If you want to “Growth Hack”, don’t spam people, instead try to add value and draw them in.

I saw a tweet in my notification this morning. Someone was trying to draw my attention to a webinar someone else was running.

“Hey @mytwitterhandlehere we @theirtwitterhandle are holding a webinar on topic X on date what do you think? #hashtag #anotherhashtag #yetanotherhashtag #andanotherhashtag

I thought it was a bit spammy, but I didn’t reply. Instead I looked at this person’s twitter account.

They apparently were a “#GrowthHacker #AnotherThing #AndAnotherThing & #YetAnotherThing”

And they had sent that same tweet to at least 35 other influencers in my main domain of expertise.

Wow. Super Spammy.

What’s Spammy about drawing attention to yourself?

If you are going to tag a specific influencer in your tweet:

• make sure the message is unique to that person.
• give them a reason to engage with you
• add some value

Don’t make your first contact an “ask”:

• Do you at least follow that person (this Growth Hacker didn’t)
• Have you contacted them before to add value (this Growth Hacker hasn’t)
• Do you have a presence in this area of expertise (this Growth Hacker doesn’t)

This Growth Hacker was basically acting as a paid direct advert tweeter.

Growth Hacker’s need to be contactable

This Growth Hacker has a link to their linkedin profile on twitter.

• Since they don’t follow me, I can’t IM them.
• Since they haven’t contacted me on Linkedin or made a connection. I can’t message them.

They don’t have a link to a website or a contact form.

I found this interesting because, how on earth are they getting work? Clearly they are because their timeline is filled with promotional tweets on behalf of other people.

I guess LinkedIn on its own, can get business.

Since they only way to contact them was via a public twitter reply

e.g. “I think this is a little bit spammy - what do the other 35 people you’ve sent this to in individual tweets think?”

Or via a connect request on Linkedin:

“Hi, you just spammed myself and a whole bunch of other influencers on twitter to promote a webinar. I’m not sure you’re going to get a positive response from that. This was the only way I could think of to message you privately. as I could not find a link to a website or email. "

I sent the connect request on LinkedIn.

Growth Hacking Requires Integrity

Oddly, about 30 minutes later. The spammy tweet was no longer in my notifications.

I looked at their “Tweets and Replies” and none of the Tweets were there.

I don’t know if that was due to my contact, or if this is a Growth Hacking Tactic.

• The annoyance tactic - send a bunch of copy pasted tweets to named individuals promoting something. Wait 24 hours. Delete those tweets.

I noticed in their Tweets and Replies that they were now promoting an ebook for the same customer, using the same strategy, but this time had only spammed 6 influencers.

I’ll check back in a few days to see if the Growth Hacker has deleted the tweets, and then I’ll know if this is a repeated tactic.

If it is, I don’t recommend it.

I don’t block people on Twitter, but I do mute them. I’ve muted this person. I withdrew the LinkedIn connection request.

What do to instead?

Treat people as people.

Converse with the Influencer:

• Make friendly contact
• Acknowledge the person as an influencer
• Convince the influencer that you’ve done your research and know who they are
• Perhaps mention some work that they have done that relates to the people you are working with.
• Offer the influencer a free thing e.g. a free trial of software, a book, a free report that adds value.
• Engage in conversation with them

All of this is probably better done on LinkedIn or Facebook, or a ‘conversation’ medium.

On Twitter (or the platform you want to engage in promotion with them):

• Follow Them
• Retweet Their stuff (thereby adding value to them)
• Reply with a friendly comment

In the conversation platform:

• Make your ask

If you get a positive reply:

• Make your ask on the promotion platform:
  • to make it easy for them to retweet or re-promote

Clearly this takes time. But sometimes sustainable growth requires a slower strategy.

Conclusions

If you’re a Growth Hacker, and the influencers mute you, or complain about spam from you, you’re doing something wrong.

Growth can be slow and steady.

Add value in your promotion and in your engagements.

Offer and Support before you Ask.