Twitter Marketing
People use Twitter in a lot of different ways, from keeping friends and family up-to-date on what they are doing to getting answers to specific questions they might have. Smart Internet marketers are even using this platform in order to generate traffic to their sites and increase newsletter subscribers, places where they can make money. So, why aren't you doing any Twitter marketing?
Don't be one of those users who posts generic tweets like "New Post: (URL)" over and over again. Believe it or not, if your followers just wanted constant updates on when you made a new post they would just sign up for your RSS feed. So with one thing in the list of what-not-do covered let's take a look at some things you should be doing in order to use Twitter effectively to market your site.
Ask Questions
Instead of telling your followers you posted a new article on the Lakers/Celtics game tonight, why not ask, "Will the Celtics Beat the Lakers Again?" before adding the URL to your post. When you ask a question you engage the reader and encourage them to answer, which means a great chance they will go to your post, read what you have to say, and leave a comment. This works best if you keep the question simple and something your followers will have an opinion on or answer to. You don't even have to tweet your latest post. Instead you can use a topic that has generated some comments already on your site, so followers are joining the discussion instead of starting it (which is much more difficult to get them to do).
Report Breaking News in Your Niche
One of the quickest ways you can generate buzz on Twitter is to talk about breaking news in your niche. It also helps if you have a link to a post on your site discussing the issue even further. "Kobe Bryant traded from the Lakers?" with a link to your post talking about the implications of the trade and how stupid management is would surely get a few comments and readers. Plus a topic like that would generate some emotion. I'm a Lakers fan, and I'm almost stirred up about the trade even though I completely made it up a few moments ago!
Post Resources
You don't always have to tweet about things on your site. In fact, you will come off much more reputable, trustworthy, and reliable if you post great resources you find on other people's sites as well. If you discover a real gem in your niche on a site that isn't heavily visited, not only will that site owner thank you for the referral, but your followers will as well for giving them something they can use.
Give Something Away for Free!
This relates to the post above. Create an ebook that solves a problem faced by your followers, and they will be sure to retweet it, which inevitably grows your stature on Twitter. I also recommend you use a free giveaway for your followers. As soon as someone follows you then send an automated message to them with a thank you and a link to a free giveaway that they can actually use.
These are four different ways I have used to market my sites on Twitter and to market myself as an expert in this niches that I compete in. Of course you do need followers in order to get any of these techniques to work, and you do know how to get people to follow you on Twitter right?
Web Analytics World has a great collection of resources on Twitter marketing that's a must if you want to know more about the medium.
Do you have any other advice? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.
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February 5th, 2009 - 20:25
Great article! I just blogged about this myself … Twitter – Marketing on steroids!
The potential for this is amazing.
March 8th, 2010 - 05:55
Tip* to deliver updated content daily on twitter, you can utilize a news aggregator or RSS feed, you can also post at predetermined times during the day. The maximum tweets you should post daily must be between 2 and 4. 5 or more per day is overkill.