In a previous post, I gave you some basics on how to use Twitter. Today, I’m assuming that everyone has graduated from Twitter preschool and is ready to use its power to become a social media rockstar! (Results may vary. This post will not turn you into an actual rockstar. Don’t send hate mail.)
Understand Your Purpose
Why do bloggers use Twitter, or any other form of social media? Usually because we have a vague idea that doing so will help our blogs. And while that’s correct, you need more than that to successfully run a blog Twitter account.
There are four main reasons why bloggers should use Twitter: To interact with readers, to socialize with other bloggers, to provide information, and to promote your blog. Promoting your blog should be a distant fourth - like really distant.
1. Interact with readers. I’ll be honest - you won’t have many readers following you at first, especially if you’re new to blogging. But when you do, you better make a point to talk to them! When I first started using Twitter, I got email notifications every time I got a new follower. I would go to the person’s profile, and if they didn’t have a URL listed (meaning they were probably a “regular” person and not a blogger), I immediately said something like, “Thanks for following! I notice you’re a fan of Chuck Palahniuk - which book is your favorite?”
Helpful hint: DO NOT set up automatic DMs or automatic tweets that go out when you get a new follower. People will see through that in about 5 seconds, and many of them will unfollow you. They’d rather get nothing at all than some generic plug for your blog.
2. Socialize with other bloggers. This will be your biggest task at first, though it shouldn’t become more important than talking to readers. With any luck, you should be following my tips for attracting readers, including commenting on other blogs. When you follow those bloggers on Twitter, they’ll generally follow back since they’ll recognize your name from their comment sections. Now it’s time to start initiating conversations with them - anything from blogging to reality TV. Also, just like with readers, send them a thank you when they follow you back!
Helpful hint: If you follow the mega huge bloggers in your niche, don’t be offended if they don’t follow back. Feel free to tweet to them directly, but be aware that you may not get a response there either. It takes time to move up among the ranks!
3. Provide information. It’s fine to tweet about yourself - people like to know you’re a real live human. But don’t turn Twitter into your personal diary. Instead, look for things that your audience would be interested in reading. For example, if you have a food blog and you come across an article about a new type of baking dish, tweet it! Be sure to credit the Twitter name of the person who originally posted it - many times they may follow you (or at least thank you for tweeting their content).
Helpful hint: Don’t overload your followers with links to every single article or post you read. Save it for the ones that you KNOW people would want to look at. And be sure there are plenty of conversational, non-link tweets between the informational ones.
4. Promote your blog. When you publish a new blog post, don’t be afraid to post a link. Make sure it includes the title of the post - no one wants to click an unidentified link, just in case you’re secretly obsessed with circus porn or something. However, let me warn you now - if you fail to attempt numbers 1-3 above and just tweet links all the time, no one will want to follow you.
Helpful hint: Some people feel compelled to tweet their links multiple times a day. I’d say twice isn’t too bad - once in the morning and once in the evening. But don’t drive people nuts. And DON’T set up automatic tweets that go out 20 times a day. Trust me.
Know the Benefits
I’ve explained how to best use Twitter to your advantage, but what does all that stuff mean for your blog?
First, millions of people use Twitter. If they’re following one (or more) of the people you talk to, they’re likely to see your conversations and check out your profile. This is where you DON’T want a profile full of nothing but links to your posts. You want people to see interesting and amusing tweets that make them want to follow you - because then they’re likely to check out your blog. Also, if your friends retweet links to your posts, their followers will click through if the title seems interesting. Which leads to….you guessed it - checking out your blog. So Twitter can increase your traffic.
Second, if you ever decide to work with advertisers or sponsors, they often want to know the stats for your blog. How many visits you get, your PageRank and mozRank, and your subscriber and social media numbers. Brands want to know that the bloggers they work with have the ability to reach and/or influence a number of people - the more, the better. If your blog has great stats but you only have a few social media connections, you could be passed up for ad deals. Twitter can make you money.
Finally, never underestimate the power of a medium like Twitter to propel you into the spotlight. When I first started writing about personal finance, I followed MSN’s Smart Spending on Twitter. Through some miracle, the writer behind Smart Spending saw one of my tweets and looked at my blog. She approached me about reposting one of my blog posts on MSN’s website. This led to a huge increase in traffic and exposure for my blog, and that very post ended up in February 2012′s issue of Reader’s Digest. Twitter can open doors that might never open otherwise.
Determine Your Strategy
Everyone uses Twitter in slightly different ways. There are tons of apps for smartphones and tablets, as well as for computers, that allow you to tweet from anywhere. You can tweet via text message. Some people only log on during certain times, while others never seem to log out (raises hand).
Let me be the first to tell you, Twitter can easily take over your life if you let it. I open Echofon (my app of choice) on my computer the second I wake up in the morning, and it’s open all day until I go to bed. I send dozens of tweets every day - my average is around 50. Is it necessary to do that to gain followers? No. But it doesn’t hurt - I’ve had my Twitter account for just over a year (for my personal finance blog) and I have nearly 1100 followers. For someone who isn’t a celebrity, that’s not too shabby in a year.
Anyway, the point is that you need to decide (1) how much time you’re willing to devote to Twitter, (2) how much effort you want to put in, and (3) how you want your Twitter account to reflect both your personality and the tone of your blog. Some people will love it as much as I do, while others won’t. One thing has become clear to me in all my time on Twitter - you get from it what you put in.
Where We Are Now
With any luck, you now have a decent understanding of why your blog needs Twitter. I promise, I don’t just sit around making this stuff up - it really is a necessity if you want your blog to become successful!
Now that we’ve gone through some tips, rules, and strategies, what questions do you have? Are you leveraging Twitter as much as possible? Let me know what you think!
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About Andrea Whitmer
You're right, I know you're right, and I keep getting told to get a twitter feed to help my new blog. But it's scary! New technology to suck me in! I think I'm going to try it though because you make it sound not-so-bad…maybe even fun.
It's always a little scary to try something new, but I seriously love Twitter, and I think you'll get used to it. Set up a profile, follow a few people, and just feel it out for awhile. Don't feel compelled to start tweeting right away.
And if you follow me (@killedtheblog) I'll be one of your first followers! We can talk about random stuff all you want!
I have to say that I love this place and I visit it regulary since you introduced it to us. You're doing great job and thank you for that!
but I still don't even concern putting AdSense there. So the question is: do you think it makes any sense to run a blog this way? No, no, I don't want to have a secret "diary" not read by anyone. Yes, I know it's pretty simple: if you want to get more support and advice, you need to have more readers and to have more readers you need to work on that. But the question is: does it make sense to run it when it's still more important to me to write when I feel I want to share something than when I know I have to because "my traffic will decrease"?…
But after reading all posts here (and some on SOD about blogging) it made me to think about my blog. I started my own to stay accountable believing that if I wrote something in a public place it'll be easier to achieve my financial goals. I even decided to run it in English, which is not my first language, because I thought it'll be easier to get more support and useful advice from PF blogers. Most of them are located in USA so you guys are experts to me in debt related issues (with all respect). So let's say I wanted to find "cheaper solution" than hiring financial advisor or attending therapeutic session with a psychologist. BUT I don't concentrate on increasing traffic on my blog. I'm happy with every single comment left by random passerby (or maybe frequent reader
Oh, sorry for such a long comment, it almost looks like a short post
I hope you don't mind but I don't know better place to share my doubts about that than here!
I think you're blogging for the reasons that make sense to you, which is always a good thing. I would blog about finance at SOD even if no one was reading (though of course it helps when people do!), but I do like to see the numbers go up and new people find me.
If you're happy with your blog the way it is, I don't see any need to do more than you're doing. Some people are very serious about blogging, while others just want a fun hobby. I'm a big fan of posting when you have something to say - not just because you feel pressured to hurry up and post because of traffic.
PS. I NEVER would have guessed that English isn't your first language. That's so interesting to know! Wish you could give lessons to some of the bloggers out there who don't have such a good command of it.
Thanks to Andrea's suggestions, i'm having a ton more visitors than normal. She knows what she's talking about.
I hate automatic robotic tweets! They are annoying and make me like the blog less.
I agree. I can understand an auto tweet when your blog posts go up, but I can't stand when people schedule EVERYTHING. Like, "Here, let me tweet links to every single blog post I've ever done!" Ugh. Lame.
This post is my Twitter Bible! Thank you for explaining it to me.
Pffft, I don't think you need any help - you do just fine!
Thanks for the follow on Twitter! I love the timing of this new blog. I started my blog as a way to document the importance of a family legacy and as an outlet to start figuring out who I am, aside from being a SAHM to three kids with another in college and a wife. I had no real goal. At the end of March I will have been blogging for over a year. I decided it is probably time I start putting in more effort than the 15 minutes I use to write in the morning! I will be doing some tweaking and definitely using most of your tips along the way.
Best of luck, Jenniemarie! I think one of the best things about blogging is that it can be as much or as little as you want - it's up to you how you want it to work. Hopefully you'll find some tips here that make sense with the goals you set for yourself.
So I've determined that twitter still freaks me out. I schedule 1 tweet of my new post each day. Maybe I'll add another one in the evening. I think my antisocial tendencies are showing since I'm supposed to actually interact with these tweeters that follow me. Somehow I've lured in about 15 of them with my quiet chirping. Too bad most of the action is when I'm at work and can't really interact with people. Hmm. Must work on RT something interesting at least once per day that has nothing to do with my blog, and maybe talking to these other people.
I had my Twitter account for nearly a month before I talked to anyone besides empty space.
You're easing into it; no need to rush!
I think I should have my comment privileges
suspended after I start drinking. Thinking out loud in replies is very strange to look at in the morning.
I'm new to blogging, so these are great ideas. I've set up a twitter account but still haven't gotten the hang of using it all the time. I guess I just need to practice! Do you have articles like this for Facebook? I'm having trouble putting up my page for my blog. Thanks for the great post!
Tips for Facebook are coming - it's on my to-do list! If you want, send me an email and I can walk you through setting up your Facebook fan page.
Thanks for visiting!
My biggest pet peeve on twitter is "tweet old post". I HATE IT.
Great tips, btw.
@Thirtysixmonths Agreed! I never really knew how often people were using it - I used the Mac Twitter app and it didn't show what app or service people were posting from. Now that I'm using Echofon, I cringe every time I see something from Tweet Old Post. There's one blogger in particular who tweets this post over and over, and I click every time because I think it's something new. HATE IT!
I will admit, though, I LOL when I see a Christmas post in summer or "how to save on summer vacation" in the middle of winter.
@Andrea Whitmer I laugh when I see how to save money on Black Friday or earning reports from october. Gah.. I think who you're talking about.
Thanks for sharing, I am struggling with Twitter and FB promotion. Please share more articles on this topic
This was fantastic. Mine is too new yet. Would you say twitter is more important facebook or should you focus on both?
I think both are important but for different reasons. Facebook is hard - it’s difficult to get people to let you into their newsfeeds and even more difficult to know your content is being seen, especially when they are bombarded with ads and random pictures from their friends all day. With Twitter, it’s much easier to relax and let down your hair a little, and since other bloggers in your niche will be your primary readership at first, Twitter is a better medium to get to know them. I follow a LOT of people on Twitter, but there are very few Facebook fan pages I’ll “like” because I usually visit FB more to see what’s going on with my real life friends and family. Hope that helps!