Ryan Barton is the author of Smart Marketing (an e-junkie product) and he writes at The Smart Marketing Blog for Small Business Success. For more small business marketing insight, follow him at www.twitter.com/RyanBarton.
Last month, I wrote a post about how one would market themselves and continue selling if the Internet was turned off.
I asked, What if there was no Twitter? What if nobody could read your blog? If SEO wasn’t on the table, how would you reach a new audience?
Fortunately though, we do have Internet access. And Twitter happens to be a very real and very powerful marketing tool.
But even while leveraging all the power of the Internet, you must remember — even online, the most successful relationships, the highest-margin transactions, and the fastest-growing blogs rely on the most basic human principles.
Twitter marketing tactics
I’ve written a blog for the last four years or so. And for around three of those years, I’ve used Twitter. Probably now more actively and strategically than I did when I first started.
But one thing is certain — Twitter has directly contributed to higher blog traffic, sale conversions, and reader engagement.
1. New post announcements
I publish new blog posts twice weekly — once on Monday and once on Thursday. The reason being existing traffic patterns.
And the same traffic pattern evaluation should be used when you promote your blog with Twitter. Shortly after publishing my latest blog post, I’ll announce it to my followers, give them the title of the post, a short summary (if space allows), and a direct link.
But I’m also sensitive to knowing that all of my collective followers didn’t read that update. Frankly, depending on how many users one person is following, it could be pretty difficult to keep-up with everybody’s tweets.
So I pursue Twitter the same way I do media buys.
There’s a reason TV commercials are cheap at 2:00 a.m. — the viewing audience is significantly lower than it is at 2:00 p.m. Very plainly, at 2:00 a.m., there’s isn’t much of an attentive market.
And for the most part, the same can be said for Twitter. You may have published a post at 2:00 a.m., but you may see value in waiting to announce it until most of your followers are awake and functioning. Because the last thing you want is a Twitter stream full of repeating, self-promoting updates.
Instead, find a time and day that works best for your traffic and stick to it. Don’t spam your followers with a reminder every hour, but keep your content updates fresh for those new eyes.
Personally, I promote a new blog post shortly after it publishes, again later that night (a good 10-12 hours later), and then once more the next day.
2. Monitor what’s being said
You’re lucky if a reader at your blog 1) decides to read what you have to say, 2) then decides it’s worthy to post on Twitter for their followers, and 3) actually use your Twitter user name in their tweetback.
But what if they don’t mention you, how do you know what’s being said about your blog posts?
There’s a few different ways.
Leading browsers have plug-ins that enable you to see how many tweets refer back to a specific URL, much the same way Twitter’s tweet button does. You’ll also find similar results taking your blog post URL and inserting into search.twitter.com.
Here, you’ll see all the tweets that point to your blog post — regardless what URL shortener they end up using.
So what do you do when you find that somebody’s tweeted your post?
Be human and thank them for linking to you, ask them what they though, establish a relationship, grow your network, and consider retweeting their complimenting tweet to reinforce your authority on the topic.
3. Calm down and embrace the synergy
Like you, I’ve been faced with reading a blog post that’s on a topic I covered months ago. Oftentimes, a “big” blogger will decide to approach the topic, blog on it, and then result in hundreds of affirming comments from readers thanking the blogger for his thoughts (on a topic I already covered).
But what does that gain?
Instead of getting upset because another blogger covered the same topic, embrace the synergy, laugh it off, and use it as confirmation that you’re on to something.
What’s more, jump in the conversation, leave a comment, indicate that you had some similar thoughts (if they were actually similar) and invite the blogger to read your post to get their feedback.
You’ll likely find the blogger is more likely to engage you if you treat the situation calmly, with a professional attitude that seeks to give his/her readers more quality content — not with the intention to divert the attention to you.
Add to conversations with your archive. It’s not worth it to get upset for somebody covering the same topic you did. Embrace the synergy, and ask for their thoughts.
4. Recap what’s popular
Remember that blog post you wrote a few weeks back, the one that had a lot of great comments? Well the guy who just started following you yesterday probably hasn’t read that post. Yet anyway.
At the end of every month, I like to give my followers a short 5-post recap of what’s been popular the last 30-days.
So I start at #5 and work my way up to the #1 most popular post for that given month.
And in doing so, it not only drives great referring traffic back to my individual posts, but it helps catch new followers up on what I’ve been doing lately.
The same approach can be used to talk about your all-time most popular posts, one particular post that’s been receiving an unusual number of hits lately, or a funny, can’t-be-explained search phrase that led a visitor to your blog in the first place.
If you find it curious, your followers might too.
By no means are these four action items an exhaustive Twitter marketing list for your blog. But it’s a start, and frankly, each item is something you can start implementing today.
Want to get a little deeper into Twitter marketing for your blog? Shoot me an email, follow me on Twitter, or consider picking-up my book.
Whatever you do, I look forward to hearing from you!
To read more informative articles from our guest authors, you can subscribe to our RSS feeds. You can also choose to receive updates via email.
Do join our Facebook page as well:
To read more informative articles from our guest authors, you can subscribe to our RSS feeds. You can also choose to receive updates via email.
Do join our Facebook page as well:
Interesting points! Obviously #1 is a given but I didn't really think about the others. I'll definitely be using these to promote my blog better. Thanks!
Although I have to say I didn't know about the time phenomenon. I should take into account when I tweet more.