MackCollier.com

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Why do we apologize for wanting to make money?

There seems to be an unwritten rule in social media: “You don’t attempt to make money off the content you create via social media.”

I’m not sure who created this rule, but every time a content creator attempts to monetize their efforts, there is almost always a level of backlash.  Chris Brogan is probably the poster-boy for attempting to monetize his content, and today he announced that he was accepting ads on his blog.  That’s not what got my attention, what struck me was the almost apologetic tone of his post.  A few of Chris’ readers picked up on this tone as well, and commented on it.

I’ve never completely understood why this is an issue for some people.  To me, this is a win-win.  If the content creator can earn some money from the content they create, then they can afford to spend more time creating that content.  If I enjoy the content that the person is creating, then obviously, that’s a big WIN for me.

Still, some people are going to be upset by this.  When I announced back in October that I was going to start taking sponsorships for up to 1 #Blogchat a month, I had a few regular participants say they were leaving and never coming back.  I assured them that the #Blogchat experience would be almost exactly the same, that I would only accept sponsors that would make #Blogchat better, and that I was taking the sponsors so that I could afford to spend more time on expanding the offerings of #Blogchat so everyone benefited.  Still, people left, and that’s their choice.

Let’s clear the air right now: No one is going to get rich monetizing their social media content.

Seriously, every time Blogger X attempts to monetize their efforts, there are wild rumors about how this blogger is suddenly making ‘big money’.  Yes, everyone hears the same rumors, and they are so detached from reality in most cases that it’s laughable.  In fact, that’s one of the only things I dislike about this space, the wild rumors, and most of them are associated with what people make.

But the unfortunate side affect of all this backlash and rumor-mongering is that we are sending the message to ‘new’ bloggers that attempting to monetize their content is a distasteful act.  It isn’t.  In fact, that’s how we all learn to improve our own efforts, by studying what is working for others.  Have you noticed what Jason Falls is doing with Exploring Social Media?  I love that, and it’s giving me a ton of ideas for expanding the educational element of #Blogchat, and possibly extending the live experience into a classroom setting.

What do you think about bloggers monetizing their content?

Does this bother you?  If one of your favorite bloggers announced that they were taking ads or sponsors on their blog, would that be enough to make you stop reading that blog?  If you monetize your blog content, what have been your results?  Have your readers voiced their displeasure over this?

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How I increased traffic to my blog by 145% in three months

Over the past 3 months, I’ve made a concerted effort to post more often here.  During #Blogchat on Sunday night, a few people were asking me about my experiences, and I promised to do a recap post here, detailing what I have learned. First, as you might expect, traffic is up sharply.  Here’s how traffic here has done over the past 6 months. As you can see, a huge spike in traffic starting in January when I started posting more.  In fact, I found that the percentage increase in traffic almost exactly mirrored the percentage increase in number of posts.

From October through December, I averaged 8 posts a month.

From January through this month, I have averaged 21 posts a month.  That’s a 163% increase.

From October through December, my average traffic was 6,363 visitors a month.

From January through this month, I have averaged 15,570 visitors a month.  That’s a 145% increase.

Feed subscribers increased as well, here’s how my number of subscribers tracked over the past 6 months:

October 1st – 1,970

November 1st – 2,074

December 7th – 2,218

January 1st – 2,242

February 1st – 2,577

March 1st – 2,768

Today – 2,991

There you see the same thing, feed subscribers were growing at about 100 a month before I started posting more, since then, it’s up to 200-300 a month. So obviously, posting more often here has greatly increased my traffic, feed subscribers, and visibility.  I really noticed this a couple of weeks ago when I was in Austin for SXSW.  In my prior two visits to SXSW, a few people were kind enough to stop me and tell me they enjoyed my writings.  What I noticed this time was that far more people were mentioning they enjoyed my writing, but they were also referencing individual posts I had written. Additionally, over the past three months I’ve seen an increase in work and speaking requests as well, so it’s obvious that by simply creating more content (that hopefully hasn’t fallen in quality), that I am getting on more people’s radars.

Now, the big question for you is, should you try to post more often?  The big problem that many of you have (as referenced again by feedback from the last #Blogchat), is that most of you don’t have time to post more.  Personally, my biggest problem was finding ideas to post about. What I did up till January was shoot for 1-2 posts a week here.  So basically, my method for finding ideas was to basically wait for inspiration to strike, and hope that it hit at least once over the course of a week.

But when I made the commitment to post 4-5 times a week, it meant I had to start looking for new post ideas EVERY day.  That changed how I looked at my interactions and the other blogs I was reading, and I realized I was leaving a LOT of post ideas on the table.  In fact, at least one post I write here a week now comes directly from a conversation I have either participated in or observed on Twitter.

So what about the time issue?  The other big surprise to me has been that my time spent writing each post has been slashed.  Before, I would spend a couple of hours writing each post.  Now, I spend 30-45 mins.  The end result is that my output of posts has increased by 163%, but my overall writing time is the same as before, or slightly lower!

So if you want to try this experiment, here’s what I would suggest. Take the number of posts you are writing now every week.  If it’s 1 a week, triple that to 3.  If it’s 2 posts a week, double that to 4.  If you are writing 3 posts a week, increase that to 5. Then whatever your new number is, commit to writing that number of posts next week on your blog.

This will FORCE you to do two very important things:

1 – Come up with more ideas for posts

2 – Write faster

Try that experiment for one week, and see what your results are.  Then at the end of the week, you can decide if you want to commit to doing it for another week.  And you really won’t begin to see big changes in your traffic, subscribers, etc, until you’ve stuck with it for at least a couple of weeks.  So the longer you can stick with this method, the better results you’ll see. And also, pay close attention to the quality of your posts.  You don’t want to increase your posting output if it means that your overall quality of posts falls.  As I’ve already said, I found that ideas for posts were easier for me to come by, so I don’t think my post quality has fallen too much, in fact I’ve had many people tell me it’s higher now than it was last year.

So give this a spin, and see what you think!  If you have any questions about what has worked for me, or how it do this yourself, please leave a comment or email me.

UPDATE: The key takeaway for me from this experiment hasn’t been the increase in traffic and other metrics, I expected that.  What’s surprised me is that the content creation process has become much easier.  This totally blindsided me, and this is why I think you should consider trying this as well, to see if you have similar results.

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Two WordPress plugins to help convert new visitors into readers

According to Google Analytics, at least 25% of the traffic here is coming from Twitter and Facebook.  Which is great, but the problem is that a lot of these visitors are here for the 1st time, and often they will only be here long enough to read the latest post, maybe leave a comment, and then they are gone.  And they likely won’t be back unless someone in their network links to another of my posts.  We are beginning to use our networks as our newstand, we quickly check out shared links, but bounce to the next one just as quickly.

So I started thinking, if there was a way to convert just 10% of those new visitors that were coming from Twitter and Facebook every day, that could make a HUGE impact on this blog’s readership!  To help me do this, I’ve added two plugins that I wanted to share with you, to see if you can benefit from them as well.

1 – Comment Redirect.  I can tell that this plugin has been a BIG hit with yall, as I get a few emails every week on how much readers love this.  What comment redirect does is redirect FIRST time commenters to a page of your choice, after they leave their comment.  On that page you can put whatever information you want.  Since I am hoping to get first time commenters to become regular readers, my page thanks them for commenting, and then gives them a way to subscribe to this blog’s feed, and follow me on Twitter.  Also, I have an area where they can learn about my services.  Here’s where you can learn more about this plugin, or from your WordPress dashboard, go to plugins, and then search for it.  Thanks to Amy for introducing this one to me.  If you’ve never commented here before, you can leave one to see what my page looks like 😉

2 – WP Greet Box – I discovered this one on C.C.’s blog.  What WP Greet Box does is target new visitors based on where they came from, and offers you the ability to give them a custom welcome message!  For example, if you come here for the 1st time from Twitter, the plugin should notice that and offer a small message box above the post and welcome you.  For Twitter, you are giving a window box that gives you the options to tweet the post to Twitter, and follow me on Twitter.  You can learn more about the plugin here.  Below is a snapshot of what the box would look like for a new visitor from Twitter to my last post on introverts and social media.

To be honest, I’ve just started using this plugin and I’m not 100% sold on it.  It’s a good idea, but it’s also slightly intrusive at the top of the post.  I think a similar message at the end of the post might be a better idea.  I will track my number of readers/followers for a couple of weeks and see if there are noticeable changes.

But notice that for both these plugins, the idea is to focus on the type of behavior that I want to encourage.  I want more comments, so the Comment Redirect plugin is there to make sure that first time commenters know that I appreciate them and how they are helping to make the content here more interesting.  With the WP Greet Box, I want first time visitors to stay in touch with me, so I give them custom ways to do this, based on the site they came from.

What about you?  What plugins are you using to help convert first time visitors into readers?  What other options are there, or do you know of something similar to WP Greet Box?  I would like to see what else is available.  But I think the point is that it just makes sense to make it as easy as possible for new visitors to subscribe to your content, and to keep up with the new content you are creating.

 

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Why introverts love Social Media

“Hello, my name is Mack, and I am an introvert.”

If you are an introvert that’s active in social media, do people that you meet find it difficult to believe that you are introverted?  I get this often, so much so that I have on my Facebook page that I am “Online extrovert, offline introvert.  It’s complicated.”

But for me, it’s much easier to be outgoing online, than it is offline.  I think that’s why I love social media so much.

For example, one of the things that I hate is being in a room full of people where I don’t know anyone.  I find it extremely difficult to introduce myself to anyone and talk to them, because I assume they don’t know me and don’t want to know me.  It’s a terribly awkward situation for me, and if you’re an introvert you can probably relate.

But if I am in a group of people I don’t know on Twitter, I have little problem striking up a conversation with them.  The anxiety over having to in-person introduce myself is all but removed, and as a result, it’s much easier for me to engage with people.

Here’s another example of an awkward offline situation.  What if you have just met someone and are talking to them.  What do you do when you reach that point where the conversation has died, and you need to politely break it off?  I hate that!  But again, if I’m online, then I can leave and no one really knows.  So again, that awkward feeling is removed.

This is why I think it’s so easy for introverts to be extroverted online.  I was talking to Liz Strauss and Kellye Crane about this at SXSW, and we all felt the same way.  But the problem this creates for me is that since I *am* extroverted online, people that I meet offline expect me to be extroverted.  And I’m almost always more reserved (even at SXSW), so I can give some people the wrong impression that I am ‘stuck up’, or not interested in talking to them.  I’ve really tried to work on that, but it’s an issue.

What do the rest of you introverts say?  Do you find it easier to communicate with people online versus offline?  And if so, how do you handle meeting people offline?  Do you think there’s a noticeable disconnect between how you act online, vs offline?

BONUS: My friend Lisa has a series of posts on introverts and leadership and business.  Great reading!

 

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New research proves that RESPONDING to negative feedback online benefits companies

One of the biggest misconceptions companies have about online and social media is that any and all negative reviews and comments should be completely ignored.  The idea seems to be that if companies ignore the negative response from customers, that it ‘goes away’.

A new Harris survey concludes that the opposite is true, if companies address negative reviews and feedback head-on, the customer often deletes the negative review AND sometimes even posts a positive one!

The Harris survey tracked customers that posted negative feedback or reviews during the Holiday shopping season on either sites that support adding customer reviews, or on social networking sites.  The survey found that 68% of customers that left these negative reviews got a response, and 18% of these people became loyal customers as a result, and made additional purchases from the company.

Now for the biggie:  Of the customers that received a response from a company after posting negative feedback about their shopping experience, 33% turned around and posted a positive review, and 34% deleted the original negative review.

These findings also support the notion that negative comments and reviews about your company can be a good thing, and something that can help your business.

The key point that companies need to understand is that the negative comment/review isn’t the most important thing, how your company responds to that negative review/comment is far more important.  And the above survey results supports this notion.

If you want to know how to handle criticism of your company online, here’s what you should do:

1 – Respond as quickly as possible.  Often, one negative comment that doesn’t get a response will lead to additional negative comments.  And 3 negative comments with no response from the company can quickly balloon into 10.  But if the company jumps in and responds quickly, that greatly reduces the chance of additional negative comments.

2 – Be thankful, polite, and respectful of your customers EVEN IF you think they are DEAD WRONG.  Common courtesy goes a LONG way here.  You have to understand that the customer believes they are RIGHT and YOU are wrong.  So if you get defensive in your response and start lashing back, you are going to make the situation quickly turn ugly.  Be polite, respectful and LISTEN to what your customers are saying.  It might help you actually….gasp…..understand why they are upset.

3 – If your customers have inaccurate information, feel free to correct them.  This often happens, and again, another way to minimize this happening is to respond quickly, before assumptions based on inaccurate information can spread.

4 – Tell the customers how you are going to address their complaints, and what the next steps are.  Let them understand that you take their complaints seriously, and that there is a plan in place to handle their complaints.

5 – Give customers a way to stay in touch with you, and invite further feedback.

One thing you have to remember is that many customers are WATCHING the interactions that you and other customers are having.  If they see that you are coming off like a pompous jackass, then that increases the chance that they will post negative criticism about your company.  And the flipside is true, if your company handles negative criticism in stride, and works to offer the customer a positive solution, that reflects well on the company, and improves the chances that customers watching these interactions will have a positive reaction.

So the bottom line is that companies that respond to negative feedback online, and do so quickly and appropriately, see huge benefits.  If you think your company needs help or training in handling negative comments or reviews online, please email me.  Or if you have a particular instance that you’d like to discuss, please leave a comment so we can help you, or feel free to email me if you want to discuss it in private.

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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?

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The one blog post that got me over $22,000 in consulting business

I wanted to tell you about two blog posts I have written that both got very different results for me.  The first was a rant, and it was an engagement bonanza.  It currently has over 70 comments, got around 600 ReTweets, and on the day it was published, traffic to the blog was over 900% above normal.

The second post had far less fanfare.  It only had a handful of retweets, and even fewer comments.  Traffic barely moved on the blog the day it was published.

And yet that second post was the one that has so far led to over $22,000 in consulting projects for me.  The 1st post was ranty, and it was designed to get a discussion started.  And boy did it ever!  But it wasn’t written for potential clients.  It was great for engagement, but not for creating new business.  At the time I didn’t realize it, but when I was writing it I wanted engagement, but I didn’t think about whether or not that engagement would be with potential clients.

The second post came about far more innocently.  I was tinkering with Feedburner one night, and I discovered a feature that helped me better understand my blog’s traffic.  I decided to write up a post that contained this and a few other tips for helping bloggers better understand their traffic and subscribers, by using Feedburner.

The post was later found by an agency owner that was using Google to do research for a project, and she contacted me about joining them on a project, which I did.  I later worked with them on a second project, and I was also referred by that client to another client, and continue to work with both of them.  So that one post that was aimed at helping potential clients, got me real business, while the 1st ‘ranty’ post got a lot of people excited and a great discussion on my blog, it wasn’t aimed at potential clients, and so far hasn’t gotten me a penny in business.

I point these two examples out to encourage you to think carefully about who you are writing for.  It’s wonderful to get engagement and I always love and appreciate comments and RTs from readers.  But at the end of the day, you have to understand who it is you need to connect with.  I could write a ‘ranty’ post here every day, and possibly get more comments and traffic than I do now.

But would it get me any more business?  Probably not, because the clients that I want to connect with want to read posts that will help them better use social media and grow their businesses, not rants.

And to be fair, there’s nothing wrong with writing a ranty post every once in a while.  I’ve done it here before, and no doubt will again in the future.  But what I’ve learned is that engagement is great, as long as you are engaging with and writing for the ‘right’ people.

Who are you writing for?

 

UPDATE: Here’s a link to the ‘ranty’ post I wrote, and here’s a link to the Feedburner post.  Thanks to Kami for suggesting I add these.

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Rethinking how companies connect with influencers

One of the highlights of SXSW for me was getting to catch up with my friend Tom Martin.  Tom was also kind enough to interview me for his Talking With Tom series.  If you haven’t heard about this, Tom started going around the country interviewing marketers. thought leaders and influencers in the social media space with just his iPhone, and he posts the interviews on his Talking With Tom site.  A new interview each week.

A few weeks ago Tom was at an event recording interviews, when he talked to Emma and they decided to start sponsoring the site.  For Emma, it’s a great move, as they get to have their name associated with some of the biggest names in social media, for the entire year.  And for Tom it works as well, as Emma’s sponsorship money not only covers his travel to collect the remainder of the interviews, but he also gets compensated for his time as well.  A true win-win for the content creator, and the sponsor.

But here’s what really got my attention: Tom got sponsorship dollars for something that he was going to do anyway.  And instead of being obtrusive, the sponsorship from Emma helps facilitate the content creation.  This is very similar to one of the main reasons why I was in SXSW to begin with, because of the 1st ever Live #Blogchat.  1680PR and Dell stepped up to sponsor the event, but the event was something that SXSW attendees have been wanting to see.  Every time I have attended SXSW, one of the biggest complaints from attendees has been a lack of venues/events where we could all gather and have an actual conversation.  It’s ironic that SXSW brings together so many brilliant people each March, but there are so few events created for the express purpose of letting these smart people connect with each other and have wonderful conversations.  That’s exactly why I wanted to bring a Live #Blogchat to SXSW.  As with Emma’s sponsorship of Talking With Tom, 1680PR and Dell sponsored an event that was going to happen anyway, and facilitated the event, and made it better (In fact if you are considering sponsorship of your event or content creation efforts, absolutely contact 1680PR and Dell to see if there’s a match.  Both were fabulous to work with).

I think this also is a new and interesting spin on the idea of targeting influencers.  Many companies are using services such as Klout to identify influencers and offer them products and services in the hope that these influencers will then promote the brand to the people that they have influence over.  At best, this isn’t the most effective model.

But what if the influencer is also a content creator?  Then one way that influencer could monetize the content they create is by accepting sponsorship dollars.  The important distinction here is that the influencer becomes the gatekeeper and dictates which sponsors have access to his/her network, and on what terms.  I talked about this a bit in the interview Tom had with me, but in this model, the influencer can be selective in which companies they accept as sponsors and make sure that the sponsorship creates value for the network.  For example by accepting the Emma sponsorship, Tom now has the funds to attend more and better events, which means he can create better content for his network, and more of it.

In the end, the content creator, the sponsor, and Tom’s network that accesses the content all benefit.  I think this is a far better model than giving away toys to influencers in the hopes that they will pimp the toys to the network that they supposedly have influence over.  What do you think?  Is this sponsorship model something that you as a content creator could benefit from?  I think the key lies in making sure that the people you are creating the content for, benefit.  Normally there’s a clear benefit to the content creator, then the sponsor, but the ‘audience’ often gets the short end of the stick.  I applaud Tom for finding a win-win-win, and I would like to think that the Live #Blogchats work for everyone as well.

What do you think, would you rather companies target influencers directly, or have the influencers work with companies to the benefit of the people they have influence over?

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So what the hell is Twitter anyway?

So how do you explain what Twitter is to someone that’s never used it before?  It’s not easy, is it?  When I try to explain what Twitter is to friends and others, I try to talk about different ways that you can use the site.  Here’s some examples:

Twitter as a networking tool.

One of the things that first attracted me to Twitter was that I suddenly had access to such a wide array of influencers, authors, CEOs and celebrities that I otherwise had little chance of talking to.  But with Twitter, all you have to do is jump on the site and you can message them directly.  Now there’s no guarantee the people you try to connect with will answer you, but some will, and who knows, a few may actually….gasp….FOLLOW you!

Also, if you attend offlink networking events or meetups, you can easily collect the Twitter names of the people you connect with, and stay in touch on Twitter.  For me, the ability to use Twitter as a networking platform is the biggest benefit I get from using the site.

Twitter as a news feed.

As Twitter has grown in popularity over the past couple of years, mainstream media sources have flocked to the site.  Almost every major news source on the planet has a Twitter account.  This means that every one of your favorite blogs and news sites (and the ones of all your friends) likely all have Twitter account where they are posting links to their newest posts and articles.  You can follow your favorite sources, and then have all of your favorite news delivered right to you via Twitter!  And Twitter has become a fabulous source for breaking news, usually information is exchanged among Twitter’s users around breaking news events before it is reported by mainstream media.  So if you want to stay informed and abreast of all the latest news, there’s no better way to do this than via Twitter.

Twitter as your personal search engine.

This is an advantage you’ll begin to notice after you have begun to build a network on Twitter.  For example, let’s say you are taking a date to see the new action flick that’s debuting tonite in theaters.  But when you arrive at the theater, you discover that it’s sold out!  So now you have to pick from among 3 other movies that you know nothing about.  So ask Twitter!  You can tweet out a recommendation to your Twitter followers and (based on the size and responsiveness of your network) get several answers in a few minutes, if not a few seconds!

For example, a couple of years ago I was arriving in Texas to speak at an event.  All I knew about my hotel was that it was at ‘the Sheraton downtown’.  Now I thought there was only one Sheraton downtown, so when I got on the shuttle, the driver announced that there were TWO Sheratons downtown!  Uh-oh!  So I quickly tweeted out my Twitter followers that were attending the same event asking them which Sheraton the event was being held at.  Within a minute I had several people tweet me which Sheraton it was.  Awesome!  But then someone DMed me the name and address of the Sheraton PLUS their phone number!  If I had tried to use my phone to get on Google and find this exact same information, there’s no way I could have done it as quickly.

Twitter as a crowd-sourcing platform.

Twitter is a great way to get several answers to a question or opinions on a topic.  In fact, a great use of Twitter as a crowd-sourcing platform is to ask your network what you should write about on your blog.  Or if you know what you want to write about, use your network to give you ideas and help you flesh out the post.  From a company standpoint, it’s a wonderful way to get feedback as well.

Twitter as a chat room.

When you think about it, Twitter really is very similar to a chat room.  It’s just that the functionality is a bit different, not everyone can see what everyone else is saying, but everyone that’s following you can see your tweets.  So add in a few more controls and you have functionality that’s similar to a chat room.  And as such, that means you can use Twitter as a conversation platform, very similar to the way you use chat rooms!

 

So there’s some ideas on ways to incorporate the different ways you can use Twitter, to explain to others exactly what the site is.  How do you explain what Twitter is to others?

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A no-nonsense guide to sharing and promoting content on Twitter

I’m coming up on my 4th anniversary of being on Twitter.  The way I have used Twitter has changed at least a dozen times, and I am constantly experimenting with how to use the site to best meet my goals.  Here’s some tips I have learned for how I share and promote content on Twitter:

1 – Think about who you are trying to connect with.  Once you figure out who you are trying to reach, then you’ll have a much better idea of what type of content they need.  And if you can share valuable content with these people, that will improve the chances of them following you, and then promoting you to their networks.

2 – Promote ‘helpful’ content as much as possible. Share content that educates, that solves problems.  A lot of my content is based around 101 and 102 level social media how-tos and instructional articles and posts.  Because ultimately, I want to reach companies that need help with using social media to connect with their customers.  So sharing helpful content helps me connect with these people, and it increases the chance that someone will mention me if they are in contact with a company that does need help.

3 – Sharing other people’s content increases interest in your own.  I actually tracked this and saw the results on this site.  When I share more content from other people, it drives traffic back here.  Why?  Because sharing useful content introduces me to new people, who want to check out who I am, and my site.

4 – Promote the hell out of smart people.  Seriously, when you find someone that’s smart, you cannot promote their content enough.  This is why I promote almost every post that Beth, Lisa or Shannon writes.  I know that they always create valuable and helpful content that will be appreciated by my network.  That is always my main goal, give my network valuable content.

5 – Don’t share content to get on someone’s radar, share content because it’s amazing.  In many ways, you are known by the content you share.  So go for amazing content, it matters not who created it.

6 – 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.

7 – YOU have to make your own list.  This is my list.  Make your own.  And you can use this list as your starting point, but you have to tweak and tinker and experiment to find a system that works for YOU.  This works for me, it might work well for you as well, or maybe you need to make wholesale changes.

Speaking of which, what is your best tip for sharing content on Twitter?