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01.21.08
Acquiring Traffic From Twitter
 By Dustin Brewer
Twitter isn't exactly new but there are a lot people that see it as a waste of time when it comes to marketing or even using.
Used incorrectly it can be a very big waste of time, not to say that it can't be entertaining or useful for communication and amusement. There is more then the straight-forward aspects of Twitter though. The social network can be used as a great marketing and even networking tool for you and your blog.
Creating a twitter account, properly
It is important that you begin following people on twitter right off when you first sign up for an account. Once you you start following various people you will gain a little attention from those that follow you and possibly even new followers. The people following you will see each update you make. Depending on the type of updates you make you could discover your own little min-blog where people are expecting quirky little updates from you.
I will typically update with links I find interesting and want to share daily or interesting things I come across in web design and technology. It all depends on what I am in the mood to update with. You can update from IM or even mobile if need be, which is a big help for that random tweet. Just be sure that you don't drunk-tweet because you can't delete the tweet in the morning. Don't let other tweeters drink and tweet.
Twitter as a marketing tool for your blog
You can easily market your blog on twitter by getting an audience of followers that may not know you because of your blog directly. Every time you make a worth-while update to your blog you can announce it on twitter. Just make sure that you are updating with more then links to your site for self-promotion, you will lose followers quickly. Twitter is just like any other social network. It has to be used the way your followers expect, the marketing end of things is just a bonus.
Not only can you get traffic from linking to updates on your site by your followers but there is a public timeline available that will announce each update that is made. Depending on the time of day there are typically quite a few people watching that feed out of curiosity. There is also all of your followers followers that will see your updates on the people that they are following. It seems confusing at first but really it is just a lot of exposure all within a related group of people with similar interests. This means targeted marketing is free and easy on twitter.
You have to be sure that you are doing more then just sending links, this is important because people can stop following you if you just spam them with links to your blog.
Twitter as a networking tool
There have been quite a few articles about using twitter to market a web site but there haven't been any about using it as a networking tool. What I mean by this is that you can follow leaders in the web design, seo or web development industry and find out what they are doing regularly or learn first about something new they have created or discovered. This allows you to be better at what you do by what they share.
Not only are you going to learn from some of the a-listers within the blogging or web design industry but you are probably going to get their attention by following them on twitter. Most people on twitter, myself included, have a notification setup for when someone follows me. I like to check their twitter account out and if they have a link in their profile I will always follow it. You might even get refollowed by the people you follow, this is usually a good way to react to people following you in any case. It helps to make the networks more wide spread. Be wary though, there are spammers on twitter just like any other social network that can't understand the delicate balance that is necessary.
Twitter can be very entertaining, not just a tool
You can usually find people venting on twitter quite a bit, or
talking about their mundane day or anything really. You can even find some cutting edge news on twitter, even before it is found on some of the other social networks. I personally use the Twitterbar Firefox extension and my (new) Treo 755p to update my entries on twitter.
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About the Author:
Dustin Brewer is a web designer located in Oklahoma City, OK specializing in aesthetics in design, web standards, accessibility and usability. He also enjoys helping others to discover CSS and web design best practices through his web site, dustin brewer, a web design news site.
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