This is a guest post by Ali from InternetHow Blog
I’ve been using twitter for a while now. When I first started using it, I was wondering what the big fuss about. Because, I wasn’t getting any traffic to my blog. That was the main purpose I started using twitter. But if I don’t get any traffic, what was the point? Then, I realised, I was doing a lot of things wrong.
I was not getting involved
How much do you know your followers? You might have 100s of followers, but how much do you follow their tweet. By just following people or making people follow you on twitter are not enough. The only activity I used to do on twitter was just following people and tweeting my own articles. I never used to involve in conversations and never used to visit their sites.
I was over promoting myself
Twitter is social network not an advertisement network. So, instead of keep posting your own links, try to communicate with your followers. Offer your help. Try to post small informative tweets. Don’t forget if they are interested with your promotions, they would have opt-in for your emails, so don’t keep sending them your links
I was too competitive
I was only tweeting my own blog posts. Never re-tweeted another blog post from other blogs. Never recommended other blogs to my followers. I was bit selfish. I wanted twitter just for myself. Then I changed my attitude. I start retweeting their stuff as well as mine. Trust me it worked out much better.
I was not using 140 characters wisely
I used to make the mistake of posting my entire blog post URL on twitter rather than shortening URL with TinyURL. So, I was left with either limited amount of characters to type rest of my tweet or none. Then, I started shortening my URLs and started using spaces wisely (by writingLikeThis).
I was forgetting why people follow me
I didn’t set up my twitter account for personal reasons. So, I don’t think people will want to know what I ate last night or where I went last weekend. Of course there is no problem with sharing these types of tweets with your followers, but if majority of your tweets include topics that doesn’t relate to why people chose to follow you then they will stop following you.
When you are using Twitter, there are few things you need to keep in mind and keep reminding yourself, every time you type a character; it is a social networking site. It is a site where you network and socialise with like minded people. It is not a site where you are the only person speaks up. It is a site where you should let others to speak as well. It is a site where you share and where you make friends.
About the author…
This has been a guest post by Ali Papila, who is the editor of InternetHow Blog, where he blogs regularly, sharing his thoughts about blogging tips and life. You can also follow him on Twitter @internethow
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A good read..
I think I should again make a habit of visiting this blog.. its coming back in action !
Glad to hear you’re going to keep returning… it’s a pleasure to have you here! And, yeah, I’m trying to post every 1-2 days now, so there’s gonna be loads of fresh content coming up soon!
you are very wise,and your information is excellent…..I’ll be back…..thanks for the good stuff…always looking for that knowledge that will full fill more and more.
Thank you for giving me the oppurtunity become a guest blogger here. I liked the picture to it as well
No problem, Ali! It’s a great article and I’m sure my readers are (and will) find this post really useful. I’ve always been told the best way to learn is through your mistakes, so hopefully this can help others learn!
And, glad you like the picture! If I’m honest, they really aren’t my strong point, so I’m relieved to hear you think it’s OK!
I checked the images on other posts as well and I think they all are realy cool.
Great post. Sadly, many twitter users commit some of these sins (including me. Hopefully this post will help me utilize Twitter to the fullest.
I am sure you will see the benefits in short time period.
Thats a great post buddy, i was doing the same mistakes for a long time but now i am involved with most of my followers and it definitely helps
That is definetly the right way to go buddy. None of the followers, including me, and I am sure you as well, not like to see themselves as an advertisement oppurtunity.
I think the thing to remember is that Twitter is a social network site, not a place to stick your adverts. If you use it for what it’s made for (making and connecting with friends, as well as occasionally sharing your links), you should find that you get some awesome traffic!
Thanks for pointing these. I will like to add one. It is always preferable to keep separate accounts for personal and marketing purposes. There are a lot of Twitter clients which can help you to effectively manage the accounts. This way, you can share your personal updates with your friends
I agree with keeping personal account seperate. But, even if you have an account for your blog or for your business, the best way to deal with the followers is by listening, supporting, and sharing. I don’t mind tweeting an updated product or blog post, just to let them know. But, most of the interaction between you and your followers, shouldn’t involve sending promotions.
Man.. this article inspires me to write a similar one “The 5 Deadly Sins Of Blogging” !
BTW, nice one Ali!
I am glad it helped you. I will make sure to check it out
Sounds like a good post! I wrote a couple of posts a while back that might help…
1) ‘5 Things Bloggers Shouldn’t Think‘
2) ‘4 Things Bloggers Shouldn’t Do‘
As Amar has said, if you do go ahead with that post it’d be nice if you could link back to this one as inspiration! Good luck!
Good one pradeep, go ahead and do that.. and give credit to teenius for the idea
Ha ha.. sure sure..
And Teenius always has great photos.. this one is also rocking.. kudos..
Yeah. if you do use the idea from Teenius, I’d appreciate a link back!
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by webjourney: @teenius http://bit.ly/440snm...
Truly, a great post here. Had a really nice read. I personally make the same mistake as well, I will try to work something out perhaps to improve and perhaps finally able to drive traffic to my site as well.
Thank you for this post dude!
I am sure in time, you will see increase in traffic gradually. Good Luck
It’s actually only in the past few months that I’ve started to “crack” Twitter, and now it’s one of my main traffic referrers. It’s definately well worth using!
That was a good post and happy to get post from Teenius frequently now.
Hi Javs! Yeah, I’ve had to lay on extra posts due to the huge amounts of comments I’m currently receiving. I’ll try to keep up the post-per-day strategy for as long as possible!
Thats a great post buddy, i was doing the same mistakes for a long time. I thinks that now its time to fully use of twitter.
It is never too late to do the right thing. Good Luck
Better late than never. Good luck with the future!
I have recently stepped up my use of twitter as I felt I was missing out on something!
Will see if it brings me anything!!
I am sure it will. Just take your time to analyse your followers and what are they interested with etc…
I had no idea this was a guest post until I read through the comments like “huh?” Haha…Nice one dude!
There’s no reason to completely cut out the personal stuff on twitter. If something hilarious or bizarre happened, go ahead and tweet it. Also, I actually am interested in what people are eating for lunch when I can’t decide myself
Hmm, maybe I should make the author bios more distinguishable in future.
It always amazes me how the most obvious are the most overlooked. Excellent reminder post on what not to do.
Agreed! Thanks again for the awesome guest post, Ali!
You should always keep in your mind that why people follow you. they want information , news, and worthy stuff from your site. so you should look after them.
That is true. That is why it worth to analyse and find out your followers interests. See, what are they interested with and provide them.
Very true. After all, everything you do as a blogger should benefit your readers in some way, and Twitter is no different!
[...] The 5 Deadly Sins Of Twitter @ teenius.com [...]
Acc to Me all Bloggers are sort of twitter spammer they only tweet about there blog post
> One More Thing Try To Follow Back Almost Every Follower on twitter…
Following back is not neccessarily good. Whilst it can often be useful, a lot of the time it just means you get a lot of spammy followers, which is no good really
Thanks for sharing this with us =)
Now I’m thinking twice before posting anything on Twitter and Facebook..
Thanks again!
I don’t think you need to “think twice”, just get in to the habit of posting good stuff
Hey, simon. I like what you did on the side bar. Thank you
No problem, now we just need to wait for the article to get even more exposure!
I really agree with the second point “I over promoting myself”. Good post dude. Keep Rocking