There is an epidemic happening in the world of marketing. It’s sweeping business owners and managers. These folks are going online to start marketing their business to new target audiences. These business owners are excited about the new prospects. Their friends have told them about social networking and owning a website and creating content. It’s all exciting and the business owners want to try everything.

But there is a potential issue lurking and it’s ready to capture these business folks.

I call this The Twitter Trap.

What the heck is The Twitter Trap?

The Twitter Trap is what happens to good people when they fall in love with the quick response they get on Twitter ultimately ignoring their own channels including blogs and other content creation channels they own.

You may have seen this happen. I’ve seen it happen with a number of folks. They start with a great blog. Their website becomes a beacon of knowledge and understanding. They provide key insights into specific industries. A community builds around the blog and the person’s business grows and grows and the community makes purchases because of their trust and admiration for the owner and the writers on the blog.

But then The Twitter Trap sets in.

Twitter is great. You can type quick messages and get put in front of tons of people. Everybody is out there looking for the quick fix. Twitter provides it and then the attention goes away almost as instantly as it came. It’s a constant battle to be interesting and relevant on Twitter. There are so many people using it because it’s so easy.

You can be a sensation on Twitter even to your few followers, but it might only last a few minutes until someone else takes over the attention.

This is The Twitter Trap.

How to avoid The Twitter Trap

You don’t want to fall into The Twitter Trap.

Well, maybe you do. If you think you can win the constant battle for attention on Twitter you can still attract and audience and earn money from new customers. It’s possible. I’ve seen it happen.

But if you want something more substantial it’s going to take some effort.

I’m talking about a blog or a website that you own that becomes an asset for your company. A blog is something that can be found (via social and search) for years and years. People lose track of tweets even though they can bookmark them and save them. It’s still more likely for someone to remember a blog post than a tweet.

If you blog in a certain way you can even make sure your posts are timeless. Tweets aren’t often timeless. Some certainly are but a timeless blog post is something that can bring you new visitors for years. You want these new visitors because they turn into subscribers and eventually turn into customers.

If you’re just joining the Internet I would try Twitter and some other social networks. They’re great for building friendships and partnerships. I think they are key for this type of activity.

But don’t lose focus on your blog. It’s your asset. It’s something you own. Twitter doesn’t own your blog posts. In fact, people need content to share on Twitter and much of the content shared on Twitter are blog posts.

Wouldn’t you rather have your content shared on Twitter?

Watch out for The Twitter Trap as you move your focus to online marketing. There is great opportunity out there but the long-term success will come from building your own content creation platform.