Most of you will already know what Twitter is all about so I wont bore you with details of what it is. What some of you who may not know is the best way of using the power of Twitter to promote your website.
The power behind using Twitter successfully for website promotion comes from your ability to build a following. There are plenty of Twitter users who now have in excess of one hundred thousand followers, and that’s a lot of people ready to read your messages!
Get Going!
So, let assume you already have a Twitter account and are keen to get using it to promote your website, if you don’t already have an account, get over to twitter.com now and set one up!
Once your account is setup you should complete your profile, particularly your website address and bio. You can also customize your page so it matches with your websites look and feel, this is done by creating a background image with your logo etc showing down the strip on the left hand side of your main Twitter page.
Behave Yourself!
There are a few important things to remember when using Twitter to promote your website. The most important of which is that Twitter is not a marketing or promotional tool, it is a social tool, this means you must promote your site with extreme care and tactfulness, your success (or lack of it) with using Twitter to promote your website will come down to your understanding of this fact.
Generally your etiquette should follow these general guidelines: follow people who are following you, don’t post spam, Keep your posts useful (this means not posting about what you had for lunch etc), be part of the community you are involved in by reply and commenting when appropriate, don’t post blatant adverts or marketing messages about your website or products.
The result of breaking the above rules will be that you have few followers and will get a bad reputation for your website, this will be the exact opposite of what you want to achieve so make sure you stick to the rules!
The Blog Post/Twitter Post Connection
So if you shouldn’t post marketing messages then how can you use Twitter to promote your website? Well, this is where you have to be a bit cunning. As you become more and more involved in the community you will build a bigger and bigger following, you should reply to other peoples posts and make sure to be active at least once a day, but don’t post every 15 minutes as that will mostly become annoying to your followers and they may desert you.
Your own posts should be informative and generally about the niche your website is involved in. Try to make posts about news items and include the link to a website where the story can be read, and more importantly, this may include your own website where you have made a blog post about the news story for example. This kind of blog posting/twitter posting combination is what gets you genuine followers as they will come to know that you post useful information on subjects they are interested in and that you are worth following.
Writing useful blogs posts on your website and then posting on Twitter about the story is the best way to get people to your site without being seen as blatantly marketing, you are providing interesting news which people want to read, the fact they go to your site to read is just a useful side effect.
Again, when they get to your website to read the blog post or story, don’t hit them with marketing content, pop-ups, no large banners, no tricks whatsoever, if you are providing useful content without being seen as looking to get something in return people will subscribe to your blog for future updates and many will take a browse around your website to see what else is there, and some of those may well end up buying something.
Slowly, Slowly Catchy Followers!
With this tactic, along with including your URL in your Twitter profile, and customizing the background to match your website, you will maximize the return you get from your time investment in being part of the Twitter community.
To summarize, post useful stuff often (but not every 15 minutes) that has nothing to do with your website (or linking to it), write interesting stories on your blog and occasionally do a Twitter post about it (with a link to the blog post), post links to stories on other websites, never spam, always respect the Twitter platform as a social tool, not a marketing one.
Providing you treat the platform, and the people, with respect, you will find you can build a good sized following and boost the number of visitors to your website through careful management of your use of the Twitter, and the blog post/twitter post combination.
Good luck!
