In the last six months, Twitter has rapidly become one of the Web’s hottest properties. It’s no surprise then, that bloggers are trying to take advantage of this growing medium by letting their readers easily share blog articles with their Twitter followers.

And it’s not just bloggers getting in on the Twitter marketing game. If, on Twitter, you follow any more than a couple hundred new media junkies, you’re likely to have come across somebody genuinely and humbly promoting any one of the many topics of Guy Kawasaki’s ‘Alltop‘ Web site. Right now, Alltop seems to be picking up 30-50 links from Twitter every five minutes! That’s some seriously powerful word-of-mouth promotion!

People Buy Based On Relationships & Emotion

Think of the $150 pair of jeans over the $50 pair. They both do the same job, but you’re emotionally attached to the $150 pair because society and good branding has meant the name on the label gives you more respect, a better mental feeling (emotion) and has been recommended by a friend (relationship).

It’s for this reason, relationships and emotion, that Twitter is so powerful in promoting your business, blog, Web site or other medium. I’d wager that an honest, humble recommendation from a Twitter follower is almost as powerful as a recommendation from an offline friend.

Car Mechanics & Your Blog

Despite his rates being 20% higher than Bob, you visit John the car mechanic because your friend Billy recommended him.

Likewise, despite your blog speaking on the same topic as many others, people visit it because they’re recommended by a search engine, a social media message, or a friend.

90% of visitors to your blog via Twitter have been recommended by a friend. Because of this, visitors to your blog from Twitter are already attached by a form of relationship, making them far more likely to subscribe, buy, or interact in whatever form you want them to. It’s for that reason that Twitter is so powerful for bloggers.

I see a conversion rate of 7% from visitors via Twitter. That means for every 100 visitors from Twitter, seven subscribe to my blog. When you look at the conversion rates of less than 1% from search engines and other forms of social media, 7% suddenly seems like a huge conversion. It’s because of the connection (the recommendation from a friend) that has already been established via Twitter.

I should stress that those figures are for my Jamie Harrop Dot Com blog, and come with no prompt from me. They come from users clicking through from my Twitter profile, my daily link to my latest blog post, and the few people that retweet that daily link. But what if, like Alltop, bloggers were able to prompt readers to Tweet a link to a blog post? What if we were able to give our readers a nudge to prompt them to recommend our blog to their friends? Well now we can, as you will see from the ‘Retweet’ link at the top of this post, and the ‘Tweet This’ link at the bottom.

How Do I Let My Readers Share My Blog Posts on Twitter?

There are three ways I’ve found to prompt blog readers to share posts on Twitter. All three are simple to setup.

TweetMeMe Button

TweetMeMe is a Web site that gathers the most popular links on Twitter and outputs them in a Digg like interface. That’s a good resource to have by itself, but just like Digg, TweetMeMe offers buttons for your Web site so your users can recommend your blog post to their Twitter followers (and in turn, submit it to TweetMeMe).

Whereas with Digg, a ‘vote’ on an article would just add a vote on the Digg Web site, TweetMeMe retweets your blog post link on the visitors Twitter account, therefore sharing with all their followers, and also adds a vote on the TweetMeMe Web site.

How do I add TweetMeMe to my blog?

To add TweetMeMe, just copy/paste the following Javascript to the area of your blog post that you want the button (as seen at the top of this blog post) to appear.

TweetMeMe WordPress Plugin

TweetMeMe also has a WordPress plugin that adds the button just like above, as well as a few styling options.

Tweet This Link

Of course, you don’t have to use a service such as TweetMeMe to display a “Tweet This” link. You’ll notice at the bottom of all my posts, I have a Tweet This link.

This link is generated by a minimalist, excellent WordPress plugin called “Simple Twitter Link“. Developed by David Artiss, this plugin allows you to place a ‘Tweet This’ link anywhere in your WordPress template. Once installed, here is the code you’ll want to use in your template (making sure to replace ‘@jamieharrop’ with your Twitter username):

Tweet This Feedburner FeedFlare

While many blog readers will read your articles on your actual blog, many will only read them in their feed reader. With this in mind, it makes sense to allow readers to share your article with their Twitter friends straight from the feed.

To do this (and assuming you’re using Feedburner), you need to create a FeedFlare. A FeedFlare is a small script that adds a link to the bottom of a FeedBurner generated article, as seen in the screen shot below.

FeedBurner doesn’t include a “Tweet This” FeedFlare option as standard, so you have to install a new one within your FeedBurner account. FeedBurner themselves recommend the ‘Twit This‘ FeedFlare, but I found the lack of ability to customise (specifically, the ability to add my Twitter username in to the resulting Tweet) was a problem, so I created my own FeedFlare.

How to Create Your Own Twitter FeedFlare

• 1. Open up Notepad
• 2. Copy and paste the following code in to Notepad

• 3. Replace ‘@jamieharrop’ with your Twitter username
• 4. Go to File > Save as and choose ‘All Files’ in the ‘Save as Type’ drop down menu
• 5. Save your file as ‘tweetthis.xml’ (Remember to add .xml to the end)
• 6. Upload your .xml file to a location on your hosting account
• 7. Login to Feedburner
• 8. Click your feed title to enter the settings for that feed, then click ‘Optimize’
• 9. Click ‘FeedFlare’ in the left column
• 10. Under the list of currently installed Flares, you’ll see a form with a button that says “Add New Flare”. Enter the full address of your .xml file in that form. For example, http://www.yourblog.com/tweetthis.xml
• 11. Click “Add New Flare”
• 12. Ensure the two check boxes for your new Tweet This flare are checked then click “Save” at the bottom of the page

Top Tips to Make the Most of Your Twitter Buttons

Here are four tips to help you make the most of Tweet This buttons.

Include @username in the Tweet

If possible, always ensure your button code includes your username in the message that it Tweets. There are two benefits to this:

First and foremost, you’ll get more followers as people see your username and click through to your profile.

And second, and more importantly, it will treat the Tweet like an @ reply and therefore allow you to track all the Tweets that are sent via your buttons.

Include the Title of the Blog Post in the Tweet

Try to ensure the title of the post is included in the Tweet that is sent. I often see Tweets that simply contain a link with no description. I never click them. Always ensure a description, such as the title of the post, is given.

Shortern the URL

There’s only room for 140 characters in a Tweet, so try to ensure the blog post address is shortened when the Tweet is sent. Using the methods listed above, the TweetMeMe button and the ‘Simple Twitter Link’ plugin do shorten the URL. Unfortunately, the FeedFlare doesn’t.

Add a Twitter logo Next to Your ‘Tweet This’ Links

Twitter’s logo is far more prominent than a simple ‘Tweet This’ link. Even if it’s just a small Twitter icon like in my Tweet This link at the bottom of the post, always try to include one.

Spontanious Tweeting of your articles is great, but giving your readers a friendly nudge in the right direction will bring fantastic social media rewards!

Do you use ‘Tweet This’ buttons on your blog? Have you ever clicked one on another blog? How many blogs do you find and subscribe to via Twitter word-of-mouth? Let us know in the comments!

PS. How about you share this post by clicking that little ‘Retweet’ link to the right?

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