Make Friends With, And On, Twitter

Guest post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess

While Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are popular, Twitter is considered one of the most popular sites – maybe because many people don’t want to have to write more than 140 characters at a time. Did you know though, that when you’re on Twitter you should be thinking SEO? Many people don’t, but if you want to be found and be relevant on Twitter, using SEO will help people find you, follow you and even take the virtual trip to your website. As with anything you do on social media sites, you don’t want to be using only key word heavy Tweets nor do you want to only be selling – remember the most important aspect of social media is… being social.

Here are five reasons you will want to incorporate SEO into your Tweets:

1.  Lure your followers to your website. Used effectively, Twitter will help bring traffic to your website. Make the most of the follower features on Twitter to drive traffic and build your fans. Using SEO copy in your tweets will lead to people being able to search you out, follow you and then hopefully get to your site. Using hashtags in front of your keywords helps. For example: #dog, #cats, #dogwriter
2. Follow the trends and tweet about them. Your Twitter page features the trending topics. If they are of interest to you and especially if the trends are in your area of expertise you will want to write about them. If your tweets are relevant, your followers will retweet you and that helps up your Twitter visibility.
3. Get followers and follow them back. Writing content that’s relevant to your area of expertise can help you acquire followers. Internet etiquette also says that if someone follows you, it’s polite to follow them back. Sending a direct message with a “thank you for the follow” message is also welcome!
4. Popularity counts. Using SEO content rich tweets helps you become more popular. You don’t have to be a celebrity to be popular on Twitter, you just need to write about what people want to read. If you have a lot of followers that follow you because of your dog or cat or guinea pig expertise, offer them relevant content (SEO rich content). Be aware that when you’re writing SEO rich tweets you still need to be providing relevant content as no one wants to read your tweets simply because they have the word #dog in them if it isn’t news they can use.
5. Getting found. Google isn’t always the be and end all when it comes to being found and being searchable on the internet. Twitter can provide you with a higher ranking on various search engines. In fact, sometimes simply because you’re posting frequently on Twitter, you and your site will receive more search engine love.

Yes, Twitter does need to be another tool in your social media arsenal if you want to build your followers and gain expertise in your particular area of the pet industry whether as a lover of pets, groomer, dog sitter, etc. Feel free to follow me on Twitter at @thewritingdiva 

 

Comments

[Vicki Cook]

Robbi - I do agree that Twitter is important to to have in your social media toolbox, but I would disagree (in part) with point #3. I would not recommend following everyone who follows you. Many people follow anyone and everyone simply to get more followers themselves. They may not be interested in what you have to say or ever read a single thing you tweet, and they may simply unfollow you so they can go follow more people who will follow them back. I tend to look at who is following me and read both their bio and their most recent tweets before following them back.

The other thing I don't recommend is the automatic DM to someone who follows you. Everyone does it and it's really become another form of spam. "Hi - thanks for following me. Visit my website at www.whatever.com". What I like is when someone sends a personalized @ message because then I know they've made an effort to connect with me.

[Robbi]

Vicki, great points. I agree with the auto-generated DMs they are spam and I never read them. It's like the auto-generated invites to connect on LinkedIn... send me a personal message.

True, as well on #3. Maybe I've been lucky to have mostly people who follow me and I follow back be in the same field of interest -- but then my Twitter follower list is low (and of quality, I think!) Thanks for elaborating!