Is is merely one-upsmanship in the age of the Social Web?

Or is it a troubled cry for help?

You be the judge …

… music of mental pondering goes here …

I’M A TWIT. ACTUALLY, TWO TWITS

I have succumbed to Twitter. I am now a twit.

Worse. I am two twits.

I’m a Twit once at http://twitter.com/CopyDragon
(which is associated with this new website http://CopyDragon.com)

I’m a Twit Again at http://twitter.com/TraktorTopaz
(which is associated with my old website http://TraktorTopaz.com)

GETTING FANCY TO BOOT

I have customized the Twitter Profiles of both of them, as you will see, when you have a moment free to satisfy your curiosity and to take a look. The custom background is pretty easy. Several sites offer templates, meaning a kind of worked up graphic to which you tweak. It’s easy. Edit in your fave graphics program, upload, and Bob’s your Uncle, there it be.

On this website, and on the TraktorTopaz.com website for the Dread Pirate Topaz Twitter persona, I’ve added a ‘follow me’ twit-button into the navbar, and allocated a page with a widget to display recent twits, in the hope that you might find them useful or entertaining.

My big plan for these personas is to develop some twitter community for my music instrument and forum folks (Dread Pirate Topaz), and some twitter community for my Internet Marketing interests which includes hypnosis, our article spinner, my dating method, and other online projects (CopyDragon).

DRESS FOR SUCCESS

Short story inserted here: Many years ago I found out that I knew from nothing about how to dress and wear clothes. And I set out to learn. I was in major meeting-women mode, and highly motivated. I even had “my colors” done. (Yes, men. I’m not ashamed to admit it.) And I thought long and hard about the question of … “How do the clothes you wear affect the way people perceive you?”

Once I’d found the question, then many useful answers just tumbled out as obvious. But isn’t it often the case that, when you find the right question, most of the battle is won?

And *one* of my realizations is that, given human nature, everyone who meets you is going to quickly assign you to a stereotype. That’s what we do when we meet someone.

So it follows that, since they’re going to do that, the best way to grasp control of this process is to present them with a stereotype of your own choosing.

So what did *I* do?

Well, in my own case, I chose ‘carefree professor’ and wore corduroy jackets with elbow patches, grannie glasses, curly hair, no tie or a woven one or something offbeat, mostly in slightly restrained primary colors.

But I digress.

The point is this —

HUMANS CAN’T HELP THINKING IN STEREOTYPES

In any universe, people who meet you are going to pigeonhole you, and they’ll use some stereotype. On this list, for example, in one internet marketing forum where I learn a lot, a guy there named Gene might be the domain-flipping guy. Another member, Steve, might be the unusual-adwords guy. And the fellow who runs it, Dennis, is the five dollar guy, because of the name of a book he wrote.

This doesn’t mean that these stereotypes and pigeonhole categories are *all* that these fellows are. It’s just an example of stereotypes that might be applied to them by new folks on this form, who have nothing to go on except what they see presented in discussions on the forum.

WHO AM I, REALLY?

Up till now, though I have a highly-developed persona in the musical instrument world called ‘Traktor’ (and now given a twist as ‘Dread Pirate Topaz’), I’ve given no thought to how people may stereotype me in the Internet Marketing world.

So far, I’ve been working in the background, continuing to enhance and refine my skills, and yet …

In recent weeks, I’ve been coming to realize that at some point, the networking with other online marketers is going to be … where it’s at.

WORKING WITH OTHER ONLINE MARKETERS

I had the experience of working with a couple of other guys on that forum … for one guy I provided him with a free bonus he could give away with some software he was selling … for another guy I provided a glowing testimonial after I used his product … and for a couple of other fellows I had some ideas that helped them improve their products … and this experience confirmed to me that, in the end, the personal relationships will be important.

It will be from our friends that our power comes.

I’ve heard this, expressed differently, before.

I’m coming around to believing it true.

WONDERING WHO I WAS …

So mulling over these questions, I anguished around for several days, considering implementing Twitter, and one of my questions was “What will be my persona/stereotype for the world of online marketing?”

And here’s what I decided …

I decided that if I am to have any particular core internet marketing skill, or its persona, it should be as a copywriter.

Copywriting is a common thread running through all methods of marketing, and I’ve written copy for posters to go up on bulletin boards, copy to be recorded as outgoing messages on answering machines and voicemail machines. I’ve written sales letter, direct mail brochures, take-one displays, small business-card brochures, trade-show presentations, yellow-page advertisements, scripts for sales reps to use selling business services, ebay advertisements, online sales pages, and … more.

I’ve had a bit of practice.

WHY NOT BE BRILLIANT?

Therefore I have decided to be a brilliant copywriter, and so far it appears to be working.

This is not really as arrogant as it may sound, but rather it is simply my mental focus. (And it is the focus of my self-hypnosis programming, too.)

Besides, in fact I feel confident that my past skills and present study can continue to improve my copywriting skills considerably above average, because I’m starting above the norm in the general population (maybe not above average for some of the high-end online marketers); and perhaps even more important, I have uncovered some stupendous how-to materials for learning.

FANTASTIC METHODS TO IMPROVE ONLINE SALES COPY

Recently I’ve obtained, after long search, a copy of Eugene Schwartz’s book called ‘Breakthrough Advertising.’ It’s not just about advertising, and I consider it the most brilliant book on marketing of all the hundreds of such books that I have read.

I’ve studied with materials from Kenneth Yu, Robert Plank, Mark Joyner, Dan Kennedy, Seth Godin, Joe Sugarman, and Maria Veloso, and classic evergreen texts like John Caples’s ‘Tested Advertising Methods.’

BUT HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN ONE MAN BE?

I dithered for several days, because I have fingers in several developing pies which might require different personas.

But since development of each twitter-scape will require effort, each additional persona would divide the available time, and weaken the results.

However, by simply sleeping on it and handing it to my subconscious mind, things became clear and simple upon arising today, and it seems that two personas will be manageable.

Two personas will permit some re-use of useful material between them, and I think I can allocate time enough to develop the both of them.

Probably.

… music of mental pondering goes here …

ONE STEP AT A TIME?

This is my typical version of Alcoholics Anonymous famous creed, except that I like to get things done faster.

That’s why my motto is “Two Steps at a Time!”

And two personas … fits right in.

Gosh, what a lot of blathering. Well, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it, at least long enough to publish it here and there, and see if it finds any resonance with some of you good folks who might be reading it.

If so, please tell me your ideas in the ‘Comments’ box below.

I would greatly welcome additional ideas, and I would greatly welcome to hear about methods and results that you may have found to be useful in working with Twitter.

Again, please tell me what you think in the ‘Comments’ box below.

— Arthur Cronos