8 Twitter Tips to Promote Your Blog
Buzz it
A few days ago I wrote an article ”Twittering Vs. Blogging: Is Twitter a Blog Replacement or an Enhancement for Blogs?“ I made the case that Twitter can be an effective marketing tool for leveraging your followers - NOT as a blog replacement.
So when I came across the title of a Twit Tip it immediately caught my eye. The title was “Using your Blog to Promote Twitter” and before I even read the post I knew right away that the writer had got it wrong.
Basically the author said that we should be adding a “Twitter Roll” to our blogs:
“The advantage of a twitter roll is not only to keep tabs on your preferred twitters; it’s to let readers know who they are as well, and promotes Twitter.
Granted, he also mentions that followers might accidentally stumble upon our blog, but he says this more as an afterthought and the main crux of his post is that we should be driving traffic over to Twitter.
Hmm, I really don’t see it that way and these are my reasons:
- First of all, more blogs today are getting rid of blogrolls. They are considered old school and going the way of the dinosaur.
- Twitter is designed for short, burst announcements to communicate with your followers, grab their attention and to build relationships. But it is NOT a replacement for blogs.
- Your blog is your most important tool in your Web 2.0 arsenal. You should think of it as being concentric to your overall social media marketing strategy (Twitter or any other Social Networking site) for leveraging your followers over to your blog.
- Heck, Twitter (like all social networking sites) doesn’t even offer you a top-level domain. Might as well just stay on Blogspot — right? (NOT).
- Twitter is quickly becoming a search engine in its own right for finding more fodder to write on your BLOG.
- If you are a marketer trying to make money you will want your Twitter followers to visit your blog and click on your ads.
- Like I said before, as a communication tool Twitter is still rudimentary and needs a lot of work. It is more efficient to conduct a discussion on your blog comments section than it is to follow a conversation on Twitter. (Especially with all of the third party plugins and scripts that are now available).
- Ultimately your blog is where you want the action to be. You want your readers to follow you over to your real blog on your own domain and a site that belongs to YOU.
We should be leveraging Twitter to drive traffic over to our blogs – not the other way around. The bottom line is I see this as a flow-chart with all of your social networking sites pointing back to your blog like the illustration below.
It’s a Blog Bloke Web 2.0 World after all isn’t it? ;-)
But seriously, there will always be some back-flow but it’s important that we understand the hierarchy and keep our perspective on this.
What do you think?
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To be honest, I just can’t get into Twitter. In some ways, it reminds me of the old days when I spent hours and hours on IRC, but it’s harder to follow the conversation. AOL and Yahoo have had IM forever, and again it was easier to follow discussions. I predict that in less than two years people will be on to the next great online communication tool…whatever that is.
In some ways, with the proliferation of web cams, I’m surprised there isn’t more of a movement to a video based social networking tool. But then we’d have to contend with the idiots showing up in their underwear (or less) in the chat venues.
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Hi Lee, us veterans know from past experience that 2 years is a lifetime when it comes to popular apps. Yes, even Twitter will eventually fall to the newest craze. So they had better hurry up and figure out a way to make money with it.
I agree it seems like the only ones who took advantage of webcams was marketing podcasters and porn stars. I wonder if there’s a connection?
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 22nd, 2009 1:26 pm:
By the way, my Website Grade was 97!
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Excellent! I redid mine again today and I got a 99.3 score. The score seems to vary depending on which site I compare mine to.
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 22nd, 2009 1:29 pm:
excellent article, thank you
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Thanks you for saying so Recettes.
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 22nd, 2009 5:08 pm:
For me, trying to follow Twitter conversations is like Who’s on First, What’s on Second, and I Don’t Know what they’re saying on Third.
Does anyone know if these Social Sites actually drive traffic to our Blog or are Social Sites being used to give Bloggers a false sense that they have interested readers who are allegedly following them?
As far as Blogrolls and Sidebar widgets go, I don’t read them since my focus is reading the content of the post. The only reason my Blog has a Blogroll is to prevent Bloggers complaining about their link being removed.
Debbie Dolphins last blog post…Lighthouse Keeper Job Resources
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Hi Debbie:
“Does anyone know if these Social Sites actually drive traffic to our Blog or are Social Sites being used to give Bloggers a false sense that they have interested readers who are allegedly following them?”
It’s actually both.
1. Yes, I can tell you truthfully I am getting traffic from Twitter. Not only from my followers, but also from my followers, followers.
2. When you start getting a lot of followers it’s not humanly possible to follow all of the conversations. However using 3rd party software like TweetDeck or Snarfer (which I use) you can filter what you want from the noise.
3. I think you are right it’s silly boasting about having thousands of followers. They’re living in a dream world if they think they are all really their “friends”.
4. However, through this blog I have come to have a relationship with regular commenters like you and I believe I can now call you my “friend”. (At least I hope so). It’s a little different from the real world but we have interacted enough to have developed a friendship so to speak. It’s the same with Twitter or any other social network site.
Like all things though we need to keep our perspective.
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@Blog Bloke, Hi Brother Bloke,
I believe we are friends and I agree with you that regular commenting is the best way (only way?) to become online friends.
Unfortunately, Snarfer is Windows only and Tweetdeck is still in beta. When my Tweet O’Clock alarm sounds, I check Twitter and if possible, I will post a comical tweet if I see any Tweety Bird post a funny tweet!
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Cock-a-doodle-doo! It’s time
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 23rd, 2009 9:19 pm:
Debbie Dolphin (@blogbloketips) reply on March 23rd, 2009 7:50 pm:
Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 22nd, 2009 5:20 pm:
Thanks for sharing this post.. I would just like to say that I like twitter.. It is a nice site for me and the tools are great. It is a great site to meet new people and friends.. with this truly you can get traffic.. I firmly believe that we make our wealth through building personal relationship. After all, no man is an island..
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..no man is an island.. OR a WOMAN!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us Holly.
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 23rd, 2009 3:35 am:
We already know that Twitter have already catch attentions of lot of people. It is so simple that almost everyone is using it. I have twitter but to be honest, I am not using it frequently. Not because I don’t like it but because I am busy to read them.
Hectic Capiznon Bloggers 2009s last blog post…Hectic Capiznon Bloggers 2009: Don’t Stop from Trying!
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Thanks for dropping by Capiznon
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on April 6th, 2009 12:35 pm:
I have been using twitter as a replacement of RSS feeds. Many of my readers don’t use RSS readers (non webmaster niche blog) but they are hooked on to twitter and I can see all of them visiting the blog as soon as post and update on twitter. I would say this is really good for repeat visits from loyal visitors. I haven’t managed a lot of retweets so can’t say if people have found me from twitter.
Jeets last blog post…Are you tired of looking for dofollow blogs?
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I’m glad to see that I am not the only one not using Twitter that intensively. I have an account and have made 2 twits in the last 10 months
And the best part is that I am pretty sure I am not missing out on anything important.
I agree that you should use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog and not the other way around and that is especially true if you want to make money because you’ll need your blog to do that. But when that is said I also feel that there are a lot better ways to drive more traffic to your blog than by using Twitter. (Article marketing, guest posting, forum participation, blog commenting etc.). But that is just me
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I agree with you 100%. I actually find it crazy how many different networking sites there are out there. I feel almost like I need to join them all but it’s almost impossible. Joining a few good ones and being active is more than good enough. Twitter is a very interesting tool and great for some swift traffic to your site, but it can put a damper on things if it’s your main tool for generating that traffic. My biggest issue with twitter is that it’s all of the sudden the new source for promotion. Everything is an ad to something and it’s kind of frustrating.
I have a few followers who aren’t following many others, but then I turn around and realize that more than half of my followers are following thousands of people, so the relationships are really not personal at all and the main intent is for everyone to get out their own tweets. It kind of seems like a waste most of the time… I’ll still use it though because it does seem to be worth it
Great post. Keep up the great work!
Perspective Shift Chriss last blog post…Connection Between Astral Projection and Precognitive Dreams?
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So Twitter is awesome for Taking traffic to you website . It is very
simple to setup and its a fun positive way to keep in contact with
people. To get more followers on twitter check out this amazing
tool. Twitter Traffic Machine
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I’m a firm believer that each social media platform is a bridge to a whole new demographic. No one platform can replace the other. The key is to engage as much of an audience as possible and use each demographic to your advantage.
Great post. Well said.
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There are a few plugins that integrate Twitter conversations into your blog that allow people to tweet your post. Some add any tweets that have links to your post as comments.
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I started using twitter a week ago to promote my blog. By the end of the week, more traffic was coming to my blog from twitter than search engines! More importantly, I found several tweeple to network with. Hopefully some strategic alliances will come from those new relationships.
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I don’t like twitter, it just wastes our time…
Blogger Make Moneys last blog post…Make Money in Online
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Is it really possible to keep a relationship with 1,000 followers? I very much doubt it. If we can’t keep the relationship, then what are we trying to do aiming for ten’s of thousand of Twitter Followership. I guess it is the internet marketing gurus driving the web-crowd to where they want them. In 2years time, for sure, the fad will give way to a new crazy idea. While it last, you can enjoy being among the crowd.
Twitter is a nice tool, but now it is being grossly abuse. I don’t want to know what you ate for dinner, or which shoe you wore first!
Nigerian Entrepreneurs last blog post…Creating A Business Plan
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Web 2 has revolutionised the marketing, we have seen many companies jump on the bandwagon of web 2, but too many are creating the same platform, one platform looks identical to other, if the trend continues we may soon see social media losing its character for which it was created.
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