Facebook Pixel
Join our Facebook Community

Top Ten Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Small Business Blog Using Twitter

Posted By Darren Rowse 23rd of February 2010 Blog Promotion, Social Media 0 Comments

This is a guest post by Mark Hayward on driving traffic to your small business blog with Twitter.

traffic-blog-twitter.png

Based on the success of the recent ProBlogger post, Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn, I thought it would be useful to put a resource post together for small business owners who would like to use Twitter to drive targeted traffic to their blog.

We all know that blogging is a powerful medium for any small business owner that wants to improve SEO, create a social media footprint, or share their backstory.

But how the heck do you use Twitter to drive more traffic to your small business blog?

If you are a small business owner like me, then you are no stranger to the fact that learning how to master Twitter can seem a little bit like wrestling a hungry alligator. Meaning, there is a steep learning curve and if you mess up it can be deadly.

Figuratively speaking, of course!

After using Twitter for the past couple of years, and following a lot of trial and error, below are ten ways that I think you can begin to use Twitter to drive more traffic to your small business blog.

#1: Change the Default Logo

After creating your small business Twitter account, change the default logo to one that represents your style and helps to brand your small business. Twitter is not a ‘join it and they will come’ small business marketing tool.

If you are hoping to reap the rewards and added blog traffic that Twitter can offer, then you have to be willing to put in the time to build trustworthy relationships with potential customers. To that end, when it comes to any business on Twitter, people want to feel like they are engaging with real human beings.

The profile picture is the first thing that new followers will look at. You need to create a logo that quickly gains follower interest if you want them to carry on further and check out your small business blog. By all means, if you use a personal picture make sure it does not portray you as an axe murderer.

Below are two examples of small business profile pictures, and I’ll let you be the judge of which one will work best.

poortwittergraphic-thumb.jpg

I think this next one is better. How about you?

goodtwittergraphic-thumb.jpg

#2: Show Up

As noted in the intro above, there can be a steep learning curve when it comes to using Twitter to drive traffic to your small business blog. According to a recent article in Adweek:

Only 17 percent of Twitter users updated their accounts in December — an all-time low. An earlier study by the Nielsen Co. revealed 60 percent of Twitter users do not return from one month to the next.

However, I think a lot of small business owners show up once and send a Tweet similar to the one below.

badtweet-thumb.jpg

When business owners don’t get any @ replies, identify any new customers, or gain new traffic to their small business blog they feel like they are wasting their time and are gone for good.

Using Twitter properly as a tool to drive blog traffic requires a long term outlook, persistence, and a consistent effort every day.

#3: Complete the Bio Profile

Similar to a mini ‘About’ page, Twitter gives you 160 characters in your profile so you can write a brief Bio to describe who you are and further specify your business. Make sure the link to your small business blog appears somewhere in this section. Or, even better, include your blog as the one html link you are allowed to have.

I am amazed at how many small businesses skip the Bio step. The results of not taking the time to fill out the profile section will give your business a look similar to the one below. Ask yourself, would you visit the small business blog of the ‘iamabusiness’ profile?

badbio-thumb.jpg

If you are not getting targeted traffic for your small business blog from your Twitter Bio, try spicing it up with something similar to SmileMakers INC. When I read the profile for SmileMakers INC I don’t have any questions as to what business they are in.

goodbio-thumb.jpg

#4: Brand Your Small Business Twitter background

The available Twitter background space is like getting free real estate where you can create an online billboard. When properly used, the background can help to build your small businesses image and highlight your brand. If you struggle with design work then use one of the many online background creation tools that are available, such as, TwitterImage, TwitBacks, and TwitrBackgrounds.

Although ProBlogger is not a ‘brick & mortar’ small business, Darren has an easily identifiable Twitter background that helps to pique interest in what he is about and can drive casual follower traffic to his blog.

backgood-thumb.jpg

#5: Social proof matters

When it comes to getting traffic for your small business blog on Twitter, the ugly truth is, social proof absolutely matters!

The number of followers you have, the number of people you are following, and the number of Tweets you have sent out will all be a determining factor in the minds of potential customers.

badproof-thumb.jpg

You don’t need to wait until your small business account has as many followers as ProBlogger, Chris Brogan, or even John Jantsch. Although, it certainly helps to have a few hundred followers and to be following a few hundred (see: #2 show up above) before you promote your small business blog on Twitter.

#6: Be Sincere

If you are sincere in your interactions on Twitter, after the initial frustration and dip of feeling like you’re in an echo chamber, you will slowly gain a following that you’ll be able to direct to your small business blog.

Try starting off the morning with a friendly greeting like Jonathan Fields.

goodtweet-thumb.jpg

When you interact and engage on Twitter in a sincere manner, and follow Jeff Pulver’s 95% giving & 5% taking rule, potential customers will slowly begin to trust you and this will gradually open them up to visiting your small business blog.

#7: Use Twitter Search

Twitter Search is a valuable tool for any small business owner who wants to increase traffic to a website or blog. Searching for relevant keyword terms related to your business niche, and finding traffic for your blog, is made much easier with this tool.

However, when using Twitter Search the key is to provide valuable and helpful information in your @ replies and to not press people with spam.

For a bit of a real life example, the other day on Twitter I was looking for some input on web hosting companies. The amount of spam I got back in my Twitter stream was unreal. The reply below stands out in particular as an example of ‘How not to drive traffic to your small business or blog’ when using Twitter Search.

twitspam-thumb.jpg

I know you are going to be absolutely shocked! But when you click on the link included in @forsgren’s Tweet you find out that he actually OWNS the company and website that the link directs to.

For the record, I have absolutely no problem with him directing an @ reply to me. However, please be honest and disclose up front that you own the hosting company. In this particular case, my trust has been lost and the potential for him to gain my business is gone. Additionally, I will never look at his blog. Period.

#8: Collaborative Relationships

When attempting to get more traffic for your small business blog, find out who the thought leaders and influencers are in your industry and connect with them on Twitter. It does not always get discussed out in the open, but collaborative partnerships, particularly with people in your industry, can send a tremendous amount of targeted visitors to your blog.

As a personal example, the actress Alyssa Milano happens to be a passionate animal rights advocate. At present, I help to do the social media activities for the animal rescue organization on my tiny island, and through the magic of Twitter I was able to connect with Ms. Milano.

The animal rescue organization has (what is essentially) a small business blog, which is used to update people on stray animals who need help and any current rescues who are looking for a home. On a couple of occasions now Alyssa has been kind enough to help get our message out over Twitter. In fact, back in June she Tweeted about one particular dog that was really in dire need of some help.

savelilly2.jpg

Because many of her followers are also animal lovers (i.e targeted traffic), below you can see the spike in visitors that was generated to the animal welfare blog from her Tweet, which is a site that typically gets about fifty visitors per day.

trafficspike-thumb.jpg

#9: Useful Links & Hashtags

Once you have gained a few followers and created some collaborative relationships, you should start sharing useful links that are related to your small business. Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit make it easy for you to search and discover the best of what’s on the web in your niche.

If you’re sharing good stuff and educating your followers, then their natural tendency will be to investigate your profile further and visit your small business blog.

For example, if I owned a bike shop and wanted to drive traffic to my business blog, I would begin Tweeting all of the useful links that I could find on the subject of bikes and bike riding.

When it comes to increasing follower count, resource posts always seem to get ReTweeted well. Be on the lookout for ‘Best of’ and ‘How to’ posts. When Tweeting links, if space provides, you might want to create a branded hashtag for your small business as well.

#10: Power of the Picture

Who you are and what you do on a daily basis at your small business matters to your followers. Tweeting pictures provides a contextual basis to your daily activities, which goes beyond the normal status update.

In order to gain more targeted traffic to your small business blog, I would highly recommend utilizing a Twitter photo-sharing site like TwitPic or Yfrog. These sites allow the small business owner to share cool photos from their typical business day, or while plying their craft, so that people get to know you. Photos help to build social trust and intrigue, which leads to more traffic on your small business blog. Have a look at this Tweeted photo that I just sent this past Friday and one of the responses I received.

phototweet-thumb.jpg

Below, Tim demonstrates perfectly why photos matter!

photopower-thumb.jpg

As a final note, I have said this before, but its importance cannot be overlooked. It can take a very long time to develop a trusting follower base for your small business on Twitter but it only takes one Tweet to alienate and lose the trust of your followers.

What other suggestions would you offer to those small business owners who are looking to use Twitter to drive traffic to their small business blog?

Mark Hayward owns a small business in the Caribbean and when it comes to social media he is passionate about helping other small business owners with avoid the online mistakes he has made. You can follow Mark on Twitter @mark_hayward and you can subscribe to his RSS Feed for weekly small business social media marketing tips.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Oops! Hit enter before I was done.

    Anyway, this is a very well-written article and your examples are extremely helpful…ESPECIALLY since it is difficult to understand until you do it.

    Thanks a lot!
    Allison

  2. This is exactly what I needed! Thank you!

  3. Love the twitter background for SmileMakers!

    I have seen some great ones around, and it is definitely a great move to stand out from the crowd.

  4. good advice with the easy words to understand makes your post a very worthy recommended for beginner blogger.

  5. @garychow – if the article is worthwhile or interesting then I don’t think the date it was published matters. With respect to following people, I really tried to follow everyone back who followed me…but even with Tweetdeck, etc I just don’t do it well. So I now pretty much follow:

    1) people who interact with me on a regular basis

    2) people who know more than me about a certain subject that I need to be educated in

    3) those who share good links but don’t clog up the Twitter stream

    Hope that helps!

  6. Hi guys

    ive been using twitter to build my blog traffic for sometime and i must confess i was so busy with other things it was the only kind of traffic building method i used and for the first three months thats all i did with my blog and after the three months i had a daily traffic of 300 hits and 500 subscribers so when people say use twitter they are right!!!!!

    kind regards

    sam
    X

  7. Thanks for the traffic increasing tips.

  8. Hi,
    I have just come across your post. I am also new to twitter. I get hooked on i for hours though I am finding it hard with people following.

    Someone commented they think twitter is getting a bit stuffy. I saw some statistics on twitter yesterday. They are recieving just under 50 million hits per day. Thats a lot of visitors and tweets.

    I will put your tips to some good use and see how I go.

    Thanks

  9. Sometimes I think it’s hard to send out posts to articles (even if you’re self promoting your own) without it looking like it’s spam. I suppose you can try fluffing it up a bit, but personally I appreciate the folks I follow sharing useful insights I suppose as long as it’s clear what the link is going to do for them.

  10. Thanks for the good advice. I have done many of these things. But I can make better use of Twitter search and hashtags.

    I am also concidering a change to Hootsuite. Is anyone using Hootsuite? What do you think of it?

  11. Thanks for the info Mark,

    Great stuff for a long time network marketer that is now adapting to social media marketing .

    Scott R Kelly | Influencer | http://scottrkelly.com

  12. What are your thoughts on creating a personal Twitter vs. a Twitter with your website / brand?

    I’ve heard people suggest you should save Twitter for only representing your name. IE @bobsmith rather than a company like @nakedpizza

    Thoughts?

  13. You need to be nice and cooperative too.

  14. Great post. I got to agree with Rob that spamming is a pest and the spammers got to be banned. I think we all got to stand against it. Thanks for sharing.

  15. Thanks for the great article. I found your suggestions very helpful. I have never posted pictures, but now I will definitely give it a whirl. Just one question: how long is “a very long time to develop a trusting follower base” ?

  16. This is all good information for me. I had a Twitter account for a few months before I actually did anything with it. I am new to blogging and social media, so these are really good tips for me. I will implement these ideas ASAP.

  17. Very helpful. Thanks. You say in #8 that you connected with Alyssa Milano to help with animal rescue. HOW did you connect and get her your information? My blog is dog oriented, so I follow her, but she doesn’t follow me, so how do you get someone who could be a good connection to follow you back?

  18. Thank you for these helpful Twitter tips! As you said, there definitely is a learning curve at first, but putting these tips into action will hopefully pay off. Thanks.

    M.Jones
    http://www.kingdombrandsolutions.com

  19. #6 really works, if someone finds out that you are sincere with what you are doing then they’re more likely to follow you all through out.. nice and informative post.

  20. Good tips. It all sounds easy enough… but it all comes down to actually doing it. I think you needs to find systems that works for you and your business. At the end of the day, you need to still have time to do whatever it is you do. Social Networking can easily become a distraction from your business. But if you can find the balance, it can be very powerful.

  21. The whole Twitter thing has confounded me to this point. I will take these tips under advisement! Hopefully can make the most of Twitter…

  22. So pleased to have found this great post. Your top 10 list is pertinent information for anyone or any business that wants to use Twitter for marketing. Splendid work! I will be back:)

    Tweet Luv,

    Susanna

  23. Awesome stuff!

    My website is starting to look good because of you!

    http://www.sbiaffiliate.com

  24. Sounds like excellent advice. I am implementing the blog idea today. I have had some success with one of the traffic exchanges I use converting to sales but am looking for additional ways to drum up targeted traffic, and it looks like you have some good suggestions. Thanks a bunch.

  25. Dont underestimate the power of the hast tag! Works fantastic for traffic and gaining followers!

  26. Twitter is great for some traffic. If they follow you then you will get traffic just ask nick stewart who has like 300 followers but half of them visit his website when he has a new article up.

  27. I am unsure how trusting people still are of clicking links on Twitter. With the amount of spam on there it’s worrying. Though, I guess it all depends on whether your followers are your target market. If they are, they would expect it. :)

  28. It’s a wonderful tips I think but I am not sure that our follower will always click our link’s update and as a newbie there’s no a reason to try these, well done!

  29. Hey Mark! This is actually a really helpful article. I have found many if these tips to be true. I think the biggest helpful tip I have gotten about Twitter is BE PERSONABLE! I think there is something to be said about having collaborative relationships and not sending spam or self-promotion. UGH!!

    There is also a balance between RT others, helpful links, and self-promotion – in that order. I hardly ever promote my blog because I find it uncomfortable to self-promote. But, if I create a post that ppl may actually BE INTERESTED in, I will Tweet it. But, I also promote others much more. Thanks for the article… I will be looking for you on Twitter ;)

  30. Great tips and worthy of practicing. I’ve gained new subscribers, visitors and followers when posting helpful links for others or even sharing news items that are helpful or informational. :)

  31. Thank you for a great post. You are right…it’s so hard to get into twitter when no body seems to care about what you do. I will try to follow your suggestions and maybe I’ll become more successful at it.

  32. Very helpful. Thanks. This brought not just help but gives information in relation to people who is not so familiar in this kind of field .

  33. Wow my mouth has pretty much droped on how good of a post this is. Im just speechless how good the information this post gave out for free.

  34. Fantastic post. Thank you so much for sharing. Just getting into Twitter and need to use it more for my wedding Video business to networking.

  35. excellent post by Mark Hayward on driving traffic with twitter. I usually like point of using twitter search.

  36. There’s a friend of mine who’s very poor, with very bad credit. There’s a good chance that I won’t be at the end of the month. I have an idea on how I can help him pay for college (an estimated $90,000 for the entire bachelor’s degree) while making a few extra dollars on the side. Since he has bad credit, it will be very hard for him to get a student loan. Staffords may help, but they aren’t a be-all, end-all. So, instead, I’ll offer him a contract where I pay for his college, and he pays me $600 a month, for 240 months, after college. Essentially, I’m becoming his student loan creditor, when no one else will! Of course, what I don’t tell him is that I will turn right around at sell the contract (which, for me, is an accounts receivable) for 80% of its total value.

  37. Good tips. I used these and they work for me. Twitter should come with an instruction manual like this one. It is all good common sense but so many people skip many of these steps!

  38. Hi Mark,

    Great post with practical and current advice to follow. I am using most of the recommended approaches, except the links and hash tags. I am not making full use of these tools – and as we all know sometimes it’s that extra effort or small percentage improvement that puts you ahead of the pack.

    Thanks for sharing.

  39. Love the blog…people are missing out not using Twitter more often!

  40. Awesome post, search feature of twitter is very useful and we can find many creative ways to use it. Not just generating traffic its also very useful for networking purpose.

  41. One very good tip here, is to limit your advertising tweets to around maybe 10% of your overall twitter output, and allow the rest to be friendly, helpful and informative with no obvious immediate financial benefit to you should someone be tempted to click upon any link contained within the tweet.

  42. Twitter has certainly changed the lanscape of th online businesses – all for businesses for that matter. Lots of us have struggled with how to put it to good use. Posts like this help very much — Thanks

A Practical Podcast… to Help You Build a Better Blog

The ProBlogger Podcast

A Practical Podcast…

Close
Open