Social Media is a great way to help build your list, today I would like to talk about Twitter.

 

Why Twitter Is An Effective Marketing Tool

Twitter is an effective method for gaining traffic and sales for your business. It allows you to reach an entirely new and very large audience you would not have been able to otherwise.

Social networking sites give us a great opportunity to ‘go viral’. This means that you Tweet about something that really catches people’s attention, your followers are impressed, so they re-Tweet it. In turn, each of their followers re-Tweet it, and so on and so on, and soon your little Tweet spreads like wildfire, snowballing into a huge storm of clicks and traffic.
Of course, trying to make something go viral probably won’t work. It tends to just happen on its own.

Tweeting “Hi buy my new ebook click here” will never go viral!

With a blog, you might only update once or twice per week, with Twitter, you might send a handful of tweets per day, keeping your followers “in the loop” and reminding them of your existence.
Of course, it’s not recommended to send a million tweets per day. This will only serve to annoy people and they will likely unfollow you.

 

When it comes to an email list, a large percentage of your subscribers won’t even glance at the emails you send. Their eyes will glaze over and they may even send it to the trash. With Twitter, your followers will see all of your Tweets, they’ll digest its information in about half a second and if you include a link, they probably won’t get offended.

Chances are if you included an eye-catching description they’ll probably click it! Additionally, it won’t SEEM like you are marketing to them, because you’re just another Twitter user tweeting about random stuff!

 

Just like with an email list Twitter can be used to build up excitement about an upcoming product launch. It can start with occasional Tweets about your “new project”, and by keeping your followers up to date and offering freebies and cool stuff that they’ll appreciate, you’ll build trust and anticipation. When your product launches, a well-timed Tweet may likely be just as effective as a blast to your email list.

 

 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could instantly notify hundreds or thousands of people every time you update your blog? Twitter makes this possible. It essentially acts as an RSS feed. By building a sizable list of followers, you pretty much have access to an instant source of traffic to your website or blog.

 

Twitter Language / Symbols

Retweet (RT):  This means that the Tweet was originally posted by someone else and you are reposting it because you want to spread the word, you think it’s funny, etc.

Hash tag (#):  Typing # followed by a keyword will categorize your Tweet so that others can easily find it by performing a search. Once you start using Twitter, you’ll realize that MANY people use the hash tag in their Tweets.

@ symbol:  Placing the @ symbol directly before a username shows that you are directly addressing that person (but the Tweet is still public). Clicking the arrow button when you hover over a user’s tweet will let you do this automatically.

Direct Message (DM):  Typing d followed by a username will allow you to send them a Direct Message rather than having your Tweet appear publicly.

 

Twitter Plugins

Tweetmeme Button :  Allows your blog posts to be retweeted with the click of a button.

TweetThis Button :  Allows users to share your blog posts on Twitter.

The Twitter Updater :  Automatically publishes updates to your Twitter account when new posts or changes are made to your blog.

Twitter Tools :  Integrates your blog and Twitter account, allowing you to easily put tweets on your blog and blog links in your tweets, all from the WordPress control panel.

Twitter Feed :  Automatically post your blog updates on your Twitter account.

TwitterCounter :  Places a counter on your blog stating the number of followers you have.

 

7 Tips to start gaining your following on Twitter.

1. Own a blog? Place a twitter icon somewhere on it linking to your profile
page

2. Add a retweet image at the bottom of each post or if you have your own
wordpress blog install the plugin Tweetmeme.

3. Add your twitter url in the signature of your emails

4. Add your twitter url in the signature of forums

5. Add your twitter url when commenting on other blogs

6. Join social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn

7. Add yourself to twitter directories such as Twellow

A couple of things to remember:

Be sure to post tweets at least once a day and engage with others on the network by retweeting things they say that are of interest to you.

Do not make all of your tweets spammy, keep a good average of 1 advertising post every 5 to 10 tweets you make.

 

What are your thoughts or experiences with Twitter? I would love to hear from you.

Have a great day

Thanks for reading

Pauline