Twitter is a game changer for new blogs. By far, it is the easiest and cheapest way to get readers to your blog.
However, effectively using twitter to get noticed is more art than science. When I started, I made some embarrassing goofs. Such as: re-tweeting my own posts, posting my blog links 10-15 times a day, not re-tweeting other people’s stuff, and other knucklehead moves.
In fact, my results were so bad that I didn’t use Twitter for about 6 months. But this time I decided to “model success”. I made a list of 10 top blogs and started following them. I watched how they used twitter and finally got a clue. 
Once I started using what I learned, I immediately saw an uptick in traffic to my blog. Of course, I had to kick my writing game up a notch, but it was nice to see the twitter traffic coming in.
Today, Twitter is my #1 source of traffic. It’s targeted and my readers are engaged, sassy, and extremely responsive.
Here’s a peek at some lesson’s I learned the hard way:
- Don’t just RT: Tell your followers why you found a link useful. Add a little commentary to help your followers decide if they want to click through. You’ll find that more of your followers will follow your links and spread them if they find value.
- Give (much) More than you Receive: Frankly, I try to make tweeting my own links a rare occasion. It’s difficult but the more I help and promote others the better I do. Chris Brogan’s 12:1 equation – tweeting 12 others for every one of your tweets works for me. Experiment with the ratio to find the right balance for yourself. By the way, this forces you to look at other people’s work and not just your own – that’s a very good thing.
- Keep it Short: I try to keep my tweets below 100 characters to leave ample room for re-tweets. It’s a simple change that has drastically increased sharing of my tweets.
- Respond to Mentions: Mentions are Twitter’s equivalent of comments. Taking the time to answer and reply to mentions are a great way to get your followers engaged and re-tweeting.
- Personally Welcome New Followers: Twitter users are bombarded by spam bots. These bots auto-follow anyone that use certain keywords in their tweets or profiles. This means that most people are wary of mentioning or re-tweeting another person until they confirm they are real. Help them out by sending them a personal follow-up using info that shows you actually read their profile. Here’s mine. This is a nice touch and very effective.
Feel free to modify and tweak these techniques to suit your personality, schedule and goals. Give me a shout in the comments below to let me know how you plan to use these to get your tweets noticed.
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About Stanford
I am a little nervous tweeting 12 people before one of my own tweets, but I’m going to do it! Thank you for all the valuable advice!
Hi Stanford. I must admit I just stumbled upon your blog today and have not stopped reading it for the past…I don’t know (check your analytics!) at least half an hour! I was incredibly impressed with your content as I am a new blogger, and always looking for ways to improve what I do. I read your bio and noticed you live in America’s high five too. I am from Ypsilanti and work in Ann Arbor. I will be coming back to Pushing Social again and again because there is a lot of great content here i can take advantage of. Keep up the great work!
Awesome! Glad you stopped by.
Love this info. I really hadn’t thought about how frequently I send my own links to my blog. I had never heard the 12:1 rule, but I will be keeping it in mind for sure. Thanks for the info!
hey stanford. came across your site for the first time today. enjoying several of your articles. useful stuff. i’ll be following your twitter in a second..
I especially like the idea of incorporating the 12:1 ratio, introduced by Chris Brogan. Sometimes bloggers, including myself, forget that social media like Twitter is a dialog, not just people shouting about themselves. I’m definitely going to consider the 12:1 ratio when I tweet in the future.
Thank you for the tips. I have been trying to get my new blog out there and nothing seems to be working. I can’t wait to browse around more.
Great blog, and keep it up
Good advice Stanford. What do you think the impact of auto-following back or not is on the size of your following? I currently don’t auto follow back, but I think I’m missing something.
Good tips. I do not use twitter that much. However, I will give this a try now.
This is great advice, Stanford. And I like the whole idea of giving out much more than you receive. I believe that’s a reward in and of itself.
Stanford,
This was really informative – thank you! I found out I’ve doing this “intuitively” on my own. I’m glad I haven’t made any hugely embarrassing mistakes on Twitter. Thanks so much for answering my questions on this.
Hey Stanford,
I think I made twice the mistakes you did (but I’m glad I wasn’t alone in trying to slap a bit in that twitter horse and start riding)
I’m going to work on keeping my tweet messages under 100 characters as it seems the place where I need the most effort.
But I’m glad you shard the 12:1 ratio….I thought I was making a mistake by retweeting many of the links shared by people I follow with others.
However, I’m curious about one thing. How often should you directly engage the people you follow and who follow you?
I love that you retweeted your own posts! [SO CUTE] I am quite active on twitter and much of what you did those first few months would have made me shake my head. I have one thing to add (which might seem obvious, but I keep seeing it..) If you are going to retweet, please don’t stuff your own link in there somewhere. A gift is only a gift if it is given without squeezing your own agenda.
Like Stanford mentioned, every 10th or 12th post it is more than acceptable to toot your own horn!
Nanci
Have you shared why you ceased tweeting for 6 months?
Frankly,
I was upset that no one was looking at my stuff. Since, I didn’t know why, I decided to stop until I figured out what I was doing wrong.
This advice is great. It is so easy to promote yourself and yourself only. I know I am guilty of not reaching the 12:1 ration, although I’ve read about it many times. I also wonder if you think your normal post headline is enough to tweet, or if Twitter requires a different type of headline in order to get read. I’m still not sure on that front. Thanks for the great tips!
I simply tweet out the headline of my post. I’ve found that shorter headlines are easier to retweet. So if I have a longer post headline, I will try to shorten it a bit before tweeting it.
This is a nice summary. I’m trying to figure out Twitter right now, so this will help.
Stan,
I actually recorded a video tutorial yesterday breaking down the way I use twitter. I’m glad you posted this because it would have been 2,000 word post for me. One thing I will say for new followers is that if you haven’t started a conversation with me I don’t know you’re following. My twitter strategy is basically this:
1) track mentions
2) Create an inner circle list: Anytime somebody mentions you, put them in that list. Then engage with them, promote their content, an build a relationship with them. The amount of amazing people I’ve connect with just by following this simple formula has been incredible.
I really like Tip #2. I do something similar and have seen great results. It also helps me engage with new people.
This is great, practical advice, Stanford. Although there are no “rules” for Twitter, there are definitely tactics make Twitter far more effective. These are spot on and have definitely worked for me. This would be a great primer for new Twitter users and bloggers.