How to use Google Reader to share and promote content on Twitter

Last week I wrote a post here on sharing and promoting content on Twitter, and included seven tips on doing this.  But several of you have asked for a better explanation of the 6th step:

Wrap as much amazing shared content around YOUR content as possible.  Want to share your newest blog post on Twitter?  Fine, but it will get more exposure and traffic if you also share 10 posts from other writers that same day.  I’ve tested this as well, whenever I share other people’s content and mix MY post in with their posts, I get far more traffic.

The main way I do this, is with Google Reader.  Here’s how:

First, I go through all the sites and blogs I am subscribed to.  I am looking for interesting posts and articles that I think will be helpful to my network.  As I find them, I use HootSuite to schedule a tweet out with a link to the post/article.  I schedule the tweets so they start at 8am the following day, and then every 15 mins after that.  What I’m wanting to do is schedule tweets with links to other posts/articles from at least 8am through 9:45am.  Then at 10:00am I tweet a link out to my post for the day.  I’m writing this post late on Tuesday night, and the pic to the right shows the tweets that I have scheduled to run Weds morning.

Now the great thing about Google Reader is that it makes it dead simple to keep up with the feeds you are subscribed to.  And you will probably find a ton of great content simply by keeping up with the feeds you are subscribed to.  But here’s a tip for finding the true gems in Google Reader: The shared items from the people you follow.

Think of this as all the people you follow going through their feeds and digging out the best stuff they find, and sharing it with you.  It’s not only a wonderful discovery tool, but can help you find new sites and blogs to subscribe to.  Below is a screenshot of ChelPixie’s shared items:

Why this approach works for me:

1 – It helps me find great content to share with my network on Twitter.  This increases the size of my network, and their connection to me.

2 – It draws more attention to MY content when I share it.  That’s why I share several links to valuable posts from OTHER people first, then a link to MY post.  As I am sharing more great content every 15 mins, more people are RTing my tweets, and paying attention to tweets I am leaving.

3 – It gives me ideas for content *I* can create.  By seeing which topics are popular with other bloggers, and are being shared, it gives me an idea of which topics are resonating with others.

4 – It saves time.  How many times have you heard that you need to tweet out X number of times a day?  By following this schedule, I can hit that number by 10am every morning.  By keeping up to date on my feeds via Google Reader, that gives me more ideas for posts, which saves time on my blogging.

5 – It makes other people more likely to promote MY content.  When you promote other people’s content, a funny thing happens; They are more likely to promote YOUR content.  Now a very important distinction needs to be made here, you need to share content with your Twitter network because YOU think it has value.  You should never share content because you want someone to promote your content.  That simply undermines all of the above.

6 – It gives me a way to promote people that have helped me.  Certain people are amazing about helping me both personally and professionally.  These people are MY A-Listers, and I try to promote as much of their content as possible.

So that’s how I use Google Reader to find more content to share and promote on Twitter.  What works for you?