few second, start following people, in an attempt to have them follow you back to increase your exposure online and open you up to new markets.

All that’s well and good, and it sells.

Anything easy money and that’s completely free to get involved in sells. So, it’s no surprise that everyone coming out with the “I’ve cracked the code to twitter marketing” products are coming out of the wood works.

They’re just being good marketers. Where ever there is great curiosity, buzz, it’s simple to understand and use, there are going to be people who HYPE it up, and sell you on it being the next best thing in the world, and they’re smart for doing it from a profit standpoint. People will buy.

The reason I haven’t said a ton about twitter and social media personally is my own personal way of thinking about business.

Me, I think in terms of leverage and stability, and although there is a great argument for leverage in the USE of twitter, I’m not sold on the long term viability of the thing.

Not that I don’t think it will be around, but I think back to Myspace, no one’s really using it anymore. Why? It got trashy, filled with spammers, and lost it’s value. Up came Facebook.

Twitter is even simpler. Who’s to say a bigger better Twitter might come along? What happens to all the time you spend on Twitter?

And specifically . . .

I’m not sold on it in the home business space. Anyone that’s got a Twitter account can attest to how much spam goes out. Many many people’s profiles are filled with nothing but buy this buy that and twitter’s cool with it.

It’s like safelists and traffic exchanges all over again = permission spam.

I’m not saying don’t use Twitter, I’m just saying don’t spend all your time trying to grow your business solely with Twitter.

There’s potential for success no doubt, but at this point I’ve only seen it in spurts or by people selling you how to use twitter to get followers.

Now, there are few great things I do like about twitter . . .

You can find good quality “lead” in a quasi targeted manner and you can develop some great good “micro” friendships there.

You can get in contact with busy professionals and have short conversations and set up appointments.

A few weeks ago, I was on the way to a private mastermind meeting and Perry Marshall (The Google Adwords Guy) was going to the same meeting I Tweeted him to see if he was gonna be there for some Bad Ass Texas BBQ at Kreutz’s (probably spelled wrong) and few minutes later he said “I’ll see ya there”

That’s what Twitter is good at. Creating and having “micro” conversations.

What I fear is people are wasting their time thinking Twitter is going to make them rich. A few leads, maybe a recruit or two, but a full scale business - No.

And it’s the time factor that’s most alarming to me.

Just last week I spoke with a home business marketer and I asked him what he was doing to promote his business. He said “he was on twitter and using traffic exchanges”

That’s just not a good use of time.

If you want to use free media to grow your business, start a blog, write articles, create videos, but twitter ain’t it (in my opinion)

Most of what I see in terms of information about how to use twitter is “scheme like” at best.

“Use this tool to auto follow people, use this other tool to auto post stuff, use this other tool to unfollow people, etc”

And that’s not business building. That’s scheming. And it’s really NOT a way to add value.

I have yet to see a guide say something like . . .

Since Twitter is micro blogging, why not search out other blogs in your niche who’s publishers have twitter accounts, follow them, check their blog for new content and when they put out a new article lead a value added comment, and then tweet the article and your comment.

Maybe even direct message the blogger to let him know about your comment and tweet about his article.

Do this consistently with 20 0r 30 bloggers, and what’s going to happen?

You’ll create real relationships . . .

Why not next start your own blog and every now and then DM the other bloggers to comment and tweet you back to their circles of influences about their comment on your blog.

Now you’re leveraging their credibility with their follower base. You’re adding value to them first, and then your asking for a little reciprocation.

What happens?

You’re circle of influences grows in a meaningful way and so does theirs. You create hundreds of links back to your sites via your comments on the other blogger’s blog and their tweets.

Over time you’ll make some friends who will comment and add value to your blog and create links back to your via twitter in their circle of influence.

See that makes sense to me.

Not auto follow, auto unfollow, and blast your ad.

Bottom line is, I’m not totally sold on twitter, and I know I’m about to hear from more than a few people who think that I’m wrong, so . . .

My advice is simple, if you do use twitter as a lead generation method, just think of how you can add true and sustainable value first.

Ohh, by the way let’s get a “micro” debate going on all this: http://twitter.com/daegan_smith

Bottom line is, always think in terms of leverage and stability and your business will grow. It’s really that simple.

If you’re unsure how to formulate a plan to build a business in leverage that becomes highly profitable and stable over time here’s how I do it every time.

The first time I figured this out, I not only created an income stream that’s still flowing strong today, but it got me out of my job, afforded me the opportunity to take my younger brother on a trip to Japan as a high school graduation gift to him, and now because I don’t work I get to go hang out at my grandparents house anytime I want.

Nothing fancy, just a stable and free lifestyle following a simple plan. Isn’t that really what all this mumbo jumbo’s about anyways?

To the top,
Daegan
“The King Of Never Calling A Single Lead”

P.S. Are you for or against Twitter as a lead generation tool for home business growth? Don’t be shy, let me know what’s on your mind.