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Using Twitter to Get Traffic to Your Site

Twitter is one of the most powerful social networking tools that businesses can use today to drive traffic to their websites and ultimately to increase awareness of their business. Most businesses realize this and have already signed up for a Twitter account. However, many of those businesses are failing to realize the true potential of Twitter because they don’t understand exactly how to use the tool in a profitable manner. Follow this guide to getting started with the right use of Twitter.

Flesh Out Your Account
Take a few moments to flesh out the profile on your Twitter account. There isn’t a lot that you can do here but you should definitely make sure that your website link is correct and that your short bio is attention-getting and says exactly what you do.

Follow The Right People
The key to getting followers on Twitter is to follow others. However, you don’t want to follow a bunch of Twitter spammers because you’ll end up overwhelmed on the site. Instead, make sure that you find those Twitter users who are truly interested in your industry.

Finding People to Follow
To find the right people to follow on Twitter, you should do four things:

1. Go to “find people” on the Twitter site. Add your existing contacts from email and other networks. These are the customers who already show you support and will support you on Twitter.
2. Go back to “find people” on the Twitter site. Enter a keyword related to your industry and you’ll get a list of people also using that keyword. Check their profiles to see if you want to follow them.
3. Let everyone know that you use Twitter. Post your Twitter contact information on your website, email signature and other social networking sites so that people can find you there.
4. Make use of Twitter directories to find people (see below).

Twitter Directories
A smart Twitter user will definitely use Twitter directories which link Twitter users to each other based on common interests. The three to check out are Twellow, Just Tweet It and WeFollow. Create an account here that tells people who you are on Twitter. Use the directory to find others you want to follow.

Communicate Often
Once you’ve got yourself set up on Twitter and following people, it’s important to communicate often. Update your Twitter status at least three times per day. Try to engage others with questions such as “what are you working on?” or “what do you think about this news?” Check your @Replies to see if anyone has written directly to you and make sure to respond to them promptly.

TwitterFeed
One of the things that saves businesses a lot of time on Twitter is to get their RSS feeds to automatically update the site. TwitterFeed is a good tool for doing that. You add the RSS feed for your blog or other content to that site, tell TwitterFeed how often to check for updates and then your Twitter will be automatically updated. This is great because it adds activity to Twitter that people will notice but it doesn’t take any time out of your day.

Post All Promotions
In addition to your other updates and posts, you want to make sure that you always tell Twitter friends about your promotions, sales and new products. This helps to really establish brand recognition through Twitter. However, don’t be too spammy. Share information without over-selling it just like you would in your own store or on your own site.

Use Your Phone
One of the best things that you can do with Twitter is to update the site from your phone. This makes it easy to make sure that you’re updating frequently. Get in the habit of doing this because activity on the Twitter site is one of the most important things that you can do to make sure the people who follow you are actually paying attention to your business.

Follow Up Off Of Twitter
Many people who do all of the above things fail to do this one last step and end up not getting as much out of Twitter as they could. The real key to turning Twitter followers into website or blog followers of yours is to move the conversation off of Twitter. As you begin regularly communicating with users on the site, encourage those individuals to follow you on Facebook or to email you directly. Also, check their profiles for off-Twitter contact info and directly contact them that way. This heightens the personal level of the Twitter relationship and truly takes your business use of Twitter to the next level.