Today, Rob brings up a great way to market your site thru Twitter using very effective marketing strategies. Don’t forget to show your friendly love to Rob on Twitter @Robswebtips. Want to write for us too? Read here for more details.
With Twitter having over 4,000,000 users it is definitely an effective way to drive traffic to your website. Twitter has become a very effective tool for traffic for many bloggers, including myself. With over 8,000 Twitter followers, and driving in over 7,000 page views from Twitter monthly. I think I’m safe to say I’ve mastered the ways of Twitter.
However, some people are unable to create a large enough audience, and find the techniques to effectively market their blog.
Finding followers on Twitter
In order to market effectively on Twitter you need to first build your audience right? So let me break down the easy 2 step process to getting followers on Twitter.
1: Build credibility in your Tweets
Nobody likes a boring tweeter, or someone who tweets about when they just got out of the bathroom. Tweet with interest! Maybe you came across an article and you think it might have some interest for your followers, go ahead and tweet it. This process is how you build credibility through twitter. Displaying valuable tweets of interest!
2: Find people who are targeted in your niche
What is the point of wanting to people to follow you if they have absolutely no interest in what you have to tweet about it? This is why it’s important to find people who are big on Twitter that’s in your niche.
For example: @Problogger is one of the biggest names on Twitter for my niche blogging. With over 75,000 followers, your bound to drive some over to your side of town.
But how do you do it? The secret is to add their most recent 1,000 followers for that day. 30% people on Twitter will follow you back if you follow them. So… for the other 700 that do not follow you how the hell do you get rid of them? Huitter is a service I use to un-follow everyone who does not follow me back.
How to add 1,000 people without any hassle at all
Now clicking on 1,000 “follow me” links can get a little annoying, and time-consuming right? So why the hell waste your time doing it, when you could be catching up on your favorite T.V show or writing a new blog post. The secret to this nifty trick is to use Grease monkey’s Tweet adder.
Setting up Grease monkeys Tweet adder:
- Download Firefox browser
- Download Greasemonkey add-on for firefox
- Install the Tweet-Adder script (Make sure greasemonkey is enabled)
Using Greasemonkey
Using Greasemonkey is very easy to do. Find someone in your niche and click their followers (make sure Greasemonkey is enabled) and the moment you load the follower’s page, Greasemonkey will automatically add everyone.
Pay attention to these next following sentences closely: Greasemonkey will continue adding followers to your Twitter account even if you reached your maximum follower count for the day. I suggest checking your Greasemonkey status every 2 – 3 minutes to avoid being flagged by Twitter.
Effectively marketing your website
Now that you have the followers, and have built a pretty reputable status on Twitter it’s time to start marketing your website. There are 3 simple, but effective techniques that I use to drive traffic to m blog.
Twitterfeed
Twitterfeed is a great tool I use that syndicates all new articles I release, and tweets it on my Twitter account. Another great thing about Twitterfeed is I’m also allowed to add other blogger’s blog on my feed list, so I’m sharing the love to my respected bloggers and providing valuable information to my followers.
Check out Twitterfeed
CoTweet
CoTweet is by far my favorite Twitter application to use. With CoTweet I can schedule my tweets to be sent out ANYTIME of the day I want, without me being their to send the tweets. All I have to do is schedule the tweet, select a time I want it to be sent, and I’m done!
Building an effective Tweet schedule for maximum results
A lot of new tweeters would try and take advantage of this by scheduling a tweet to go out every 5 seconds, thinking it will do their blog better. Unknowingly they’re lowering their traffic + credibility.
If you’re going to schedule tweets schedule 2 – 4 articles to go out PER HOUR with at least a 15 minute wait time, between articles. Also…it’s important not to tweet duplicate posts. If you already tweeted about that post earlier today, don’t tweet it the next hour. Give it sometime and let it marinate.
Using these simple techniques will help you become a more effective tweeter on Twitter, and will double your page views.
Check out CoTweet
Being a “friendly” tweeter
Nobody likes someone who is stingy and holds all the glory. So instead of always tweeting about your website, take the time and RT (retweet) some other peoples articles. Now, everyone may not do the same for you but… it shows people you’re a respected tweeter and the ones who do value your content will RT your posts.
Group Discussion
Do you tweet? If so what are some of the techniques you use to be considered an “effective tweeter”? Share some tools you use to dominate twitter, and tell us what do you think about this post? Did you find it helpful? I’m interested to hear your thoughts.
Oh… and remember!
Focus on what you’re good at and the (quality) followers will come.
–Matt Cheuvront
61 Discussions
Very innovative! thanks for sharing the tips which will prove to be very helpful in future as well…
Thanks a lot! I’m glad you find these tips useful!
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
From my experience of using auto-following, you attract quantity and not quality. I’ve stopped using this facility, however even today, I’m getting junk followers that don’t add any value to myself/blog.
Muzi Mohale´s last blog ..Receptionist at Zululand Trees Lodge pleads for a printer
I agree with Muzi. I think if you carry on providing good content on your blog, people eventually follow you. It is better to have 200 followers like this rather than having 2000 followers with mass following. I must admit though, I used this technique myself
Internethow Blog´s last blog ..How to recharge your blog motivation?
I’m with you too, Muzi, though I recognize the basis for differing approaches. I even wrote an article about it not too long ago about a case for not following everyone. I used to auto-follow and stopped to virtually start over. I can still see both sides, but I agree with you about the results.
Brandon Cox´s last blog ..The Power of Breaking News in Blogging
Good point stated Muzi! Auto-following does have it’s downsides, but if you chose the right Twitter accounts (which sometimes can be hard) the results will generally be better than just following who ever you see. That’s why it’s important to follow targeted people in your niche so the chances are higher that they will be a valuable follower.
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
I believe If you auto-follow others you’re going to be attracting Twitter users that also auto-follow others. And when you follow too many people it becomes impossible to keep up with all the tweets. So if you auto-follow too many people, it’s nearly impossible to follow so many tweets.
Webmaster Forum UK´s last blog ..Why SEO is necessary for a website
It’s simple to keep track of a lot of tweets, if your using Tweetdeck it allows you to see which tweets you want, and ignore the others.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
The way Rob picks people to “auto follow” is actually more effective than following random people. It is easy enough to unfollow people anytime, so if I see people spamming, I just unfollow anyway.
With the invention of Twitter Lists, tweeting quality content is going to matter more than ever before. Even if people are following you, you’ll probably end up in a list of 10,000 other people that are impossible to keep up with.
Being on lists is going to be key for having your tweets heard. Getting real followers will be far more important once list are available to everyone.
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..Think Twice About Who You Put On Your Twitter List
Agree with @Muzi Mohale , the auto following just make the twitter not worthy anymore.
Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Comment Visibility in High Traffic Blog
I usually just browse my feed for interesting things no matter who tweets them… Then I have my searches (and now lists) to look up the people who I actually want to follow and pay more attention to those tweets than my main feed.
I did notice that people who followed back tended to be on more lists though.. Sort of a weird but not surprising correlation.
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..Think Twice About Who You Put On Your Twitter List
I like your idea about adding the recent followers of a reputable site or person. I’ve been thinking of ways how to get my targeted audience in twitter and thanks for your post because it answers my query.
Thanks Sherry, I’m glad you like the post. And definitely adding followers from a reputable twitter account certainly helps you find more targeted worthy followers.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
Twitter generates the most pageviews per visitor for me. I have always thought that was interesting and encouraging to keep using Twitter as a part of my marketing strategy.
Good post. Thanks for sharing.
Sid
Sid Burgess´s last blog ..Cures for Civic Apathy, An Official’s Perspective
Last time I checked Twitter was my #1 source of traffic to, and it has been doing me pretty well. I’ve been lucky to get a lot of quality visitors and readers from Twitter. Glad you liked the post Sid!
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
I think there are 2 very good approaches to Twitter. Quantity and Dispersion of information to as many people as possible, and targeted dispersion to only people very interested in you.
I think they both have their problems. Yes following lots of people can lead to tons of followers who do not care about what you write or blog about, but on the flip side.. how do you know they are not interested? By limiting your twitter account to people that are into your blog already and interested you lose out on gaining new blog readers from the currently uninterested followers. We have gained a lot of blog readers from seemingly uninterested tweeters. They read our tweets, checked out our blog, and got excited in our information.
You never know who you can convert to your niche… so try to be a great tweeter and combine mass followers with sincere and highly targeted tweets for maximum results. At least that’s my theory.
Seth´s last blog ..At Last, a Simple Guide to Mastering Twitter
Great points Seth. You made a great statement when you said “How do you know they’re not interested” You never honestly if the people you follow will be interested in what you tweet or not. If all goes well they will, and there is another worthy reader coming to your site.
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
I couldn’t agree more with you Seth. Neglecting to follow people back or add new followers can really hurt your influence on twitter.
If you write magnetic headlines, even people not interested in your niche are going to end up checking your site out once in a while… you never know when it will spark enough interest for them to stay.
Sometimes, people will keep reading even if it doesn’t apply because they like your style of writing. I used to play WOW and followed a website called World of Ming. I quit playing wow over a year ago, but I still read the site because I love the way the author writes and I (semi) enjoy the (parts of) community.
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..Think Twice About Who You Put On Your Twitter List
Twitter really doesn’t have to be overly complex and you offer some good tips. One tool that I encountered recently was Buzzom (www.buzzom.com) which allows the user to search profiles for key terms, batch follow and then flush those that don’t follow you back. It also has a feature that prevents you from attempting to follow anyone that was previously “flushed.” While this approach is not for everyone, clearly this could be a tool that you may find useful.
Thanks for sharing this awesome tool with us Russell. I never herd about it, but I might have to try it out soon!
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
This is a pretty good advice on Twitter. I’m still trying to figure the ins and outs of Twitter.
How To Jake´s last blog ..How To Get Free Business Consulting Advice
Thanks I’m glad you found this information useful. The ins & outs of Twitter can be tricky at first, but trust me it’s worth mastering.
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
I recently started following more tweeters and I’ve noticed that more people are following back. At first I was skeptical as to, how people following over 1,000 tweeters keep track of the real tweeters/friends?! I find it a bit overwhelming at first, but i am hoping that in the thousands of tweeters i’m following and the ones following me back, I’m hoping some are highly interested in my blog, and traffic increases.
I try to block out some of the tweeters that look like spammers, when all they post is links and more links, but no real content/tweets.
Arie Rich´s last blog ..Yankees Pep Rally
You can use http://www.tweetdeck.com to manage which tweets you can see, and which ones you can avoid. This is a great tool for people with thousands of of people you follow.
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
Really helpful post.
I also actually prefer to have quality followers, then having a mass of followers that are no good. I’ve actually heard some people having good success using plugins like this. I’m going to create a new account and use this plugin to see how many followers i can gain.
Teen Blogger´s last blog ..Is The “Make Money Online” Niche Too Saturated To Make Money Online
Good luck, be sure to let me know how the new techniques work for you!
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
Nice Twitter tips. I’ve never tried Greasemonkey but I’m going to give it a shot today!
Thanks! Good luck with Greasemonkey, I’m sure you will really enjoy it versus the manual following.
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
I get a large amount of readers from Twitter. But funnily enough, I have about 60% of new readers every month from Wikipedia!
Shane Hudson´s last blog ..What Do You Want From Success Circuit?
I think the vast majority of my readers are from Twitter. But that’s great to hear that you get a lot of readers from Wikipedia!
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
I think this is a slightly spammy approach to using Twitter. Anyone can accumulate 8,000 or even 30,000 followers if they also follow the same amount of people.
If I see someone following that many people I give zero weight to the amount of followers they have. But someone who follows say only 300 people but has 2,000 followers – then I take notice and view then as having some authority.
I don’t doubt that you know how to use Twitter to promote your blog but maybe you should think about what following that many people (just to get followers) does to your perceived authority.
I can see both ways on this issue.
I find it spammy if someone just follows whoever just to follow them and build their twitter account, also posting invaluable tweets.
However…
If you post a great amount of valuable tweets to your followers and be a “friendly” tweeter, I don’t think your credibility is damaged in the process.
Following up your last statement “I don’t doubt that you know how to use Twitter to promote your blog but maybe you should think about what following that many people (just to get followers) does to your perceived authority.”
I have not found my techniques to damage my authority because at the same time, I always tweet articles that are valuable to my followers, I provide great content for everyone to see and I do not provide/promote anything I won’t find valuable to my readers. Doing these simple techniques have kept my authority pretty high.
Rob´s last blog ..The untold truth about six-figure blogging
Hi Rob,
This is a really interesting post and what is important to me is that it gives me actionable ways using Twitter and accompanying apps to help drive traffic to my blog. You have done an excellent job laying out this information. I’m going to make sure I take your advice. Now this post is truly value-add!
Best,
Bob
Bob Bessette´s last blog ..Maintaining to save money, out and about.
Thanks Bob I’m really glad you enjoyed this post! Guranteed if you follow these tips you will have a great deal of success through Twitter. Let me know how these techniques work for you!
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
good stuff, 8000 page view from twitter monthly? wow.. that huge.. i only get something in 100-200 page view from twitter montly.. need to learn more i guess.
izzat aziz´s last blog ..I read more than 100 blogs per day and its fun.
Yea it takes a lot of work, but it can be accomplished. Just keep using great techniques and in time the traffic will follow.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
This post couldn’t come at a better time for me. I am really working hard to increase my Twitter followers and I will be sure to check out these tips!
Thanks!
passive family income´s last blog ..A Penny for Your Tweets?
Well I’m glad you found it! Good luck at increasing your followers. Be sure to let me know how this goes for you.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
Rob, some really excellent insights and resources. I especially liked the Grease Monkey & Twitter-Adder script for adding new people to follow. I’ve never wanted to add a bunch of followeres that I have no real connection to or shared interest with. The method you describe should help address that goal. thanks.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you find my method effective! If you go ahead and use it let me know how it works for you.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
Rob. Thank you for doing this, being fairly recent to Twitter it can be a bit overwhelming deciding on which tools to use since there seems to be so many out there, so having a recommended ‘tool box’ that is tried and tested is truly invaluable to me and no doubt to your readers.
Thanks again!
Richard Barratt´s last blog ..Test Post
Hey no problem Richard. I remember when I was a newbie to twitter I was overwhelmed trying to find what works best for me ya know? That’s why I wanted to share this valuable information with you guys!
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
Just one question – how many of these 8K do you correspond with on a regular basis, which is in fact the originating point of Twitter…
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special!
Umm.. Good question, I’ve built a good relationship with around 10-20 people. But it’s also because people don’t always use twitter for building relationships, they use it as a source of great resources.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
Cool stuff Rob,
The timing thing is a big one for me. Anytime I see someone fill my feed with a line of tweets that seems pre-programed, I just go and unfollow them. It’s annoying to get spammed.
I try to schedule my tweets about 30-55 min apart to leave room for me to tweet anything else random I come across during the hour that I just can’t wait to tweet.
Another thing that I have found to be helpful is to change up the title of the tweet instead of just using the title of the post. Good titles like the ones at Copyblogger will get a lot of clicks, but a lot of people don’t write magnetic headlines.
If you write better headlines than the title… do the author a favor and make your tweet better click bait. You’re followers and the people you are RTing will thank you for it
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..Think Twice About Who You Put On Your Twitter List
Great point blank. I like the process of waiting 30-55 minutes, I might have to try and use that technique myself haha (:
And I’ve found that to…it gets redundant to RT the SAME title each time. Your CTR will be very low. I bet if people took the time to write a magnetic headline instead of RT the same post 20 times their tweet with the magnetic headline would do better.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
What is the best Twitter Marketing software to use so I can find and follow people who are interested in the same things I have an interest in?
letter writing tips´s last blog ..Reply to someone whose application for a job has not been successful
I’d just search people who are big in your niche on twitter. If they have a lot of followers chances are they’re pretty interested in the same things you are.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
You can definitively add a lot of followers using the programs you suggest, I rather build my following slowly but surely gaining quality followers over quanity but everyone has their own strategies when it comes to twitter, great information!
Dan @ Blogs about everything´s last blog ..How are People Using Twitter to Communicate in Everyday Life – Having the Right Mindset When Tweeting
I agree Dan, everyone does have their own strategies. The one pro I can see in your technique is you will have a better chance to build a relationship with your followers.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
The greasemonkey script no longer works.
Nice list of twitter tools there, i’ll definitely try it out.thanks for sharing
Ronblogger´s last blog ..Blogging Tips and Techniques
Glad you liked the tips! Be sure to let me know how they work for you.
Rob´s last blog ..Ramped Blogging: The Ultimate Blogging Guide Review
I remember when I was a newbie to twitter I was overwhelmed trying to find what works best for me ya know?
Tweet Adder Script is not working
Lucifer´s last blog ..InkFruit : Get a Free Tee!!!
I haven’t been blogging recently, in large part due to disillusionment with Twitter! The interest that I have chosen to share is traditional marriage for women. While not an unpopular subject by any means, it is a relatively small niche, and therefore, finding people on Twitter to follow has been very difficult. I was seeing so little result that I became disillusioned and began to have trouble forcing myself to blog when I wasn’t feeling like it.
I know, I know, don’t give up.
But it does seem as though Twitter works best for those who blog about entrepreneurial subjects, such as blogging or internet marketing. Building an audience has been exceptionally difficult for me and most people seem not to follow back.
I want to get started again after the holidays and am hoping that things pull through in the end. I’m not generally a quitter, but it was difficult coming up with material day in and day out when my tweets and blog posts were being ignored.
And yes, I did a lot of retweeting without so much as a “thank you.” Very annoying!
Rebecca Rizzuti´s last blog ..Does Your Husband Feel Appreciated?
I followed the instructions on this guide to using GreaseMonkey with Tweet-Adder in Firefox 3.5.5 on Mac 10.5.8, but its not working. Anyone else find this to be the case?
Due to the new Twitter updates, Greasemonkey no longer works with Twitter.
Thanks for the reply Rob. Is there any other plugin that does currently work and achieves the same thing or something similar?
I’m more than positive there tools that allow you to do this. Just none that I’m aware of.
Rob´s last blog ..Persistence Pays Off
Great tips for using Twitter here Rob. I am not sure whether I am going to use Greasemonkey to mass follow a lot of people. I think I will take the step of selecting the people I follow. I think one aspect you forgot to mention here is that as with everything the quality of your followers count. If you know a lot of people that are following you personally than your Twitter list is much more powerful than having a bigger list without knowing any of your followers.
Julius Kuhn-Regnier´s last blog ..The 3 Unwritten Rules of Blogging
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