I’ve had an addicting fascination to twitter for a long time; particularly starting when CNN would scroll tweets live across the bottom of the TV leading up to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. During the time since signing up I have used the service to find content, people of interest, promote content and drive traffic to websites. Here are five tips to drive more traffic to your site from twitter that have worked for me; before we get started you must have your website URL listed in your bio for any of the tips to work.
Tip 1: Follow new people
You may already do this but make a concentrated effort to follow the movers & shakers in your industry. Take it a step further and follow the biggest fans of content for your niche. You get an e-mail every time you get a new follower that shows the user’s picture, bio & website link. You really need a fully fleshed out profile with picture, interesting bio and website link for this tactic to be effective.
Tip 2: Use Favorites
People take notice when you add their tweet to your favorites; it is a way of saying “hey, you are awesome!” This makes them more likely to check out your profile and click on the link to your website. This is also one of the most unused aspects of twitter so I think it gives the perception that you are a power user. You don’t want to over use the favorites button because then it loses the “you’re special” impact.
Tip 3: Send Direct Messages to New Followers
Whenever someone you followed follows you back; immediately send them a direct message thanking them. This will send them an e-mail or if using their phone a text message! Both you and the other person must be following each other to send a direct message. Occasionally someone important will follow you first such as an editor of a magazine or blog in your niche. I recommend following back & sending a direct reply ASAP when that happens. You could send an @reply to publicly thank them; but there is no e-mail or text message notice about replies. Now if you do NOT want to follow the person back, then send an @reply thanking them.
Tip 4: Tweet Past Content
You probably have content published from before you joined twitter and even if you don’t you will get new followers who have not seen your content from the past. You need to be very careful about doing this in a way that does not come across as spam. Once or twice a week is the max I recommend tweeting out content from your archives. If you ever get flak from your followers about doing this scale back the frequency.
Tip 5: Participate in Event #hashtags
You can find event hashtags for meet ups, tweet ups, and webinars so whenever you see an event with a designated hashtag – participate. It is a good idea to monitor the hashtag feed and interact with others on twitter at the event to get the maximum impact. They may not look at your site immediately but you will likely get new followers. At live events you can usually meet in person which is the best kind of networking even when you don’t get a site visitor out of it. Once the event ends follow up with participants by retweeting, replying or direct messaging them on twitter. You are more likely to get a visit to your site once the frenzy of the event passes.
There you have it; five twitter tips to increase traffic to your website or blog. Share additional tips in the comments below so we can all have more fun on twitter.
This is a guest post by Mark Simon, check out the guidelines if you want to guest post here.
Image Credit: silvertje
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