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Twitter is still the newest craze that a lot of people are using now and still growing. Not only is it a way to get to know more people, it can also be used to get traffic. Getting Twitter traffic can maximize your exposure in ways you may have never imagined.Twitter is simple to use, yet it is really powerful. You might need a couple of hours to get familiar with the basic functionality of Twitter and of some of the extras it has but you can harness its power, even if you don’t know it very well.
Twitter is simple to use and this is what made it so popular. Twitter is fashionable right now, so enjoy the moment. Even the creators of Twitter admit that as with MySpace and other Web 2.0 sensations, Twitter will inevitably go out of fashion some day. If you don’t have a Twitter account, then you will need to sign up for one. It’s easy and it only takes a few minutes. The best part about having one is that it is free.
Unlike most of the other places you can get traffic for free, Twitter is a microblogging platform, which means that there are restrictions on the number of characters in a message. Therefore, you need to be concise in your Tweets and use your space wisely. In addition to being concise, here are some more tips to help you get traffic from Twitter:
1. Make Your Profile Interesting
Your profile and your username are the first two things your visitors will see when they go to your Twitter page. If your profile looks boring, people won’t bother to read your tweets, not to mention visit the links you post in them. You can’t write a very long bio of yours, but you can enter a few words about you – i.e. your occupation, your interests, etc. You can also include a couple of keywords in your bio. You really should try to make your bio interesting or funny.
2. Pick a Username Targeted to Your Niche
Your username is also very important. You need to pick a username that is targeted at your niche. For instance, if you are promoting your search engine optimization company and want to drive traffic to your SEO site, you can choose something like SEOcompany, SEOmarketing, SEOservices, etc. Your username will show in searches other users make and this is why you must pay attention to what you choose.
3. Make Sure to List Your Website URL In Your Profile
According to some statistics, 80% of Twitter members don’t provide an URL in their bio! Well, maybe these people are not SEO experts or internet marketers on Twitter and they don’t need this traffic but you as an expert in your niche can’t afford to miss it. So, don’t forget to include your URL in your profile! The best place to have your URL if before you start your bio to make sure it doesn’t get cut short.
4. Share Your Twitter Profile Link with Everyone You Know
Your friends, coworkers, and acquaintances will be your most loyal audience, so if they don’t know about your Twitter page, make them aware of what they are missing. If you have their emails, or know their accounts on other networks, you can send a mass invite.
5. Search For Other Twitter Users Who Share Similar Interest With Your Niche
You can use the advanced search functions on Twitter and find people with similar interests. http://search.twitter.com/advanced You might have millions of friends, but more followers are always welcome. Find as many as you can and invite them all. These people might not be as loyal as your friends, coworkers, and acquaintances but still you will get hits from them as well. Some Twitter users report that about 1-2% of their followers visit their site a day, which means that if you have 1,000 followers, you might expect to get at least 10 or 20 visits a day to your site.
6. Interact With Your Followers On Twitters As Much As Possible
If you don’t post tweets, then your followers will think that you are not interested anymore and will stop tweeting at your Twitter website. When you are active in Twitter, respond to the posts of your followers and visit their links, this seriously increases your chances that you will get the same in return. Getting the most out of Twitter traffic hinges on whether or not you participate in engaging with your followers.
7. Post Your "Tweets" Regularly
As with all other kinds of media, if you want to keep your audience, you need to feed it regularly. Writing a short tweet takes just seconds, but it is enough in order to keep your followers happy. It goes without saying, that your posts should contain substance and meaning. Your followers will be interested in what you have to say and will continue to come back for more. If you can’t think of something meaningful to post about you or your sites, it is quite alright to post a link to a news article, a funny video, a blog, etc. that you found online.
8. Do Not Spam
You might be tempted to make as many users as you can aware of your Twitter page and your latest "tweets" but you’d better refrain from doing this, unless you want to see if you can get baned. To keep the relationship going, you can tweet on comments that were sent to you from previous tweets. This way, you can post your tweet again and include your link. This is a subtle way that you can use to promote your business. It would not be considered spam because your purpose was to comment on the tweets
9. Make Live Search Love Your "Tweets"
Twitter has a great search function and its main advantage is that it offers real-time results. Google now offers real-time search results, too. People are hungry for hot news and nothing beats a real-time search. Many users report seeing their "tweets" show up in Google search results as soon as they post them. Some users get more visitors from Twitter than from the major search engines.
10. Add Twitter Widgets To Your Website or Blog
Lots of free Twitter widgets are available and new ones are being released every day. The cool thing about Twitter widgets is that your blog visitors can become your Twitter followers. If your Twitter followers have many followers, chances are that some of these followers will notice you and will join your network. If you have a lot of followers, then your chances are greater for people to visit your website. Facebook apps can let you update Twitter/Facebook together. This means your Tweets can become your Facebook status and vice versa. Facebook is the most popular network around. Between Facebook and Twitter, you can build quite a following.
In my experience Twitter works best if you have a service or an offer that will fulfill a need. Seek out the people looking for your services and let them know how you can help them. If you can, offer solutions for free and soon you’ll be the go-to person in your niche. These are just some of the ways you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your website.
by David Armano
In 2009 we saw exponential growth of social media. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to outpace MySpace. So what could social media look like in 2010? In 2010, social media will get even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive — at least, that’s my guess. What are the near-term trends we could see as soon as next year? In no particular order:
1. Social media begins to look less social
With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more "exclusive." Not everyone can fit on someone’s newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it’s likely that user behavior such as "hiding" the hyperactive updaters that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common. Perhaps it’s not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks — while filtering out the clutter.
2. Corporations look to scale
There are relatively few big companies that have scaled social initiatives beyond one-off marketing or communications initiatives. Best Buy’s Twelpforce leverages hundreds of employees who provide customer support on Twitter. The employees are managed through a custom built system that keeps track of who participates. This is a sign of things to come over the next year as more companies look to uncover cost savings or serve customers more effectively through leveraging social technology.
3. Social business becomes serious play
Relatively new networks such as Foursquare are touted for the focus on making networked activity local and mobile. However, it also has a game-like quality to it which brings out the competitor in the user. Participants are incentivized and rewarded through higher participation levels. And push technology is there to remind you that your friends are one step away from stealing your coveted "mayorship." As businesses look to incentivize activity within their internal or external networks, they may include carrots that encourage a bit of friendly competition.
4. Your company will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced)
If the company you work for doesn’t already have a social media policy in place with specific rules of engagement across multiple networks, it just might in the next year. From how to conduct yourself as an employee to what’s considered competition, it’s likely that you’ll see something formalized about how the company views social media and your participation in it.
5. Mobile becomes a social media lifeline
With approximately 70 percent of organizations banning social networks and, simultaneously, sales of smartphones on the rise, it’s likely that employees will seek to feed their social media addictions on their mobile devices. What used to be cigarette breaks could turn into "social media breaks" as long as there is a clear signal and IT isn’t looking. As a result, we may see more and/or better mobile versions of our favorite social drug of choice.
6. Sharing no longer means e-mail
The New York Times iPhone application recently added sharing functionality which allows a user to easily broadcast an article across networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Many websites already support this functionality, but it’s likely that we will see an increase in user behavior as it becomes more mainstream for people to share with networks what they used to do with e-mail lists. And content providers will be all too happy to help them distribute any way they choose.
These are a few emerging trends that come to my mind — I’m interested to hear what you think as well, so please weigh in with your own thoughts. Where do you see social media going next?
