Any tips on using Twitter to promote your blog?

[theyallcount]

Hi all, hope you are well.

I started up www.theyallcount.com a couple of months ago and have managed to gain a little traffic from distributing some of my less-rambling posts as widely as possible using a range of different methods - even had my first article featured by other football sites the other day, which I am still very pleased with myself about.

Anyway, Im sure many of you use Twitter to promote your blogs, and if not would probably like to find out how. So this is a request for any tips on starting a twitter account and using it to promote your blog.

For instance, should I use my 'theyallcount' twitter account to tweet stuff, or use my personal one, or both? Should I be tweeting everything I write? How do I get people to follow me who are likely to be interested in my blog?

I suppose it also might help for any current twitter users to post their Twitter usernames so we can all add each other and tweet at each other like inane birds about lovely football related things.

mine = twitter.com/theyallcount

Any help or tips, however small, would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[rokerreport]

I have a Facebook page that links to Twitter, so when I update that, it does Twitter too. I'll do that once for each article, then over the course of the day mention it a few times on twitter when the timeline hasn't been particularly active. Seems to be working.

I get anywhere from 20 to 70 hits directly from Twitter. Sometimes its just serves as a reminder to people you exist.

Other tips I'd say are engaging your audience - I reply to people who ask questions every time, join in conversations, and thank people if they say something nice about the blog. It builds good relations.

since we're a Sunderland Blog, I'll also flick through my followers from time to time, and follow back anyone with something Sunderland related in their username or bio.

On 'follow friday' I just work through the keyboard and give as many people as possible an FF. People go nuts for that sort of nuts and it only takes 10 minutes.

Also point out your blog posts to Journo's who may be interested. I've had lots of good feedback from the local press on Twitter on articles they've found interesting. They've retweeted, and it spirals.

By doing the above we've managed to get over 400 followers in our first month of starting the blog/using Twitter.

Hope that helps somewhat, I'm sure there are easier ways than that though.

[rokerreport]

Oh, and we're on Twitter rokerreport ;-)

[9men]

Good stuff RR - I echo most of this.

I have a saved search for "Dagenham Redbridge" so that I can quickly see who is talking about the club, I use this to find potential new audience members. Try to engage other football fans, if you build relationships people are more likely to take an interest.

I tend to stick to football and a few bits of other sport, I've found in the past that tweeting other stuff loses me followers which is understandable - I'm a Daggers blogger and that's why people follow me, not to hear about the price of fish!

[furtho]

I've quickly come to the conclusion that I'm going to have nothing useful whatsoever to offer any other users of this forum, on the basis of the subject matter of my blog. Basically my readership is split between Japanese people who want to read some English text about a J-League team and non-Japanese people who, for whatever reason, are interested enough to read a blog about a J-League team. Therefore for me a key aspect of increasing visitor numbers is trying to increase the number of people who are interested in the subject in the first place.

Twitter has been moderately successful in this regard. The number of people following my tweets has gradually increased and I do tweet with a link whenever there is a new post - effectively using Twitter as an RSS feed. After Google, Twitter is the second-biggest source of traffic for the site.

As regards the subject of my tweets, I do and try to stay pretty strictly on topic. That way people cannot be misled in the sense that they get what it says on the tin. Even so, my problem is that even aside from the language issues my readership is split between people who know and love Naoki Ishihara and people who have no idea who he is. Yep, exactly.

Website: omiyaallezallez.blogspot.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/GoGoOmiyaArdija

[Ian]

Okay, so, Twitter. I will confess that I didn't like Twitter at first and it took me a while to get past that. Now, though, it's part of the landscape and it is certainly a necessity to have an account. I have a link on the homepage on the site and one goes at the bottom of every post, which seemed to make the biggest difference in terms of acquiring followers.

Personally, I can't help myself in using it for O/T moments, but they are pretty few and far between. It's @twoht (also, if you're selecting a new Twitter name, pick one that makes sense, unlike me), should this not already be common knowledge.

[mirkobolesan]

Jan 12, 2011 22:52:04 GMT Ian said:

Personally, I can't help myself in using it for O/T moments, but they are pretty few and far between. It's @twoht (also, if you're selecting a new Twitter name, pick one that makes sense, unlike me), should this not already be common knowledge.

You can change your twitter username without losing any followers or having to "restart" your account.

All your links to your website etc. will have to be changed though, and it could confuse and befuddle your current followers a little.

[drjohnbeech]

I've found Twitter very useful at driving hits to my blog at footballmanagement.wordpress.com/. I use it to announce new postings and updates.

BUT I do still have a problem and would appreciate any suggestions. To keep my personal stuff separate from my bog stuff I created a second Twitter account. If I log on to one Twitter account, I'm automatically logged out of the other. I've tried Tweetdeck to have the two accounts open simultaneously, but no joy. Can anyone suggest a platform that allows two open accounts simultaneously?

[simonhead]

drjohnbeech

I use HootSuite, which is a similar service to TweetDeck but operates from your web browser. You can run up to five different Twitter accounts simultaneously on it, and I use it for work and play at the same time. It's very easy to use, has its own URL shortener (very handy) and you can even schedule Tweets to go out at pre-set times, which can be extremely useful.

All the above is available using their free version. If you want to be able to access more than five accounts at the same time, you'll need their premium, paid-for, version.

Check it out at hootsuite.com

[drjohnbeech]

simonhead

Very many thanks Simon - problem sorted!
And a result for this forum, so thanks Ian too.

[footballhobo]

Tweetdeck can run two accounts simultaneously - you can post from either, and if you sort your news feed from each account into a list/lists, you can remain updated on everything all the time.

[richard]

I've just got one of these twitter things (@richardtbellis) and aside from attempting to come up with witty comments and telling people when there's a new post on my blog, I can't think of much to do with it. Any tips?

[btfm]

As someone who has added very little of import to the blogosphere, I can heartily recommend Twitter. For one thing, there's a lot of us lot out there, twatting about creating fantasy mid 80s pop concerts. But more importantly, we are all followed by non-bloggers, and, assuming what you write is of interest to someone, it will get RT'd, and the word will spread.

One word to the wise though. Don't just pop up, say "I wrote this, please RT it" and then beggar off again. Twitter works when you interact and participate. Talk to other folk on Twitter about what they are talking about. Don't try to steer the conversation towards your blog. It is, really, like any other party conversation. Don't be a crushing bore, and you'll get invited back.

The cute girl in the corner still won't sleep with you either.

[furtho]

richard as well as tweeting when I have a new blog post, I tweet as an alternative to blogging. If something happens that is not worth a whole post but still might be of interest to my Twitter followers, I tweet about it - for example, one of my most recent tweets is:

#ardija Ex-Omiya defender Terukazu Tanaka has made a permanent move from Yokohama FC to Sagan Tosu after a loan spell during 2010.

i.e. a snippet of news about a player who a couple of years ago left the club that the blog's actually about.

[richard]

Thanks btfm and furtho, they're handy tips.