Using Twitter To Increase Traffic To Your Website

This is part three of our social media series describing how to drive and increase traffic to your website through social media. This time we look to the social media giant that is Twitter.

Twitter

Many people are not aware of the effectiveness of Twitter as a media platform for business but numbers don’t lie. With an average of 330 million monthly active users, Twitter shows a huge influence in the market today. People also don’t realize that Twitter is the biggest social media influencer. With tweets that are instantly up to the minute, Twitter is where you will hear the news first and that is why so many journalists and analysts use Twitter. Just make sure you have your website up and running first. There are great free websites, like Wix, that you can use for this where you can have your free blog up and running in no time.

The following are sure-fire ways to use Twitter to move traffic to your website:

1. Use @mentions

A @mention is the way you include Twitter user’s @usernames. Through this you can send a tweet instantaneously and directly to customers, followers, in fact – anyone on Twitter. This can be done in a number of ways.

If you blog posts to comment on customers, companies and bloggers that are prominent, mention them in a tweet that links back to your post. They will appreciate the mention and it may just be a way to get your post retweeted directly to their followers as well.

Mention people who have commented positively on your blog post, too. By doing this, you are thanking your loyal blog readers.

Mentioning the author of the blog post is also a good idea. No matter what kind of blogger they are – guest, new or regular.  The purpose it to mention them in a tweet which links back to their post. It’s good “Twitter etiquette” to do this and will mostly get them to retweet to their followers. Please remember if using URL links in your posts to use it at the very end. Also, use a program like Bitly to shorten your URL links.

2. Use #Hashtags

#Hashtags are very different to @mentions. Think of #Hashtags as coming before topics, things like food and beverages, the latest technology, trends. Examples are #coffee, #VPN, #bohemianskirts. And please remember to never put a space between words as only the first word will appear. You can hashtag various topics, though, by leaving a space between #Hashtags.

Hashtags are a fantastic vehicle to disseminate your tweets to a number of topics. By using hashtags, you provide yourself amazing opportunities to connect with Twitter users beyond and besides just your Followers.

The following are ways to use hashtags when you are tweeting with the purpose of driving traffic back to your blog:

• Use hashtags that are theme-specific: You can create a hashtag for the purpose of promoting a particular blog, eBook, landing page or contest. Use clever hashtags that can create audience engagement such as #checkoutmyblog. By doing this, if anyone tweets using your hashtag, it will automatically appear in the feed for that specific hashtag search. This can, in turn, create more interest in your blog, and, of course, more traffic to your site.
• Use general post-related hashtags. You want to include hashtags with the topics related to your blog. This will get your tweet noticed by other Twitter users looking for the topics you have blogged or written about.

Please remember, again, if using URL links in your posts to use it at the very end.

3. Ask for a Retweet (or RT)

Well, firstly, you need to remember that if you are ever retweeting you need to put “RT” in front of the post so people know you are retweeting. You can retweet like that, or, in fact, mention the retweet in your post. That’s plain Twitter etiquette and needs to be applied.

You can also ask for a “RT” or “retweet” in order to get your blog related tweets retweeted. In fact, tweets that ask for a retweet get 12 to 23 more times as many shares as those who don’t.

In order to gain more traffic to your blog or website, just go ahead and ask for a retweet once you have tweeted a link back to your blog post.

4. Use Aesthetically-Pleasing Images

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this certainly holds true when uploading images to Twitter. You know the posts that capture your attention – they are the ones with images that completely entice you and invite you to look deeper. Images that have shock value often work but no matter the case, the image needs to be clear and have colors in them to attract the viewer. For instance:

The first image is much more appealing, looks more sophisticated and alluring and demands more attention!

5. Make Sure Your Bio Includes A Blog Link

When people, your followers and others in general, visit you on Twitter, they are all exposed to your Twitter bio. It only changes when you choose to apply changes to it. You can use this to include an all-important link to your blog or perhaps a certain blog post, all in your about and/or contact sections of your bio. There are clickable link capabilities in both sections. Through this, you can include alluring CTA’s to get your followers to click through to your blog as well.

If you have a great post that you have written and you would like to attract as much traffic to it as possible, at least for a few weeks, you want to make a CTA and include it in your bio.

6. Use Short and Provocative Tweets

Tweets force you to be really clever with words! You can spend much time looking for synonyms and thinking of clever ways to manipulate words to work as effectively as possible.

At the moment, the character allowance on Twitter has doubled from 140 characters to 280 characters. Though, be aware, that short tweets, under 100 characters, get a 21% higher interaction rate.

Use engaging, shocking, creative words that will grab attention. With all those tweets out there, yours needs to really stand out!

7. Include Statistics

People like facts. That’s why they appreciate statistics.

Let people know if you have an article that includes statistics. So, what you want to do in your tweet is make a combination of letters and numbers and this will make your tweet stand out!

8. Insert an Intriguing Quote From Your Article

Let your follows sample some of your blog post. Include a quote from your article that will draw interest. Find a quote that is short, to the point and gives a whisper of the contents of your post.

You never NEED to tweet the title of your article. Get more creative and let your followers know what to expect when they click on your post.

Quotes, mostly do really well on Twitter. Apparently, according to studies, a tweet with a quote is 54% more likely to get retweeted – that’s a really big percentage.  Now if people enjoy reading your quote and are even retweeting it, they are most likely clicking through to your personal website as well.

9. Retweet Mentioned Blog Content

If someone has taken the time to mention your blog content on Twitter, it’s a good idea to retweet their tweet.

10. Engage With Questions

By asking a question in your tweet you can arouse a lot of engagement. With enough curiosity, you will get more clicks to your blog.

11. Tweet About Your Blog-Hosted Contest

If you really want a way to boost traffic to your site you’re going to want to run a contest, sweepstakes or group offer. By doing this, you will create engagement with your readers and will also give great incentive for brand new people to take a look at your blog.

12. Promote Your Tweets

You don’t have to fork out a lot of cash to promote tweets. It’s a way to use advertising to help you spread your content to your target market. They won’t just show up in your follower’s feeds but will show up in other users’ feeds too. Your ‘Promoted Tweets’ can target your audience by:

• Geography
• Keywords
• Device Used and
• Interest

Final Thought

So, there you go, many interesting ways to drive and increase traffic to your website through Twitter. Take the advice above and watch the interest in your Twitter posts and website transform tenfold!