I know there are a lot of anti-Twitterers out there crusading against the rapidly growing Twitter monster, but aside from the ethical debate over whether or not it is socially healthy to be hyper-connected to each other with play-by-play updates of our daily lives, there has also been much discussion on how to monetize this strange new obsession.

I do have a personal twitter account, but I try to keep it separate from business. However, I do have a few additional accounts that I use for marketing purposes.

None of my friends “IRL” are into internet marketing in any capacity whatsoever. The closest is probably a friend I’ve had since kindergarten that used to bank pretty nicely selling bootlegs on eBay back around the turn of the millennium. Just the other day a female friend of mine followed me on Twitter, so I went to check out her page and see who her followers were. Who did I see at the top? John Chow.

I suppose that is one approach. Just follow as many people as you possibly can since you know that some of them will invariably follow you back. Then just speet (spam tweet, I just made that up) all day and wait for the $ to roll in. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not the “hello friends! I want to teach you how to increase your passive income!” type. At least not when my real name and likeness is associated, in any case…

Where I have found success with Twitter is by cultivating a follower base with a sincere interest in whatever it is I’m doing. Many people have found success doing this with celebrity-based Twitter accounts. Unfortunately, some of you have gone as far as impersonating notable personalities. This will work in the short-term, but has no real longevity. On the other hand, acting as some sort of obsessed fan tweeting about the same person all day will also turn people off real quick. So what is the off-white hat solution?

Without revealing any of my awesome Twitter accounts (best one gets around 200-300 new followers per day, and I don’t do shit other than tweet maybe once a day), here are the steps I take when creating and priming a new Twitter account:

• The Name – Obviously very important. Using the exact name of a celebrity/band, etc might be a bit much. Try to incorporate something else into it that gives people the impression that you are the “official” Twitter for that personality, even if it that specific celebrity is not actually the one updating the account. You may or may not want to actually use the word “official”.
• Tweets – Obviously don’t spam crap, especially right off the bat. Just do a quick Google news search to find relevant info and make a tweet about it. Include a link. You can check the official website of your subject for updates as well.
• Be selective about who you follow – Any Twitter savvy user can tell you, your follower:following ratio determines how cool/important you are. Keep your list of people you are following to a minimum. Many Twitter-crazed youngsters will see your impressive ratio and follow you based on that principle alone.

Monetization

Okay, great, you have a ton of followers. Now how do you capitalize? Well, luckily famous people and bands are always selling something that their fans want. Whether it be an album, a DVD, concert tickets, memorabilia, whatever. All of these things can be monetized through the proper affiliate marketing channels. And boy, does Twitter make it easy.

Tiny URL

The fact that Twitter automatically appends just about every URL you post into a Tiny URL is a great blessing. Over the past few years people have become more aware of and more put off by affiliate links. This may have been the fate of Tiny URLs as well, if it weren’t for Twitter making them totally mainstream and acceptable. So you can go ahead and convert that obscenely long iTunes affiliate link through Linkshare into a Tiny URL link, tweet about Joe Blow’s new album release with your link, and the user will have no idea whatsoever that they just clicked through your affiliate link. On top of that, iTunes (or whoever) will have no idea where you are sending the traffic from (unless the referrer leaks…if you’re that paranoid just use a double redirect).

This concludes my Twitter marketing seminar. Sign up as an official consultant now for $50,000. That’s $150,000 off the usual rate. Refer your mother and your grandmother to become consultants and you’ll get your own island.