I’ve blogged before about how you can use Twitter as a tool to drive more attention and exposure to your blog. I wanted to walk you through how I used Twitter to increase my blog’s traffic last week by 41% over the previous week.
First, I posted 5 times last week, Sunday-Thursday. On Monday-Thurs, I had a very specific pattern for using Twitter to push traffic back here.
Starting at 8am each morning, I tweeted a link to the previous day’s post here. Then I went through Google Reader and every 10 mins from 8:10-8:50 I linked to an interesting post or article. Then at 9:00 am I linked to my new post for that day. Then starting at 9:10 am I tweeted out a link to another post or article from someone else every 10 mins. Usually, I stopped at 10 am.
So from 8am-10am, I tweeted a new post or article, every 10 mins. 2 of them were my posts, the rest were posts or articles other people had written. Then I would again tweet out a link to that day’s post at noon, and again at 3pm. Also during the day I would RT any interesting links I saw other people sharing.
Here’s what my traffic looked like 2 weeks ago, then last week:
Two weeks ago, I averaged 340 visitors a day here, last week I averaged 479.
Now this strategy works especially well for companies or individuals that are using a blog as a thought leadership tool or to build awareness. By sharing relevant content on Twitter that’s consistent with the content I create here, there’s several benefits for me:
1 – Sharing valuable content on the same topics as I blog about helps raise my visibility around those topics.
2 – As I am sharing links, more people start paying attention to the links I am sharing, which means more traffic when I share links back here.
3 – As I share links from other bloggers, it increases the chance that they will reciprocate by RTing a link to one of my posts.
Now on Friday, I didn’t write a new blog post. Instead, I RTed a link to the 3 most viewed posts here last week, sending out a tweet to a new post at 9am, noon, and 3pm. This way, I didn’t have to write a new blog post on either Thurs or Friday, so it freed me up to spend that time working on other projects.
So again, here’s the system I used on Monday-Thursday:
1 – Each day, publish a new post at 8am.
2 – Starting at 8am each day, tweet out a link to a new blog post or article every 10 mins till 10am. 13 links total.
3 – Tweet out the link to the previous day’s post at 8am, the current day’s post at 9am.
4 – Tweet out another link to the current day’s post at noon and again at 3pm.
5 – Throughout the day, RT valuable links that I see others sharing.
So if you are looking for a simple way to use Twitter to drive more traffic to your blog and build visibility for yourself, try this simple format. This is also a good way to take an activity you are already engaging in (reading your feeds in Google Reader) and use that content to build your blog’s traffic as well as your Twitter following.
PS: A few minutes ago I got an email offering to ‘sell’ me 10,000 Twitter followers for $5. As with much in life, real results require real work.
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Mack- This is SUCH helpful information!! Thank you for sharing your own strategies. Being able to see exactly what you posted, when, and why really makes a difference.
Couple questions- when you’re talking about visitors, are you talking about unique visitors?
Did you notice any changes in your Twitter account after you altered your posting schedule? Like more RT’s, increase in followers, etc?
Hey Larkin! In the post I am talking about all visitors. I just checked, and unique visitors increased by 33.6%.
Followers was flat, I averaged 1 less per day last week versus the week before. Email subscribers increased by 86% last week versus the previous week.
Thanks for sharing this Mack. Super, super helpful.
Mark,
Thank you so much for this post! I missed last night’s open mic and if I had been on I would have been peppering people with Tweets like: Hoorah!! I would love to know how to get more readers!! #blogchat. Your post today is an answer to prayer along with the advice that @DiannaKennedy gave me: @PACWP leaving genuine comments on blogs helps, participating in link ups, memes is good, and Pinterest has been huge for me. I do the comments, the link-ups and memes, just starting to invade pinterest.
Your suggestions fits right in with what my blog and ministry is all about: nurturing mom! I know some of #blogchat hate paper.il but I found when the paper is out I get readers, when I tweet and thank “contributors” I get readers and followers. I make it a point to #ff significant followers and paper.li contributors. On pinterest I make sure I have a shout out for websites I found inspiring or helpful, and then tweet about that. As for the blog I make it a point to post everyday.
So, Mark your post was the last piece of the media puzzle for me and my goal of becoming Oprah of spiritual directors 🙂
Hey Patty glad you enjoyed the post! It sounds like you are doing a great job of connecting with the right audience, which is really what I tried to do with leveraging Twitter this way as well. I think consistency is the real key once you find a strategy that works for you: Don’t stop riding that horse 😉 I am trying to do the same thing, this method has worked for me in the past every time I use it, it always happens that I get bogged down with work and other obligations, and can’t keep the momentum going.
Gonna try to stay on track this time, hope you do as well 😉
Totally awesome post, Mack! Thank you so much for sharing this ‘here’s how you do it’ strategy with us. Keeping this post in Evernote to refer back to again and again. Oh heck, maybe I’ll print it out, too – and hang it on the wall next to my desk. This is really good stuff!!
Thank you Lisa Marie!
Mack,
I read yesterday that it’s best to tweet at slightly less even (and therefore routine) times. For example, since many people schedule tweets at 9, 9:05, 9:15, etc., it will draw more attention to tweet at like 9:04 or 9:07. I would be curious to see how this might impact your method outlined above. Interested in trying it?
Kenna
Hey Kenna! I actually do that sometimes, for example if I have tweets set up through 8:30 am this morning, and I am looking for my next link to share. If I don’t find it till 8:42, I will just tweet out the link then.
Honestly, I don’t think putting out a tweet at ‘odd’ times vs every 5 or 10 miins would make any difference. I just can’t see someone even noticing the times, much less thinking they would rather click a link shared at 9:04 vs one shared at 9:00 😉
Thanks for the advice! I am trying to use the power of Twitter to increase traffic to my blog. This is a strategy I haven’t heard. I will put it to use. Again, great advice.
Hi Mack…how are ya’? Thanks for this post. It got me thinking, which is good. I’m an active Twitter user, so I am always interested in soaking up what others I respect are doing. Again, thanks for sharing your most recent methods!
You’re welcome Nancy, glad it was helpful to you!
Mack,
I have been trying for a year now to use Twitter to generate traffic to my sites, and I’ve been only moderately successful. This is VERY helpful information. You showed me I had the right ideas, I just wasn’t executing them enough. I will certainly use this method. Thank you very much for the excellent information.