Twitter id as part of OptIn box

[Sheakay]

I was briefly on Gary Vaynerchuk's (http://garyvaynerchuk.com/)site today to look up his twitter id so i could reference it in a tweet and noticed that he has a different approach to the normal name and email address optin box.

He's asking for email address and twitter id (optional).

My first response was "Brillant!"

But knowing how we like to test things, I wonder what the results are with this. Has anyone used anything like this in their optin boxes?

[cindybidar]

I have never tested this, so I'm not speaking from experience, but I read somewhere that the more you ask for, the lower your opt-in rate will be. Even if what you are asking for is optional.

[Lynn Terry]

Twitter might be different though... definitely worth testing, and I agree - brilliant idea!

[wade_watson]

I haven't found anything for optin forms, but the TwitterLink (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitterlink-comments/) WordPress plugin will allow commenters to enter their Twitter IDs.

[Sheakay]

@cindy - I too have read that the more you ask for the less you get, but i've also seen some ask for bunches of information and if I wanted it bad enough I'd hand it over... but it does annoy me

I wonder if the Twitter id might be different because people in theory want to expand their following. But I did notice that Gary V. only asks for email address and the optional twitter id... not a name.

It has me wondering because I do use the name field to customize my autoresponder emails, so I'm not sure if I'm willing to give it up. But I like the idea of being able to interact with my subscribers on twitter.

@wade Thanks for sharing that link for the wp plugin. Definitely going to add that one, as if people are already commenting on my blogs, then I definitely want to increase that opportunity to interact with them via twitter and give others the same ability.

I have list building as a major focus for 2010, so I'll add this in to the mix and see what the results are.

Still would love to hear from anyone else's thoughts. Would you add your twitter id to the optin?