Using Twitter to get traffic

[Dana_W]

Twitter Diva Dana here. I posted a link to my blog post on Twitter yesteday - actually I used ping.fm which simultaneously updates a whole bunch of social networking sites including facebook and Twitter and Plurk and Pownce and Brightkite...

And my blog got 36 visitors to that post.

I know, 36 visitors is not a huge amount, but if you write good, useful, informative posts every day and send out a link to each post twice a day on your social network - once in the morning, once at night, because people check in at different times of the day - and let's say you average 36 visits A DAY...in one month, that would be...let's see, ran out of fingers, taking off my shoes...

More visitors than you started with! And assuming that your site is good and has regularly updated information, some of those visitors should come back regularly on their own.

I believe that when you send the same post out more than once, the etiquette is to start out by saying "retweet".

CORRECTION - APPARENTLY THAT IS USED WHEN YOU ARE POSTING SOMEONE ELSE"S TWITTER.

Final note: Willie Crawford is ALL OVER Twitter, and he is one of the most focused IMers I've seen. I don't think that man sneezes without figuring out a way to monetize it.

[Michael Mayhew]

Originally Posted by davebo

twitter seems like a good idea for networking with others in the industry, but I don't really see how they help a guy in a traditional business. If I'm selling drills online, what does twitter do for me? And don't tell me to use it to communicate with my customers because 99.9999% of people have no clue what twitter is.

Do a search for drills. Chances are good you'll find a drill dealer using Twitter. Take a look at his followers and follow them. Make sure your url is in your profile. You can even setup an autoresponse with your link in the email.

[nauquetta30]

Thats 1080 visitors a month for 30 day months and 1116 visitors a month for 31 day months...lol

[chrisgarrett]

I have received a nice bunch of visits from tweets - more if people re-tweet. What you have to be careful of though is not burning out your followers. If you are linking linking linking without being there and taking part in conversations all you have created is another feed, and they can already get that if they wanted it. So make sure you mix it up.

Another tip is rather than just post the link and title, ask a question and follow up on the answers. So you write a review about a gurus launch, instead of "so-and-so review" put on twitter "have you heard of this new launch?" then people can follow up with a conversation.

Conversation means you are more interesting AND it means all the people who follow THEM want to know what you are discussing

[ctutt]

Hey Twitter Diva Dana, I'm a Twitter Member but totally bored with twits. I just don't see what the big deal is. I read them and think, hmmm, what a waste of time! What glimmer of truth, inspiration, knowledge, or profitable input to my business is this? Why should I invest time in this?

Perhaps you can offer some enlightenment.
Charles

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by davebo

twitter seems like a good idea for networking with others in the industry, but I don't really see how they help a guy in a traditional business. If I'm selling drills online, what does twitter do for me? And don't tell me to use it to communicate with my customers because 99.9999% of people have no clue what twitter is.

Also you could search for things like home repairs, DIY, tools, construction...home decorating...

or if you're in a dog training business search for dog training type phrases...but yes, I will admit that Twitter is probably more heavily populated by early adopters and IM types.

Although Barak Obama is the most followed person on Twitter so it's not all technonerd stuff on there.

But I just checked and there were 311 mentions of dog training on Twitter, versus 12,100 mentions of SEO and 2110 of adwords.

Still, most of us on the warrior forum are involved in some form of internet marketing, so I think that most people here can get a lot of value out of Twitter.

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by ctutt

Hey Twitter Diva Dana, I'm a Twitter Member but totally bored with twits. I just don't see what the big deal is. I read them and think, hmmm, what a waste of time! What glimmer of truth, inspiration, knowledge, or profitable input to my business is this? Why should I invest time in this?

Perhaps you can offer some enlightenment.
Charles

I know Twitter isn't for everyone. It's possible you aren't following people who are posting things you find interesting - you might want to unfollow everyone whose Tweets you find boring, and then sign up to follow some different people.

A lot of the best Tweets that I've followed were just a brief comment and a link to a useful or informative or funny site or post.

Also, I'm a social type, so I enjoy some chat and gossip. And I quickly skim over the Tweets that I don't find interesting.

[Dana_W]

Oh wait, when you retweet does that mean that you are re-posting someone else's Tweet? Anyway, great tips there, Chris, and I love your sock monkey.

To anyone who hasn't seen his Twitter page - I'm not being obscene! I mean he literally has a picture of a sock monkey on there!

Originally Posted by chrisgarrett

I have received a nice bunch of visits from tweets - more if people re-tweet. What you have to be careful of though is not burning out your followers. If you are linking linking linking without being there and taking part in conversations all you have created is another feed, and they can already get that if they wanted it. So make sure you mix it up.

Another tip is rather than just post the link and title, ask a question and follow up on the answers. So you write a review about a gurus launch, instead of "so-and-so review" put on twitter "have you heard of this new launch?" then people can follow up with a conversation.

Conversation means you are more interesting AND it means all the people who follow THEM want to know what you are discussing

[chrisgarrett]

Originally Posted by Dana_W

Oh wait, when you retweet does that mean that you are re-posting someone else's Tweet?

Yeah, it's the closest thing Twitter has to "going viral"

I love my monkey too

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by nauquetta30

Thats 1080 visitors a month for 30 day months and 1116 visitors a month for 31 day months...lol

Oh good, someone who knows math! Never my strong suit.

[R0b]

I think twitter is like any other tool, it just depends on what you sell and whether or not it makes sense. If you have customers who make recurring or regular purchases, or if you offer useful information about a topic related to what you sell, I think you can find a decent following. As long as you aren't a twitter spammer, usually most of the people you "follow" will follow you in return if you are twittering in a relevant subject area.

Rob

[braver55b]

I know twitter is hugely popular with lots of surfers including politicians like Barack Obama, who has over 25K Followers, However alot of these web 2.0, from my experience can flood your site and not buy a darn thing and all you get in return is a bigger bandwidth bill.

I wish there was a way to get targeted visitors using twitter.

[MommyEnterprises]

I had not put a lot of thought of using Twitter for traffic purposes until I seen them as one of my top referrals in my traffic stats.

[Shannon Herod]

I posted a link to my blog post on Twitter yesteday - actually I used ping.fm which simultaneously updates a whole bunch of social networking sites including facebook and Twitter and Plurk and Pownce and Brightkite...

Hey Dana,

Great post and thank you for the link. I've never heard of that service, but have been looking for something just like it.

So once again thanks.

Shannon

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by braver55b

I know twitter is hugely popular with lots of surfers including politicians like Barack Obama, who has over 25K Followers, However alot of these web 2.0, from my experience can flood your site and not buy a darn thing and all you get in return is a bigger bandwidth bill.

I wish there was a way to get targeted visitors using twitter.

I think it depends on what you're selling. I don't think that Twitter, or any other social networking or social bookmarking site, are much use for people who are promoting someone else's clickbank products or who have an adsense site. I wish they were, because I'd use the heck out of them.

I do recall seeing Greenovni post on here that he got 9 sales from posting on Twitter in a really short period of time. So I don't think it's impossible to get sales off there, you just have to think about what someone on Twitter would want.

If you're following mostly internet marketers and website and blog owners - they want what we all want - ways to increase traffic, establish brand identity, ways to make money from their site, build a list, rise in the search engine rankings...

So if you can provide that for them and if you can communicate that in a non-spammy way I think you will do quite well. Willie Crawford, Frank Kern, a lot of the big internet marketers are on there and I don't think they'd keep going back if it wasn't working for them.

As for building a targeted list, find someone on Twitter who is in the niche you are targetting, following everyone who follows them and everyone who they are following...and a lot of them will follow you back.

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

Hey Dana,

Great post and thank you for the link. I've never heard of that service, but have been looking for something just like it.

So once again thanks.

Shannon

You're welcome! I just PMed you the secret code that you need to use ping.fm because it's in Beta. Anyone else want it, just PM me. You know where to find me. On the Warrior Forum, lurking when I should be working.

[Fabian Tan]

From what I have heard, Twitter is the SECOND best way to get instant traffic apart from email.

So I take back what I said about Twitter before. It's a useful tool.

The way to dominate Twitter is obviously not to get sales - it's for syndication and relationship building purposes.

You can get Diggs, linkbacks and opt-ins all from Twitter if you build a huge friends list on it. It's a great tool to use.

Fabian

[logocheckout]

never heard of twitter before. I have followed the link and it still does not make any sense to me. What in the world is a twitter?

[jhongren]

Originally Posted by logocheckout

never heard of twitter before. I have followed the link and it still does not make any sense to me. What in the world is a twitter?

Hi Logocheckout, it is a social networking site.

You can get more info

=> Twitter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cheers,
John

[stevenwilson]

Twitter is a very useful tool that anyone with a website should give a shot.It will bring more traffic to your site.