How to build traffic with Twitter

[ogletree]

I have had 2 sites now use Twitter to increase traffic, sales, and new users. I have a client that runs a few social networks and an ecommerce website. I talked them into embracing Twitter.

First thing you need to do is get at least 1 twitter page of tweets. They need to be good tweets. Twitter is just a mini blog. Say things that will get people talking. Make a custom background for your twitter account. Make sure you have your domain on there.

What we did was write a program that searched twitter. You don't have to make your own there are several out there already. When we see certain keywords in tweets we follow them. We don't spam them with an @ and when they follow us back we don't spam them with a DM.

Every few days make sure to un-follow people who did not follow you back. If you follow a lot more people than follow you it looks spammy. Try not to follow to many people at once. You can get in trouble with twitter.

It is very important to keep tweeting. Engage with your followers and people that @ you. If you can't be on all day schedule some of your tweets.

[rogerd]

All excellent advice, ogletree. One key thing to keep in mind is that Twitter is at its best as a community. If you think of other members as fellow community members vs. targets of your marketing message, you'll be more successful in the long run.

[ogletree]

Your right roger. This only works if you treat it as a community. Otherwise your just a spammer. Twitter is a great place to build a community.

[DXL]

Some good suggestions. I'm only just starting to get my feet wet with Twitter, and I've been wondering how effective it will be in promoting small businesses.

Recently purchased a well-reviewed book devoted entirely to Twitter, I'll give it a read this week. In the meantime, these are some good ideas.

[Makaveli2007]

So - if you do it right - does traffic from twitter convert well enough?

I've heard time and again that traffic from twitter sucks, because it doesn't convert, etc.. Is that because people aren't doing it the right way?

[alika]

We get a lot of traffic from Twitter. We run an information site, not an ecommerce site. The traffic Twitter brings is much better than Stumbleupon in terms of engagement - they stay longer, but not long enough. Better yet, they are likely to click on our Adsense as compared to Stumbleupon visitors

The key is to be consistent with the quality of your postings -- not always linking to your site. Strive to get people to retweet you. Then the Follow Friday recommendations.

We always thank people who tweet our content as well.

[stuartmcdonald]

If you want to track the traffic don't forget to use UTM variables to track it. Most punters use twitter on desktop and phone clients so tracking just referrals from twitter.com isn't so useful.

Agree with the above comment that it is better than SU but not as good as real serps. Twitter also has a lot of benefits aside from the traffic tho (networking/intel gathering/etc)

When did WebmasterWorld add twitter ids into user profiles -- that hasn't always been there!

[boody]

Very interesting ideas.
I would like to know what are the first steps that one need to do when starting with Twitter. Is it necessary to make a link on a site directly to Twitter?

[httpwebwitch]

I'm employing the Twitter API on two of my most prominent sites.

On one, I built a script that uses the Twitter API to broadcast significant events that happen in the app. For instance, when a new product is added to the marketplace, the system builds a grammatically-sensible phrase using a patern like "New item: [itemname] [itemURL]", and broadcasts that. These tweets are updates to the site's Twitter account, all in one place. So in that way I'm using Twitter a lot like RSS is intended to be used.

On another site, I allow users to "hook up" my app to their own twitter account, so significant things they do are similarly broadcast to their own profiles. This has far more wide-reaching publicity potential.

This complements similar automated broadcasts that go out to the Facebook API, to the site's RSS feed, and to a small list of opt-in email subscribers.

The return from this is actually negligible. But I have noticed that my automated tweets have shown up as backlinks all over the web, where people are republishing real-time Twitter feeds. That can't be a bad thing.

[rollinj]

Every few days make sure to un-follow people who did not follow you back. If you follow a lot more people than follow you it looks spammy. Try not to follow to many people at once. You can get in trouble with twitter.

I could have sworn I had just read that same thread on BlackHatWorld...?

[ogletree]

This will not work for everybody. It works better for some niches than others. Just like any marketing strategy. We did it with politics and an ecom site.

[zuko105]

hey ogletree (and anyone else really),
What client do you use to track you following someone and them not following you back? Maybe even show a timeline where you followed them and showing me all users who haven't followed back in say 30 days.

I've been looking for this functionality in a client for a while, but haven't found it.

Thanks in advance.

-zuko

[ogletree]

We just wrote our own.

[zuko105]

in the mood for sharing?

I could swap a url shortener for ya.

[Lovejoy]

Frankly how does one find time for all this? I can't see a ROI on Twitter in terms of time, all I see is a new form of thinly disguised spam.

[ogletree]

There is a fine line between doing it right and doing it wrong. If you do it right it will not be a waste of time. I have several clients that are very happy with the new traffic. They are getting sales on the ecom site and getting sign ups on their social network site. Twitter is not for everyone. Some niches do better than others. It is that way with just about everything.

[JS_Harris]

Squeezing "quality traffic" from a site/service dominated by spam may not be the best approach to begin with, there are better places to look for quality.

That being said I'm liking a lot of the suggestions on this page, good reading ogletree, and solid advice.

[stuartmcdonald]

"There is a fine line between doing it right and doing it wrong."

Agree 110%

[boody]

But how much time do you need to spend on twitter to get first positive results?
I recently started to twitter and am curious when can I expect some results. I'm trying not to rush things and I'm trying to have selected followers.

[ogletree]

it does not require a lot of time. You only have to write 140 characters. It is not like a 500 word blog post. Some of this is automated. The rest is just thoughts you have during the day. If your spending a lot of time communicating with people then that means it is working. The main thing is to just check it several times a day. You can sit down and write a bunch of tweets and schedule them if you will be away from computer for a long time. I think you can get a great ROI with just an hour a day. When I say an hour I mean an hour over the day not one hour just sitting there.

[boody]

One more question. Has anybody think what is the best time of day to post tweets?

[bilalseo]

I'd say if you could get the ppl on board... increasing traffic is never an easier work... it will take months and years to gain maximum... better you should create a strong community around... the best time for tweets is from 11am to 4am (Central Standard Time for US and Canada)