Social Net Daily » the Editors

Twitter Traffic for Your Blog or Website

the Editors — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:15:54 +0000

Twitter.com is a popular and growing microblogging tool and social networking website. Twitter is an incredibly fast way to get more traffic to your blog or site while also building an interactive relationship with your readership.

Twitter has two main components. Just like other social networking sites, you can add “followers” and follow other people as well. They’ll receive your updates and you’ll receive theirs. However, your messages are limited to 140 characters, which is why some people call it a “micro-blogging” tool. You have to keep your messages brief and to the point.

I would like to share with you some practical ways to create an instant flow of new traffic to your blog or website as well as how to add brand new subscribers to your mailing list.

Here are some tips to begin receiving active traffic from Twitter…..

1. Establish your Twitter brand: Even though you want to be personable on Twitter, you still want to portray your status as an “authority” in your area of expertise. So, don’t use Twitter as an hourly diary of your life as some do. Mix your posts or “tweets” up with industry-relevant links in addition to your personal activities and opinions. And by all means get a custom graphic background designed that is nice looking and includes the web address of your website and blog.

2. Begin to follow people: All this means is that you sign up to receive their messages. If you follow them, they will most likely follow you. This is the most prevalent strategy being used to acquire followers. Be sure to thank people when they follow you either by @ reply or direct message.

You can use the search feature in Twitter (search.twitter.com) or you can search Google.com (keywords site:twitter.com) and find the people you want to follow – just put in the search terms you are looking for. If you want to find authors in Australia, go for it. If you want to find local people to network with, that’s fine, too. Just search.

Important note: When filling out your bio in your Twitter profile, be sure to include several relevant keywords so you can be found when people search for folks to follow.

3. Be interactive and social with replies. Make sure you ask and answer questions and give value to the community. You don’t have to say anything profound – just relevant. Post a reply. When you type in a regular message, people may reply to your post. You’ll see your user name with the symbol @ before it when someone replies to your message. You can respond to other people the same way. You simply type @ and then their user name directly after that (no spaces) and then your reply.

4. Ask questions and surveys: You can increase your relationship with your followers by asking questions. Ask people for advice, what they think of the latest news story or their opinion on a topic. Survey your followers regarding a hot topic or if they think your latest blog post is accurate.

5. Utilize direct messages: If you want to send a private message to someone that no one else can see, you can send a direct message. You’ll also receive messages from others and be notified via e-mail when someone direct messages you. Use a service like Tweetlater.com or Socialtoo.com to automatically thank new followers with a direct message. Don’t forget to include a link to your website or blog in the note.

6. Take advantage of retweets: A retweet is when a Twitter user copies a twitter message from another Twitter user in their network and shares it with their network, thereby mentioning the author of the original Twitter message (example – Retweet: @originalposter The 15 Best Tips http://tinyurl.com/56f – great tips). Retweets that contain value can impress your followers, help establish your brand, and build a relationship with the original poster.

7. Start “tweeting” right away. The best way to get followers is to say something – your tweets will come up in searches, so make sure you say things that reflect you well. Say things that are relevant and not just sending out sales pitches. Don’t be afraid to give a word of encouragement or a suggestion to someone. Remember to place keywords in your messages.

8. Build your list. When you place a link in a message, make sure your websites and blogs feature free offers. Obviously, you’ll make them subscribe to your mailing list in order to receive the offer. However, don’t send them to a squeeze page designed only to harvest email addresses. Send them to pages that contain valuable, interesting content.

9. Send links as a natural part of the conversation. If you chat with people, eventually they will ask what you do (or you can drop subtle hints) – then you can mention it. Again, only send them content links.

Use links properly. Don’t send a direct link to your product. Send a link to your blog or a general informational website. Don’t be so blatant about trying to get a sale.

For example, if a Twitter entrepreneur complains about not doing well with social networking, don’t send her a link to your ebook on Facebook; instead, send a link to your blog post that discusses social networking ideas (that can include your link to the ebook). You will get a much more favorable reception.

10. Getting traffic to your blog posts: With a simple post to Twitter, you can have lots of readers come to your blog. Even though blog feeds do the same thing, you can often find new readers on Twitter or remind current readers to re-visit your blog or a specific article.

11. Be useful and helpful. Not every tweet has to be about “you”. Take time to tweet about others and be a helpful part of the community.

12. Listen to your followers. Try to help them out. You can get great feedback using tweets. You can get ideas for info products and affiliate products from the feedback you receive from your followers.

13. Don’t send message spam: Let me repeat: Do NOT send spammy messages! If all you do is send out tweets that scream, “Buy from me! Buy from me!” you will quickly lose followers. Just don’t do it!

14. Final tips: Don’t post the same link more than once. If people are really interested in your blog and your links, they’ll visit it the first time you post it. You don’t need to post your link multiple times. Don’t tweet about every single thing you do. (Like “going to the store” – do people really care?) Don’t send direct affiliate links. Don’t toot your own horn all of the time. Let people hear from you, but don’t be too chatty.

Please don’t get discouraged. Learning Twitter is just like anything else – it takes time. Soon you will be twittering and tweeting with the best of them. Just jump in, take action and enjoy the traffic.

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Social Media & Search Engine Optimization

the Editors — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:22:11 +0000

[SE Land] – The thumbprint of social media on search engine optimization is evolving. It used to be that the big rage was figuring out how to develop link bait that had a strong chance of making the front page of Digg, Reddit, or other similar social news sites. The results were good, mostly in terms of getting a volume of links to a page on your site.

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Warnings of a Twitter Bubble

the Editors — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:36:58 +0000

[TwiTip] – What does it mean when hundreds of third party services (with questionable, if any, business models) are dependent upon a single service which itself has no business model? This post by Neal Wiser suggests that Twitter’s amazing growth and popularity are indicators that the company is at the center of an emerging Bubble and examines the risks and rewards that a bubble could present to the service.

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Let’s get social – Linkedin and Facebook as career tools

the Editors — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:49:52 +0000

[Examiner] By now most people under 40 have some kind of social network presence. It could be a Facebook page, Linkedin, Plaxo, any combination or all three. According to SelfGrowth.com there are over 100 social networks on the Internet. I’d say that number is low..

So how can one of these sites help your career? Let me count the ways. Mino Sullivan, a highly regarded career coach and work expert lists 10 Tips to Enhance Your Job Search Using Linkedin. You can click the link to download a copy for yourself.

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Online Reputation Management Tools

the Editors — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:45:52 +0000

[Black Papr] – Online reputation management is serious business, but you can have a bit of fun exploring the various sites below. Use them for clients but above all use them to check yourself out.

Samepoint is a conversation search engine that lets you see what people are talking about.
Discover, learn and share new web sites and ideas. Like Google Alerts but for social media…..

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How to Promote an Event Using Social Media

the Editors — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:39:43 +0000

[Open Forum] – There are dozens of sites and services set-up to help you promote events such as webinars, seminar, workshops, grand openings and product launches. While these tools are indeed online you can get benefit employing them for local offline events as well.

Use MeetUp and create a group surrounding your event – this might turn into something very valuable to do on an ongoing basis and create a nice way for you to build a local community…..

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Yahoo! revamps site with Twitter and Facebook integration

the Editors — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:34:06 +0000

[Telegraph] – Yahoo! has redesigned its home page to make it easier for users to access their Twitter and Facebook profiles.

A test version of the new-look website has already launched in the United States, and will go live in the UK, France and India over the next few weeks. A final version will be released in the autumn.

The re-design is aimed at making it easier for internet users to access content and services from across the web. Yahoo! users will be able to pull in news headlines from a variety of sources, including the BBC and The Daily Telegraph.

They will also be able to update and share their status on sites such as eBay, Facebook and Twitter directly through the Yahoo! homepage using a new feature called My Favourites, which enables users to build personalised “boxes” linking through to social media sites…..

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Brand Promotion Online – Signals for Today’s SEO

the Editors — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:18:02 +0000

[Search Engine Watch] – I’ve recently discussed some of the fundamentals of SEO that haven’t changed for some time. Now let’s touch upon the “new” realities of SEO and what you need to do to build your brand online.

Why Branding?

Well, you may have heard it mentioned that Google wants to rank brand Web sites. It isn’t so much that Google only wants to rank big brands. But they do like all of the signals that these big brands carry.

Big brands, more often than not, have very deep/informational Web sites and have their share of other Web sites linking to them. These are two very important “signals” of the authority of these Web sites…..

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Get Your Small Business Involved in Social Media

the Editors — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:05:48 +0000

[Search Engine Watch] – Social networking is here, and it isn’t going anywhere. Embracing the trend before your competitors do is key to grabbing market share in an active online community you can’t afford to ignore.

Any business has the potential to excel (or fail) socially online. Having a game plan is key to making sure you’re ready for both instances.

It starts with getting your Web site ready for social networking. However, just adding a Facebook link on the home page and sitting back and waiting for the traffic won’t cut it. The key to social networking is interaction and involvement…..

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25 Ways to Make Friends, Fans, and Followers

the Editors — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:56:09 +0000

[Clickz] – So your client or company has set up its social profiles and channels. The big question now is how to build up large communities of friends, fans, and followers. I did a little survey in our office and got a lot of great suggestions — here are 25 of them. Of course there are more, but this checklist is a good start…..

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