Mar 12, 2009
How Bloggers Can Make the Most of Twitter Posted by Jamie Harrop - 26 Comments
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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Category: Social Media
Tagged: feedburner, feedflare, twitter
Twitter: Tweet This
Social Media: Del.icio.us - Technorati - Digg This! - StumbleUpon
I'm a 23 year old blogger, community and customer service specialist with 10 years experience running and managing blogs and online communities.
Nice one!
The one thing I would definitely caution against is automatically tweeting. I am not a fan people who have twitter accounts that are nothing but automated twitter feeds of their blog posts, and where it’s obvious that it’s just been created by a robot. I always tweet my posts, but I do it manually so it sounds real – and I maintain a real twitter account so when people see the links to my blog, it’s in a stream of real tweets.
Hey Sid!
Looks like you found the blog before I even made it live.
I completely agree with you. I always manually tweet links to my latest blog posts, and I never send any auto DM’s (they drive me crazy).
Thanks for the comment, Sid. The first comment on my new blog. Don’t you feel special?
Jamie
I think this is very useful and can really make us the most of Twitter, especially the Tweet this link…
I will try this later.
Thanks for sharing!
Rich’s last blog post..Monetizing Blog Traffic Efficiently: Visitors or Readers?
As soon as i entered your blog and started to read the post, i noticed the little green tweet this button and said “hey, where can i get one of those?”
Then i scroll down and see all the goodies. Score!!!
Wait! You’re only 21 and you’ve been blogging for 7 years? Holy smokes. Will read your bio and find out how you got started. Must be an interesting story.
Missy (from G34 Media)’s last blog post..5 Cute Twitter Icons For Your Blog
Hey Jamie,
Hehe. Oops =P
I just tweeted a link to another post today, so I will tweet this one in a couple hours (gotta space em out!). Blogging Zest is off to a tasty start!
PS – I love the different color for the subscribe link in the header. Brilliant. I am going to steal that and modify my blog later to add a subscribe link in my navigation bar and color it different too
Great analysis and thoroughly detailed post.
I just thought you deserved some more comments for taking the time to write it
Cheers,
Glen
Glen Allsopp’s last blog post..Stop Procrastinating: 9 Quick Tips to Adopt the ‘Now’ Habit
Jamie,
Your hard work is evident. This site looks great!
Alec
Alec Satin’s last blog post..Favor Request – I need your help
Great looking site Jamie. Good article about getting the most of out Twitter. I’ve been using a different WP plugin for twitter but I think I will try out that ‘simple twitter link’ plugin.
Nick’s last blog post..NapFish Internet Solutions Launches New Logo
@Rich Glad the post was able to help you, Rich.
@Missy Thanks for the comments and the follow on Twitter. I hope you had a good laugh while reading my about page.
@Sid Thanks Sid! You’re a star! Yep, that orange link does stand out doesn’t it? We’ll see how effective it is in time.
@Glen Hey Glen. Thanks for the compliments, and for making up the comment numbers.
@Alec Hey Alec. Good to hear from you. Thanks for the kind words!
@Nick Hey Nick. Thanks for the good words. The simple-twitter-link plugin is awesome. How’s life with Tyler? He managed to completely tire you out yet?
Thanks for all your thoughts so far everyone. Please do keep them coming.
Jamie
[...] launched the blog via Twitter a couple hours ago, starting off with the post How Bloggers Can Make the Most of Twitter. The blog is already making waves, and the comments, subscribers and visitors are already pouring [...]
very helpful! coming from a passionate blogger who tweets, this makes sense
A Maui Blog’s last blog post..Tail-wagging Miracle Workers
Hey Jamie, great article. I’ll be looking to include the retweet option in the coming days. Thanks for the advice.
Michael-theFatLossAuthority’s last blog post..Finding Calcium Sources Outside of Dairy
While there are lots of technical ideas here on the mechanics of bloggers using twitter to their benefit, I offer a two step way to earn attention for your work away from your blog.
Use http://backtype.com to monitor your comment stream. Any time you comment on a blog your content gets added to your Backtype profile.
Then use a tool like http://Twitterfeed.com to automatically tweet the comments you make on other blogs.
Each time you comment, you tweet about it!
Comments that add value to conversations on others’ blogs earns your blog good karma points and Twitter followers.
@toddlucier’s last blog post..toddlucier: @RebeccaHappy looks like you like what I like – free and almost free tools! Have you checked out Tourism Keys? http://bit.ly/12gEL8
Great post Jamie. A very detailed and thorough analysis. These buttons are getting popular like wild fire.
Rajeev Edmonds’s last blog post..Why Your Adsense Ads Do Not Receive Clicks?
Hey I have a blogger blog and have added the badge to the bottom of my posts. how do I change the HTML so that when I “retweet it” I get the URL Of the post, not the URL of the blog, in Twitter ?
dave’s last blog post..
And I noticed my “last blog post” is not showing up in the bottom of the above comment (in gray). How can I change that, too
dave’s last blog post..
I have a simply TinyLink Tweet-this suggestion thingee, but can see how the graphics would be eyecatching as well. I’ll add this shortly to me blogs, thanks!
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach’s last blog post..Why some online marketers hide the truth from you and what you can do about it
@A Maui Blog I’m glad the article was able to help you.
@Michael Hey Michael. Glad I could help!
@toddlucier Hey Todd. That’s a really interesting method you’re using. I’ll look in to it more over the weekend, but it makes perfect sense. Thanks a lot!
@Rajeev Hey Rajeev. Nice to see another familiar face over here. Yep, the buttons are spreading everywhere right now. I’m sure that’s a good thing though.
@Dave Hi Dave. If you go to http://tweetmeme.com/static.php?page=button and look at the section titled “Example: When the URL is different from the current URL” it shows you how to change the URL so it posts the actual blog post, rather than your blog homepage.
As for the latest blog post issue… I believe you need to be registered at http://www.commentluv.com for it to pull your latest blog post. Hope that helps!
@Barbara Glad to see you come over from my other blog. Many people have taken note of the graphics and clicked the Retweet button. I highly recommend using them.
Thanks for all the comments everyone!
Please do keep them coming!
Jamie
[...] How Bloggers Can Make The Most Of Twitter by: Jamie Harrop on Blogging Zest Jamie brings forth a GREAT compilation to help bloggers [...]
[...] RT @tweetmeme – How Bloggers Can Make the Most of Twitter – Blogging Zest [...]
@Jamie Hey Jamie, Tyler has worn us out. It’s also interesting trying to squeeze 6-7 hours of work into a 3-4 hour day. I do blame twitter and your blog(s) for distracting me from my work.
Nick’s last blog post..NapFish Internet Solutions Launches New Logo
Makes sense James. I’ll have to find out how I can add it to my Blogger postings.
Hey Jamie,
.It gave me a knowledge which I was searching for sometime.
Thanks for the great tips.As you can see I’ve already used an one after reading the post
Vikum’s last blog post..Living in the moment
[...] you need to do is just click the “Tweet This” link at the bottom of articles (Thanks Jamie). Also, because there has been a lot of interest, we will start working on articles about using [...]
[...] How Bloggers Can Make The Most Of Twitter by: Jamie Harrop on Blogging Zest Jamie brings forth a GREAT compilation to help bloggers [...]