Avoid Being a Lonely Blogger by Starting with Twitter
Build Your Network with Twitter, then Start Blogging
Recently I described a business blog as your base of operations for online marketing. In the past, I’ve advised companies to jump in and start blogging. But now I’m thinking a better move would be to engage your niche on Twitter first, then blog after you’ve built up your social media network.
One of the frustrations of blogging is the feeling that at first, you are speaking into a dark void – no comments, no inbound links, no reaction of any kind. This is quite normal because all other things being equal, it takes time to build up a community of readers. And even then, one must devote considerable time forging relationships with bloggers and potential readers – time that many firms don’t have.
The result is an extremely slow ramp up or an extremely quick I give up.
So instead of starting a blog from scratch, set up a business identity on Twitter and develop a community of followers. Down the line, when you introduce your business blog, you’ll have many people – perhaps thousands – to invite in. Chances are, if you have made an effort to put out quality, informative Tweets and have engaged with some of your followers, word about your new blog will spread quickly across your network and beyond.
How to Get Followers on Twitter
Using Twitter, a firm can build up a community of potential blog readers quite efficiently. That’s because people on Twitter are looking to connect with people they do not already know. This is a chief difference between Twitter and two other popular networks – Facebook and LinkedIn – which are more geared to connecting with people who are either already known or introduced through a mutual connection.
Here are some ways I’ve made connections on Twitter. I hope you will add to my list!
- Use TweetDeck (a popular Twitter interface) and track conversations for terms relevant to your niche. Then, reach out and follow the commentators.
- Use Twellow, a sort of Tweeter Yellow Pages, to identify people in your niche or related niches. Twellow has very strong sorting and drill down capabilities, making it easy to find people with whom you’d be interested in connecting.
- Once you’ve established some connections, look at their followers, who appear on your connection’s profile, and follow them. The friend of my friend is my friend.
- Twitter has a “Twitter hashtag” conversation called #FollowFriday. I always check out people my connections recommend, and almost always follow them.
What have you done to get more followers on Twitter?
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Hi Brad,
Twitter is an excellent traffic driver and one of my favorite ways to develop new relationships. In lieu of a blog, a business can use Twitter to drive traffic to news mentions, interviews, podcasts, articles and other content. I am guilty of not actively cultivating new followers but have used Twellow, Just Tweet It, We Follow and Exec Tweets to find people of interest. I also turn to wikis when looking for specific sources such as the media wiki when I am searching for journalists in a specific geography or niche. I actively track brands and keywords using a number of tools including Tweetlater and Tweetbeep.
Hi Karen, Thanks for the tips on Twitter tools. There’s certainly no shortage of them, and it helps to hear from people who’ve had success actually using them.
Good advice Brad. I’ve been using Twitter more for fun, but have been surprised how often ‘gene expression’ pops up in search. If you don’t use tools like you describe it’s easy to think the twitterverse is completely random.
Fred, Yes – it’s interesting … Twitter is both highly random and highly organizable. Filtering is key.
Brad,
Are there certain target markets for which Twitter is not the right channel for communications? I’ve wondered about this. I can hardly stay on top of blogs, so how might I ever stay on top of Twitter as well AND earn my living. So Twitter is not a way to reach me. I wonder if this is not true of other markets, e.g., if you are trying to reach physicians or C-Suite, or Moms with jobs and 3 kids who had no time before social media started.
Thoughts?
Kay
Kay, Twitter can be used for so many things, it’s tough to say whether it’s useful until some goals are established. One of the first things to think about is whether the people you want to communicate with use Twitter. If they do, think about what kind of interaction you’re looking for and whether Twitter is a suitable platform for that type of connection. Many find Twitter to be an excellent vehicle for communicating a brand,expanding one’s network, gathering information pertinent to your business, keeping in touch with close contacts, and as a door opener to forge new close contacts. If you’d like to improve in any of these areas, Twitter is worth considering. Compare the time and potential results of Twitter versus other approaches and do some testing. Another issue to consider is whether absence is a negative. Twitter is so gosh darn popular right now, will potential customers think there’s something wrong if you’re not on Twitter? I’m seeing more than a few people in my niche who use Twitter as their first line of communication (heavily using direct messages)and are trying to force communication into that medium whenever possible. I’m not sure this is sensible (thoughts??), but it’s another defensive reason for one to have at least a nominal presence there.
Another good reason to start with Twitter, of course, is that it’s a good way of testing your commitment to social media with minimum commitment. If you join Twitter, tweet furiously for a week, then never touch it again, chances are you were never meant to blog. Better to find out that way whether you have the time and stamina to blog than to spend hours faffing around setting up a Wordpress site, researching your blog roll, and crafting three high-quality posts before abandoning the blog altogether, as so many do!
Clare, Interesting … I do believe there are four types of people.
1. People who can blog and Tweet.
2. People who can blog but not Tweet.
3. People who can Tweet but not blog.
4. People who can neither blog nor Tweet.
Your Twitter test definitely filters for time commitment issues, but I believe that some folks who choke on Twitter could nevertheless take to blogging like bees to honey.
I have to agree with you, Brad; managing a Twitter stream is probably a pretty good “toe in the water” exercise for a biz with no blog yet. I’d have probably done the same if blogging hadn’t been there first. My hesitation with Twitter was how much time it would take up.
I also agree there’s still a lot of ways we don’t even know yet about how Twitter can be useful, for both personal use and biz use. Might as well jump in now and see where it take you.
Robert, It’s funny to talk about the “good old days” of blogging, when life was simple. In a way, I’m glad Twitter wasn’t around then, because I think blogging is more my cup of tea than Tweeting (whereas you are a natural at both). If I had just started up on Twitter just to play around, as opposed to consciously trying to build a network of readers for a future blog, I probably would have thrown in the towel on the whole thing.
Hi Brad – That is a really good idea. It is weird blogging at first & you do often feel like you’re talking to yourself. I can see why people would give up completely and developing a Twitter following first would make it easier for them.
I must get Tweetdeck – I keep meaning too. And I hadn’t heard of Twellow. Twitter search isn’t that great and it sounds like those two would be really useful tools.
Cath, I think you will be amazed at how TweedDeck enhances the whole Twitter experience. Please let us know how it goes if you try it!
Really good ideas here!
Twitter is a brilliant interface for building up ‘followers’ of your business or brand. So many company’s are now using it as part of their PR strategy.
I totally agree that it can be disheartening when you feel you are writing lots of text and yet nobody seems to be reading it, giving people a taster of what you do on Twitter is a great way to introduce them to your blog.
That’s a great idea, Brad. Create first a following in Twitter by being helpful, responsive, or just by being a decent fellow. Twitter is great for personal and business branding.
I have a reader who at first did not blog. He’s just content to read and comment on my blog and friends’ sites. He has so many doubts about blogging. But we’ve prevailed on him to let go of his worries. He eventually put up a blog. And because he has unintentionally built up a good network of friends via his prolific blog commenting, his first post was a resounding success. No baptism of fire for him – no lonely nights, wondering when will the first commenter come. He’s capitalized on the huge goodwill he has created thru making his presence felt via blog commenting. I can’t see why the same can’t be replicated by a sensible use of Twitter.
So my suggestions is this: use both blog commenting strategy and branding yourself in Twitter.
Besides posting about my blog and forums, I also scout out things that would be of humor/geek interest too. That helps build my following.
Danielle, Good to hear reports that companies are thinking strategically about Twitter. This should give pause to companies that aren’t.
Jan, Great story, and I’m glad things worked out so well for your friend, in part thanks to the Twitter technique. Commenting on blogs is especially effective these days, precisely because Twitter siphons off so many comments. As a blogger, I still appreciate comments (thank for yours!), even though my posts may be ReTweeted many times over.
Barbara, Indeed you are an excellent Twitter resource! You’ve taught me quite a bit these last six months or so.