How Does Twitter Work?

• Tweet

In the short time since this site started, I’ve received a number of questions about using Twitter as a tool to promote and strengthen a blog. It will take multiple posts to address them all, so consider this the first in a series of many.

Let me be very blunt with you - If you want your blog to succeed, you MUST integrate social media. Especially Twitter. I know it can be overwhelming if you’re not much of a social media person already, but I can tell you it’s worth it. In time, you will see Twitter’s value as a way to attract readers, as well keep the interest of the ones you already have.

Basic Twitter Terms

Tweet - This is a message you send out from your Twitter account. You can send a general message that’s visible to anyone, a public message to a specific person, or a private message to a specific person. Tweets can only be 140 characters long, including spaces and punctuation!

 

 

Follower - Followers are your “friends” on Twitter. They are the people who want to see your tweets on their timeline (their homepage), usually because they like what you have to say.

Following - The people you have added on Twitter are the ones whose tweets you want to read. You’ll see their tweets on your timeline.

***Note that following someone does not mean they will follow you back. So you may see their tweets but they won’t see yours unless they are also following you. The same works in reverse - you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you (though it’s recommended if they blog in the same niche or you want to interact with them).***

@ Message or @ Reply - When you want to tweet to a person, you do that by typing the @ symbol, followed by their Twitter name. (See the examples above.)

Direct Message (DM) - A DM is a private message that can only be seen by you and the person you’re sending it to. In order to use DMs, the sender and recipient must be following each other.

Retweet - If you really like a tweet, or you want to pass the information on to your followers, you can retweet it. That means it will show up in your followers’ timelines even if they aren’t following the person who originally said it.

How Do I Use Twitter?

Think of a big shopping mall. There are tons of people there, all for different reasons, and they’re all having their own conversations. If you see someone you know or overhear something interesting, you might join in the conversation, or you might just keep walking. Every now and then you might come across someone talking to him/herself. Sometimes you might see signs for sales, but you notice the people most of all.

That’s Twitter. You’ll find everyone from bloggers to celebrities to companies, and everyone is having conversations. Your job is to join the ones that you find interesting. You don’t have to respond to every tweet or even read them all. (Good thing, since I follow nearly 600 people on my main Twitter account!)

Twitter moves VERY quickly. It’s impossible to keep up with everything, so don’t try - you’ll just stress yourself out. When you have a chance to log on, scan through the most recent tweets. If you want to respond to something, go right ahead! If not, don’t feel obligated.

The great thing about Twitter is being able to talk to absolutely anyone. I have talked to big-name bloggers who would never know I was alive otherwise. I’ve talked to a few celebrities (though many of them don’t have time to respond). I’ve talked to experts in the personal finance niche, since that’s the focus of my main blog. If you’re willing to reach out, most people will respond to you. Just don’t be a stalker!

How Does Twitter Help My Blog?

Twitter is the best place to interact with other bloggers, as well as your readers. Look at the blogs you read regularly - I’m sure most of them have a Twitter button.

When you publish a new post, how do people find out about it? Generally, they either visit your blog or they’ve subscribed in a reader. But what if you want to reach a larger audience, or people who may not remember to visit your blog very often? I get hundreds of visits every month from Twitter, all because I tweet the title and link to each of my posts.

Twitter also helps you create relationships with bloggers in your niche beyond just commenting on each other’s posts. You can tweet about anything you want - it doesn’t have to be related to your blog! I have conversations with other bloggers about books, movies, TV, fashion, computers… You name it, you can talk about it. Some of my best friends are bloggers that I met through Twitter, then met in real life because we had so much in common.

Stay Tuned

I could easily write a short book about Twitter (and I might someday!), but for now I wanted to give you an idea of what it is and how it works. Watch for my next post, where I’ll provide more in-depth information about how to harness Twitter to help gain traffic and exposure for your blog.

In the meantime, if you have questions about Twitter - or about anything else - please submit them through the form in the right sidebar, post them below in the comments, or send me an email. I will never mention your name, blog, or email address in my posts; I just want to help your blog be the best it can be.