Tweeting For Clicks

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Adam in Website Traffic

Like any other business or marketing tool, Twitter works well only when it’s used properly. But what does that mean? If you’re using it to drive traffic to your site, it means using some simple, specific techniques to improve Twitter’s effectiveness. Overall, the key is to stand out from the crowd. The problem is, Twitter’s greatest attraction can be its greatest flaw – it’s free. So it is flooded with millions upon millions of people, all screaming, “Look at me! Look at me!” With just a couple of simple guidelines though, you can stand out from the crowd. With patience and the right approach, people will not just follow your tweets, but click through when you post a link – and better yet, re-tweet it.

Offer value

Take a look at the screen shots of two Twitter timelines below. Both post links in pretty much every update, but with very different results. The user on the left probably wonders why his/her Twitter marketing efforts aren’t paying off, while on the right, Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki), with over 200,000 followers, gets thousands of click-throughs every day. The big difference is that the person on the left posts links that are entirely self-serving. In other words, however cleverly disguised, there is little doubt that when you click on one of those links, he/she is getting something out of it. On the other hand, Guy posts links to useful information. Yes, the information lies primarily on his site, so he benefits from your clicks, but he’s not trying to sell you something at every turn. He has set the expectation of his followers that he’s a resource, not a snake oil salesman.

The lesson to learn is that when you have a reputation for helping, people will respond favorably to what you have to offer. That of course is true everywhere, not just Twitter, but with all the scammers and spammers on Twitter, it’s especially applicable. We don’t recommend posting a link every time you post, and when you do, link to a helpful article, funny video, or cool new site more often than you post to what you sell. That way when you do direct followers to your own site, people will gladly click away!

Mix it up

Social Media is all about building relationships. It is a great opportunity for your prospects, readers, and customers to get to know you better. Even online, people do business with people, and even more so with people they like. So regardless of your industry, don’t make your Twitter feed all about business. A combination of personal posts about yourself, posts about your business, informational or general-interest posts, and re-tweets keeps your feed interesting and therefore worth following. Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) with FruitZoom, Inc., a Florida-based marketing and Social Media consulting firm, does a great job of this. Her last 24 hours of posts, as of the time of this writing, included a link to a poll she created using PollDaddy, a few re-tweets, some @-replies, a link to a useful Social Media guide (on a site other than hers), a link to a blog post on her company’s site, and a post that she accidentally left her Blackberry at home today. Her 15,000+ followers know Pam’s feed is going to offer a variety of usefulness, entertainment, and personalization. So when she posts that link to her own site, her followers gladly click through.

Using Twitter effectively is part art and part science, and it takes time and patience to perfect it, but if your aim is to drive traffic to your site, we hope these tips will help. If you’ve got other advice, join in the conversation by leaving a comment below. We’d love to hear what’s worked well for you!

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16 Responses to “Tweeting For Clicks”

Hot Blog Tips

24. Feb, 2010

While I agree that Guy know how to market on Twitter, the comparison you show are two completely different type of twitter users.

One thing I thought was missing from Guy’s timeline was conversation, there are no @replies and no re-tweets….. just sayin’.

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Columbia Mo Mortgage

24. Feb, 2010

HBT makes a valid point. How seriously can we take this guy if he doesn’t have even a single retweet?

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Credit girl

24. Feb, 2010

Twitter is a great social media marketing tool. Good points here.

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Eric

24. Feb, 2010

Be relevant. Don’t tweet for tweeting’s sake. The signal-to-noise ratio in Twitter is frighteningly low.

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Andrew@BloggingGuide

25. Feb, 2010

I agree with what you said. I am active in twitter especially in retweeting and basing on experience, it is really good to tweet about something that people can benefit from and not you hoping to benefit from it. As they say, the more you give, the more you receive. So I actually tweet more about posts from other bloggers and other things and rarely do I post my own article. Great insight here!

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NEENZ

25. Feb, 2010

I agree, engagement on Twitter or any social networking site is important, however
just because you don’t see Guy Kawasaki retweet and/or reply, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Nearly three years ago, we engaged via Twitter, and today I continue to work with him as the Chief Evangelist of Alltop.

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Casie

25. Feb, 2010

The Guy Kawasaki example probably isn’t the best in terms of building relationships but it is a good example of providing valuable information that isn’t always self-serving.

There is a fine line between promoting yourself and providing good information and it is a line businesses need to figure out to be successful on Twitter. When we initially started our Twitter account there were a few remarks that it was too self-focused. So now, we try to give more information that is important to our customers/target market than information about the company.

The key to any social network, and the point of the article is that you have to give to get…and as others pointed out, you need to be responsive and interact with your followers.

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Cash Genie

25. Feb, 2010

I agree and people these days have become lot more active in Twitter because of above reasons mentioned. Most of people find it really hard to make their tweets really interesting and they end up following many people, with very less number of followers.

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used tires

26. Feb, 2010

I think perhaps Twitter should charge a fee in order to have followers. Following someone should be free but to enable following you need a fee. That should make the whole thing a bit more meaningful and in some cases legitimate.

Till then,

Jean

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Ballet Moves

08. Mar, 2010

It’s a tough thing to get my head around as a beginner in the marketing field, but every little bit of advice and guidance helps.

Ignoring Twitter now, is probably like ignoring the internet 10 years ago: follow the people, people :).

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real estate in australia

09. Mar, 2010

Believe it or not, there are quite a few people who don’t have or want the iPhone. So none of those “apps” really mean anything to that set of consumers. There are people that post tweets every 5 minutes of their day. This device lets them tweet anywhere w/o a mobile phone or the expensive data plan.

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Email Delivery

10. Mar, 2010

@ Ballet

Yeah that right ignoring twitter today will be one your greatest regrets in the field of internet marketing. Twitter can make a change in your business and that’s for sure.

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tattoo kits

28. Mar, 2010

Instead of looking at how many followers I have I just focus on providing useful tweets for my niche – I figure by doing this the followers will come in time. My list is growing at a steady, slow rate and I am happy with that.

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Brandon Connell

16. May, 2010

One thing I have been neglecting is Twitter. I used to use it actively for actual tweets. I find myself not using it for more than wp-to-twitter these days, and most of my recent tweets are blog updates. I got to put it on my action item list.

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my online income system

12. Sep, 2010

You have hit it on the nail. This is what I tell my clients as well. Do not promote. Send one promotional tweets for every 50 or more non promotional tweets. What this does is improves credibility.

Also, the messages have to be super focused.

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Tej Kohli

13. Sep, 2010

I am doing the same thing again and again , its gives traffic but average time and conversion time is low

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Tweeting For Clicks

16 Responses to “Tweeting For Clicks”

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