This post, from Chris Al-Aswad, originally appeared on his My Corporate Blogger site on 5/7/09.
I’ll admit it took me awhile to fully comprehend the madness behind Twitter. But nothing is ever revealed right away in life and so it was with Twitter. In this post I will talk about a few essential Twitter tools to build a Twitter following, and my new favorite social media strategy to gain targeted traffic.
I have about eleven websites and blogs on the Web. My daily routine is juggling those sites, adding content to them, fulfilling my clients’ needs, and of course, finding new ways to direct traffic to my sites. MyCorporateBlogger.com, what you’re reading right now, is actually one of my newest blogs and it is also my professional blog, where my clients can find me and learn what I’m up to.
If you want to dramatically increase targeted traffic to your website, here is what you will need. Think of it like a recipe:
- a blog
- a twitter account
In addition, you will be using these tools and services:
Twitter Strategy to Increase Targeted Traffic
Step One: The Basics, a blog and a twitter account
The first thing you will need to do is set up a twitter account. When you choose your username, try to pick the same words of your site URL or organization. Think keywords–something instantly recognizable. On the twitter account I just set up for this blog, I use “mycorporateblog”.
The most optimal SEO strategy is to create a Twitter account for your business or your website rather than a personal account. This is because your Twitter page has a small place to put your website URL and a short description. Your Twitter page will therefore represent your website. Focus on your site versus “you” the person. But make sure you upload a picture of yourself.
These are the basics.
Next you will need a blog which you probably already have. If you have a business website but no blog, then start a blog. Why? Because a blog is dynamic while a website is static. User-generated content is what creates traffic.
Step Two: How to use Twollo.com
There are a number of auto-follow Twitter tools on the Web. These tools enable you to automatically follow people. But remember, your goal is not simply to increase your followers. What you want is targeted followers, followers interested in what you’re interested in, followers who belong to your niche.
For example, one twitter tool called TweepMe.com charges 12 bucks a year to increase your followers. It is not a targeted traffic tool, however, and will do you little good.
I recommend Twollo.com. On this service, you add the keywords you’re interested in and the tool searches conversations in which these keywords appear. You tell the app to follow 10, 20, 30, 40, 100, 200, 500, or unlimited amounts of people who are using the keyword you have chosen. You can add as many different keywords as you want.
But wait? You’re following them; they’re not following you. Correct, but about half of those people will follow you.
I also suggest paying the 7 bucks to give you priority in the system for one month. This means the system will process your requests faster and ultimately you’ll gain more traffic to your Twitter page.
The traffic comes to your Twitter page, but your website URL is right there. If people are interested in what you’re interested in (i.e. keywords), then they will click on the link to your site.
Step Three: Use TweetDeck or even better HootSuite
The phenomenon of Twitter is not going anywhere but up. Twitter is the next Google mainly because of the possibilities in real-time search. It will revolutionize communication and we’re yet to see what that will look like. We just need to learn which tools will make that communication worthwhile.
It’s best to be as personal as possible and not to simply automate your Tweets. Here is a great article from PC World which I’ll quote:
If you’ve got a blog that’s connected to your business, you can use a service such as TwitterFeed to directly channel your new blog posts into Twitter posts. Sounds nifty, doesn’t it?
Well, don’t do it. Your business’s primary Twitter feed ought to be hand-fed. If you publish a flood of impersonal links, your Twitter account will just seem like a faceless promotion machine. And that’s not any way to engage people on Twitter. Link to the very best stuff on your blog, as well as relevant stuff you see elsewhere on the web, and also post items that don’t contain links at all. (Don’t forget to use a URL-shortening service such as tinyurl, is.gd, or xrl.us for your links.)
Rather than use automated feed, engage! TweetDeck is a personal browser to connect and converse with your contacts across Twitter. It allows you to see exactly who is sending you messages and simplifies the complex rhythm that is Twitter. Twitter can be very overwhelming; an advanced tool such as TweetDeck is very worthwhile.
If you want to engage on Twitter and only have one Twitter account, then I recommend Tweet Deck. If you have multiple accounts, however, use HootSuite. HootSuite is my personal favorite because you can toggle between accounts. For clients who are running multiple business websites, this is an ideal platform
Read the rest of the post, which includes Steps 4-6 and the author’s results, on My Corporate Blogger.