WHY WHY WHY Are Some of You STILL Not on TWITTER?

[Top9Blogs]

I have to say I'm shocked at the number of blogs I come across that still have no Twitter "Follow Me" button. Yes, I know you have a "Follow Me on Google" button. You still need the Twitter one.

It is the hands down EASIEST traffic you'll ever get for your blog. I have blogs that get 500 uniques a day just from Twitter. It takes about 10 minutes to set up and you never have to touch it again.

All you need to do is use any of the 20 or so Twitter-integration Wordpress plugins, or alternatively (for the Wordpress-challenged who have sold their souls to the Google-Blogger Devil) tweet your blog feed automatically for every new post using any of the dozen or so services that will do this.

But Twitter just seems so dumb, you say? I thought so too, and still do a bit. But once you set up the above, you never have to actually go tweet or read tweets if you don't want to...although I suggest you do. Why?

Truth. Blogs and Twitter are a match made in heaven. Here's why...think about your goals for your blog. For many that's one of two things: authority blogging who offer advice about a topic; or more personal and fun. It may also be some combination of the two.

For authority bloggers, you need to deepen the relationship with readers so they'll recognize your expertise and take your advice. Twitter let's you deepen the relationship by allowing you to communicate in another medium, and in semi-realtime. You don't have to do it often, just once in awhile and it will make a big difference.

For the "fun" bloggers you're giving a more personal experience and readers will respond to feeling like they're getting to know you. Twitter aids this, again, by offering another form of communication in a more dynamic environment than blog comments.

Opening a Twitter account takes like 2 minutes. Following a bunch of people in your niche takes maybe 5 minutes a day, until it starts growing on its own. That's it.

And it WILL drive traffic. Twitter ranks high on Google so make your profile and tweets SEO friendly. And hashtags make it easily searchable so your tweets are easy to find.

I could go on and on, but just do yourself a favor and get yourself on Twitter.

[Melody]

I love twitter. I've been twittering long before I was blogging and it's an important part of developing readers.

But twitter is not a place to push links. It's a place to develop relationships. It's called "social" media for a reason.

However your claim of 500 uniques a day from twitter leaves me scratching my head. Your blog doesn't appear to have original content - In fact on the fitness home page of your "blog" you've even linked to the lululemon.com athletica blog - I know the person at lululemon responsible for producing that blog.

Top 9 Fitness Blogs | Top Blogs List

Unless you're talking about something other than Top9 blogs? Top9 blogs appears to have no PR, few comments, and no visible clue of 500 uniques per day.

[Top9Blogs]

Top 9 Blogs is not a blog. It's more of a blog aggregator and blog awards platform (congrats to your friend for the Top9 ranking), although I intend to make it more of a blogging resource like this one. I wasn't referring to Top9Blogs (it only gets about 500/day in total right now), although I do use Twitter as an integral part of that site's traffic generation and to communicate with visitors...as you said to build relationships.

I operate a number of other blogs, some original content by myself or other authors, some not. And actually a number of them probably generate 500 uniques a day from Twitter.

You're right. If all you do is constantly push links at people, you'll get some clicks but they'll mostly be one-time visitors. If you use it to communicate and build relationships with your readers, they'll stick.

The thing about "pushing links" is that it's not really a bad thing unless you overdo it and you just push useless links. Push good content in moderation then use Twitter to discuss it with your readers and you'll bring people in.

[Melody]

If you want to know if someone is gaining influence in twitter, just go to The Standard for Online and Internet Influence | Klout and type in their name - That's a great way to gauge who is really using twitter effectively - Creating a following that is listening, re-tweeting links, and engaging - That's the kind of audience that will "stick" as your reader. klout.com has got many things right on.

[Mel]

I'm pretty sure the OP didn't mean pushing links in that sense as in spamming twitter.

Good post, I got the jist of what you were saying.

[Melody]

Originally Posted by Mel

I'm pretty sure the OP didn't mean pushing links in that sense as in spamming twitter.

Good post, I got the jist of what you were saying.

You may be right, but when I went to the OP's twitter profile, I did see something very spammy.

[Top9Blogs]

Originally Posted by Melody

You may be right, but when I went to the OP's twitter profile, I did see something very spammy.

What "something" exactly am I doing that seems spammy to you? I'd really like to know because I do try very hard NOT to be.

There are links back to my site because, well that's mostly what I'm communicating about with my visitors. But that's not like spamming out a bunch of affiliate links or something like that. I don't even shorten them because I WANT people to KNOW what they're clicking. And even all my @replies are very specific people I'm communicating with.

Some actual constructive criticism would be much more helpful than just calling me "spammy".

[lisalondon]

I still need to get my web designer site on Twitter! Opps

[RabidReptile]

WHY WHY WHY am I STILL Not on TWITTER? Well, like you said… I think it's dumb. But you're right, I should get on Twitter.

[sheppy96]

Hmmmm...i dont have twitter because I spend enough time with facebook and msn XD
But now i think i will get it thanks