Visibility

I recently came across an intriguing tweet asking the question, “Is 10,000 followers equivalent to 10,000 email addresses?”  The person that re-tweeted this question responded, “No. 10,000 followers is more credible.”  This set my mind to thinking.  Can followers on Twitter really mean more than a company’s email database?  This question, like most, is a lot deeper than just simply a yes or no.   If we are attempting to determine the credibility of a company based on followers or email addresses, we must look at the credibility of the followers and emails themselves.

Credibility is the Question

The world of Twitter is full of many different types of followers.  In general, however, there are really three types:  robot users, passive users, and active users.

Robot users are tools that follow users given a certain set of criteria in order to market some product or service.  There are a couple ways that they go about this.  The first is, in response to a tweet they auto-reply with a message about their product or service.  This message is targeted to a specific keyword in the original tweet, whether it is truly relevant or not.  The second way is that they re-tweet a post of yours changing any links taking people who click through to a landing page that is marketing products and services.  Regardless of how these users function, followers of this type are of no real value to your business.

Passive users are individuals or businesses that use tools to target information based on keywords and hash tags.  Some users even set it up to auto-follow anyone who uses those terms.  The information you are providing to them may be of value, and then again it may not.  They likely will skim over all the information that the tool pulls back for them, and only really pay attention to things that catch their eye.  There can be some value to these followers.  However the chances of them actually clicking through depends on your marketing ability, their needs, and a bit of luck that your tweet is actually available for them to read on their tool when they come looking.

Active users are engaged in the world of Twitter.  Although they also might use tools use to find new information.  They are reading what those whom they are following are saying.  The information that you put out to them is more likely of value to them, and they are more likely to click through.  On top of that they can easily pass along the information to others without strings attached (unlike robot users).  The value of these followers is great.  They are the type of user for which the social media world was created.  However in my experience this type of user is vastly out-numbered.

When it comes to emails the question is completely different.  It is not so much about who the user is as it is about how your business obtained the user information.  There are many different ways that businesses can obtain emails, but for this I will discuss three: misleading, opt-out, and opt-in.

Misleading can mean a lot of things.  Perhaps the email addresses were obtained via a free offer that the user had to put their email in order to receive.  I am sure somewhere in the fine print it says that entering the email means that they will receive more offers.  Perhaps there is no mention whatsoever.  No matter what, however, it typically means that emails are going to the user that they never really wanted.  The value of these emails is literally nothing.  Maybe just by chance you have someone who gets an offer for which they are actually looking.  However the click through is minimal and more likely you will be blacklisted because the user does not understand how you got their information.

Opt-out means that a person entering their email address has to specifically select a checkbox in order to not receive emails.  Many times when people fill out forms they skim and do not really read what they filling out.  Granted, if they would read it, then they can choose to not receive emails they do not want.  However, the simple fact of the matter is that many do not really pay attention.  The value of these emails is mixed.  There are some who will actually read the information sent out, and yet you still might have a few complaints from people who do not recall filling out the form.  The click through rate on these emails will be higher than that of emails obtained by misleading users.

Opt-in is where users are coming to you wanting information.  They were not tricked nor did they just forget to uncheck receiving emails.  They have specifically given you their email and given you permission to contact them with more offers.  The likelihood that they will open your emails and read them is much higher because they are looking for your business’ information.  As well, the click through and conversion rates are significantly higher over any other way of obtaining emails.

What’s More Credible? Followers vs. Emails

Given all this information then, let’s get back to the question at hand.  Are 10,000 followers and 10,000 emails equivalent?  Let’s take a best case scenario.  Assume you have 10,000 active followers and 10,000 opt-in emails.  In this situation I would say they indeed are equivalent.  In fact, I might even lean toward the followers being more useful as Twitter makes it very convenient for them to re-tweet or forward the information on to their followers.

The problem is that no one can say they have 10,000 active followers on Twitter.  No company can control who follows them on Twitter.  Nor can they control what tweets those users see.  The only thing you can say is the number of followers, regardless of what type of user they are.  Twitter is actively trying to get rid of spammers, but this is a never-ending battle for the social media world.  

What you can control as a business is your business practices, specifically how you obtain email addresses.  You have the ability to decide the value of the email addresses in your database.  It is true that opt-in means that your business will have a smaller list.  However the value of the list is much, much greater.  (This, of course, is setting aside the fact that to work with any reputable email marketing company the list must be opt-in.)  

So, if one business said they had 10,000 opt-in email addresses and another said they had 10,000 followers on Twitter, then to me, and I believe the majority of the internet marketing industry, the opt-in email addresses are a whole lot more valuable to you as a business and make your business more credible.