More and more bloggers are turning to Twitter to promote their services and content, using the popular micro-blogging service to deliver updates and build relationships with their readers in a way that offers a more natural conversation than, say, email or blog comments.
Thanks to tweet scheduling and RSS feeds you can manage the exact time your latest posts are updated on the social network. Techniques such as these might seem a little impersonal but they’re only a couple of the tools that the savvy blogger has in his or her Twitter arsenal.
Building relationships is important with any blog – setting yourself up as a voice of authority on a particular subject automatically draws readers towards you. With Twitter you can contact your readers directly, engage in small exchanges and use the service to spread your reach beyond that provided by your favored blog platform.
Getting Started with Twitter
Many people have Twitter accounts – in 2011 the service reported that it had 175 million users – but not all of these are active. Despite this there are still millions of users reading, tweeting and following others and with the proliferation of Twitter clients for mobile phones and tablets it’s obvious that this is an online phenomenon that looks set to keep growing.
Of course to be a part of this you will need a Twitter account, which you can sign up for at twitter.com/signup. All you will need is an email address and an idea of what to call your account; something related to your blog would be most apt.
Also spend some time creating a profile image, perhaps a smaller version of your blog’s logo, so that prospective followers can find you. It also adds character to your tweets and helps with your overall branding. Don’t forget to add your blog’s URL!
Understanding Hashtags and Trending
You might be of the opinion that Twitter and Facebook are just two sides of the same coin and in some respects that is true. However it is the coin that is important, with both services offering a way to integrate your blog with social networks.
In the case of Twitter, there are no apps and games to contend with, only the conversation. This is usually conducted as standard tweets, retweets (sharing tweets by someone else) and direct messages (a method of private texting).
While users of Facebook alert you to links and media shared by friends, there is no such alert system on Twitter; after all, the dynamic is slightly different here. Rather than friends, Twitter users have followers. You can also follow the people who follow you; this makes direct messaging easier.
Following other users simplifies finding out what is being shared and chatted about; the really popular stuff is displayed in the Twitter trending list. On a given day this might include hundreds or thousands of topics, but the most popular ones are usually issues that are in the news.
Using hashtags you can identify your posts as being part of the same popular conversations; for instance you might post a comment or thought about the FIFA World Cup and aacompany this with the #worldcup hashtag. As long as this is the standard hashtag for the event then many others Twitter users will be using the same phrase, all of which will count towards it being listed as a trending topic.
Update Your Readers
There are various ways in which Twitter can be used to simply update your readers, keeping them in the loop with automated tweets about new content on your website. Some frown on automated tools, considering them the antithesis of using Twitter to build relationships. However there are only so many hours in the day.
Automating tweets using WordPress plugins or syndicating your RSS feed to Twitter with services such as www.TwitterFeed.com will enable you to alert all of your followers to new articles while focusing on building links with influential individuals.
Additionally, tools such as the web-based Twuffer.com and the desktop Twitter app TweetDeck can be used to schedule tweets. This can prove particularly useful, for instance, if you have a product which you would like to remind your followers about from time to time.
Building Relationships with Twitter
The key to success on Twitter isn’t just finding followers, but finding followers who will actively share your words of wisdom with retweets. To do this you must build strong relationships with your existing followers and reach out to people with a shared interest.
Whether you have a Twitter account right now or not, it shouldn’t take long (a static Twitter link on your website and regular, meaningful tweets) to get a hundred or so followers. Once you’ve got people interested, start browsing their tweets, one user at a time, checking their profile to see if they have a website or blog that you can interact with.
While leaving a meaningful and worthwhile comment on their page will show that you’re interested in the website and perhaps get some links back to yours, this is only half of the deal. What you should do next is let your followers know about the website or blog post.
Don’t fake it, don’t look at the first person you find and start promoting them; you’re looking for a way to build relationships, and being yourself is always important in such situations. By interacting and promoting your followers’ projects you will non-verbally encourage them to do the same for you, whether on Twitter, via email or even offline.
With some work in this area, maintaining contact with your Twitter followers and using the service for two-way communicate rather than as a proxy town crier, you can experience great results for your blog or website, and any related products that you are marketing.
