Written by the Webs Team.
If you have ever dabbled with Twitter, you’ll know that the concept is really quite simple: you have 140 characters to use to update your followers. At first this may seem like a novelty fad or something fun to play around with, but Twitter has proven to be a huge and effective tool when it comes to promotions. As it turns out, those 140 characters can make a huge difference in attracting people to your site and getting them to stay.
So what can you do to make sure that you are using Twitter effectively? The main objective is to remember that although Twitter was made to let you tell the world what you are doing, that is not where the real magic lays. The appeal of Twitter comes from the conversations that you can have with just about anybody from your favorite celebrity to a local small business. Ability to reach out to these entities lets followers feel connected and can create strong relationships.
Let’s take a look at how you can apply this concept to promoting your website.
Getting Ready
Before you get started, let’s make sure that your Twitter page is ready for all of the new traffic you will be generating. Here’s a helpful checklist to make sure your Twitter profile looks credible:
- Make sure your username is easy to read and relates to the topic of your site or brand name.
- Fill out all of the fields in your profile – not only does this make you look more credible, but it will also help people find you in searches.
- Make sure that you include the URL to your website in the “Bio” field of your profile. Adding this information helps to drive traffic back to your website.
- Choose a profile picture that relates to your username or website.
- Make sure you have a couple of quality tweets before you start promoting heavily. People like to know that they will be following someone who is insightful. If you are just starting out, don’t be afraid to tweet and let people know that you are new to Twitter.
The biggest takeaway: the more welcoming your page looks, the more people will be willing to follow you. Remember that your Twitter page is a glimpse into your brand, and/or company.
Getting More Traffic
Twitter can connect you to thousands of people if you know what you are doing. Your main goal should not be to get as many followers as possible, but to get quality and influential followers. It is these followers that will help to drive more people to your Twitter page and ultimately your website.
Twitter was made to spread information virally, meaning information is spread in a chain reaction. For example, let’s say that you Tweet something amazing, and two of your followers decide to retweet the message to their friends. The retweet is seen by all of their followers, who could potentially retweet the message again to their followers, creating a chain reaction of information distribution. This is why it is so important for you to obtain followers who are likely to find your information interesting.
So how do you go about getting these quality followers? Here are a couple of strategies you can try:
- Get your existing fans to follow you. Believe it or not, you probably already have a bunch of people who would be willing to follow you. Let your existing fans on Facebook or the visitors on your website know that you have a Twitter account that they should follow. These people are already interested in your website and can make a very strong starting point for your Twitter campaign.
*Tip: Try using our Twitter widgets on your website that allow visitors to follow you with a click of a button.
- Follow the right people and add to conversations. Just because you are trying to get quality followers doesn’t mean that you can’t be one yourself. Start following people who are linked to the topic of your site. You can find these people by searching through Twitter for certain topics, phrases, or even location. As you follow them and they tweet about something in your field, feel free to respond to them (don’t forget to use “@” to mention them!).
*Tip: If your website is especially relevant to a tweet, feel free to link them to your site in your response.
Keeping People Interested
Now that you have a bunch of quality followers, it’s time to get them to interact with you. Just like your website, people only really respond to quality content. It might seem hard to create quality content in just 140 characters, but it can be done. Just remember that it is all about starting conversations. Here are a couple of tips to achieve that all powerful mention or retweet:
- Links are your friend. Just because you can’t type more than 140 characters doesn’t mean you can’t link to your website that elaborates on a great idea. Remember to let people know what’s in each link though; for security reasons people no longer click on random links.
- Tweet about your unique ideas or views related to the topic of your website.
- Ask questions. Try to draw out responses from your visitors.
- Talk about or retweet the latest news in your industry; let people know that you are on top of your field.
- Be human. Don’t just throw out quotes from your company history page or your pamphlet. Talk like a human and be approachable.
- Use hashtags (#) to label a topic of conversation and start a trend.
Remember that the conversation doesn’t have to end after one response. Keep the conversation going and build relationships. Once you get good at this, these relationships will eventually translate into beneficial conversions for your site.
Things Not to Do
Now that you have an idea of what to do, here are some important faux pas of Twitter that will drive people away from you or make Twitter difficult to use.
- Don’t shamelessly promote yourself all of the time. Your followers don’t want to see that, in fact, they are probably already using your site.
- Don’t over tweet. If you send out too many unrelated tweets at once, people will be annoyed at how you are filling up their feed.
- Don’t send out duplicate tweets, over and over again. Maybe if you have big news or something time sensitive, but generally people don’t want to see the same tweet from you the whole day.
If you follow these guidelines, you will have a successful twitter campaign in no time. Just remember that Twitter is only a piece to the puzzle that is your website. Twitter is a powerful tool, but it alone will not make your site popular. Head over to our How To and Tips section of our blog to learn more about what you can do to make your site great.
Did you find this post helpful? Have any questions about our tips? Do you have any awesome Twitter tips of your own? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Reproduced with permission from:
http://blog.webs.com/2011/06/23/how-to-use-twitter-to-promote-your-site/