Worthington Lower: 9 Ways to use Twitter as a Tool to Drive Traffic and Build Community

Twitter is a necessary evil in the online world that I happen to enjoy...now.

image credit: Robert Romania (HiticasOvi)

I have been a member since I started my blog in 2010, but I never really grasped how to use it as a tool to get people to notice my writing. I posted random stuff and I fed my posts over once a day. It worked to a certain degree but I never saw direct growth from it.

In the last few months I have been experimenting with social media strategy and I am happy to say that I have seen a very real increase in traffic to my blog, subscribers and engagement on Twitter.

Here are 9 ways to Engage on Twitter:

Post frequently: at least 3x daily
Experiment with times: I've found my best engagement in the AM, but that may not be the same for everyone.
Schedule: I am currently using Hootsuit to schedule various accounts and plan ahead.
Thank you's/shout outs: I mention new followers at least 1x/day and shout out to people who favorite my tweets or mention me.
#Hashtags: Hashtags have been huge, not only for people finding my content, but for helping me find people and groups that I want to intentionally interact with.
Post old content: If it's still relevant, it should still be in rotation.
Post same link multiple times and ways: I try to post new content at different times through the day but say something different. "Looking for a delicious salad recipe?" " Check out this salad I just made!" "How to use up all those extra walnuts after baking." "How to make the Ultimate Waldorf salad."
Retweet: NOT by hitting the retweet button. Expand the tweet, type RT @______ then copy and paste the tweet. It gets way more interaction!
Follow: Use hashtags to search for topics and then follow people that share your interest and/or industry.