Become A Better Blogger - How We Use Twitter

Published: Mon, 11/24/14

Wow, November is a busy month for bloggers, isn't it?

We've been publishing Christmas Giveaway posts each day and an 8 part Holiday Gift Guide. Thank goodness I have the fabulous team behind me that I shared about in last week's email. (By the way, if you posted a Gift Guide, link it up here.)

We had a Twitter Party last week and we also have a #LetsTalkGifts Twitter Party tomorrow night at 8pm Eastern, that we'd LOVE to have you join.

Since I've been so busy on Twitter lately, I thought I'd share with you why we think Twitter is a powerful social channel and how to use it effectively.

But first, if you’re new here, you’ll definitely want to catch up…
How We Use Twitter

I love Twitter. It sometimes gets a bad rap for not being as good of a traffic referral source as Pinterest and for no longer being a great place to chat live with friends. But I think if you adjust your expectations for Twitter, you’ll find it’s a very important social channel.

These are the major benefits of using Twitter effectively…

Support Your Blogging Friends

It may seem strange for me to start off the list of Twitter’s business benefits this way, but the fact is one of my favorite ways to use Twitter is to show support to our blogging friends by tweeting their blog posts.

It’s so easy to do and doesn’t take up as much “real estate” on your account as a Facebook share. They’ll likely see your tweet in their notifications and appreciate it.

Meeting New Bloggers

You may not make deep personal relationships through Twitter, but it’s still a great way to make initial contact by following and tweeting with new people.

Connecting with Brands

Brands are all on Twitter and trying hard to get new followers. Follow them and authentically interact before trying to pitch them.

Getting on Someone’s Radar

Whether you’re trying to build relationships with certain people or brands, Twitter is a great way to subtly get on their radar. Follow, RT and interact on Twitter before trying to take the “next step” with a DM or contact on another platform such as Facebook.

Communicate Directly 

I love that you can still communicate directly with someone on Twitter. Although if the person you’re trying to reach has a lot of followers, recognize that they may not see all notifications or DMs. 

Our own notification list gets swamped with tweets about the giveaways we’re hosting, so unfortunately we sometimes miss tweets @ us.

Share Your Content

You absolutely want to share every blog post you write multiple times on Twitter. Spread the tweets out over a few days. And if your post is evergreen, also schedule several tweets to go out over the next few weeks or even months. 

Vary the wording in the tweets and often include images. You don’t want to use the blog post title in each tweet. I also use different hashtags in the tweets. For example, for a kids craft post, I might use #KidsCrafts in one tweet, #Crafts in another and #KidsActivities in another.

Twitter Parties

I highly recommend joining Twitter Parties and not just for the chance to win prizes. The best reasons to join in a Twitter Party - even just only for a few tweets - are to get followers and get noticed by the host and the party sponsors.

After we host a Twitter party, we run a report on hashtracking.com and send it to our client. We look through the report and follow the contributors. 

Not Huge For Traffic Referral Compared to Pinterest

Twitter can’t compete with Pinterest for traffic referral. Tweets live short lives and won’t continue to bring you traffic for days, weeks and months the way a pin will. 

Pinterest is absolutely the best social channel for traffic referral. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore Twitter. They are apples and oranges. 

By the way, if we're not yet following you on Pinterest or on Twitter, reply to this email and I'll make sure we follow you. You'll find us at 


Not As Much Conversation As Early Days

Just like everything in social media, Twitter has evolved over the years. It’s gotten busier and harder to be heard. You’ll find there’s not as much live chit-chat interaction as there used to be. There are more tweets with links to content, more images and a lot more brand promotion.

One of the reasons I really like Twitter Parties and Twitter Chats is you get that live interaction with people asking interesting questions and responding. Depending on the party topic, you can have a fun, lively conversation with a lot of people at once.

Easy to Use and Schedule Content

Twitter is easy and it’s not constantly changing like Facebook. You can schedule tweets and trust they will show up live in Twitter feeds. Of course, you don’t know how many of your followers will happen to see that tweet, but at least Twitter isn’t messing around with an algorithm.

To use Twitter effectively, you absolutely MUST schedule content… even retweets.

BufferApp

All you need is Buffer. This tool is absolutely the best way to quickly and easily schedule your tweets. It lets you schedule tweets on multiple accounts and at one-minute intervals. 

HootSuite is extremely popular and powerful, but has a terrible limitation of only allowing 5 minute intervals for scheduling tweets. That limitation makes it useless for scheduling tweets for a Twitter Party or Twitter Chat. 

I hardly ever login to my HootSuite account and I use Buffer ALL DAY LONG.

The Twitter Website

I use Twitter.com along with the Buffer plug-in. It’s simple but packs all the power I need when I make use of…

Lists

Yes, the ultimate key to using Twitter effectively is using Twitter Lists. I use public and private lists and I almost never look at my main home feed.

So my recipe for using Twitter is... 

Twitter.com + BufferApp + Lists

One of the main lists I retweet from is a public list I made for our Social Media Power Team at

We also have a Facebook group, but unfortunately it hasn't been super active lately. If you'd like me to add you to the Twitter list and Facebook group, reply to this email and then subscribe to that public Twitter list.

Be Professional, Polite and On-Brand

If you’re building a blogging business - or even if you’re a mom blogger who wants to ensure your kids can read your feed - don’t be a jerk on Twitter.

Don’t attack or insult another blogger or brand for any reason. Even if they deserve it!

Don’t clutter up your feed with negativity. If someone says something negative to you, don’t respond with a public tweet that lives in YOUR feed. Your feed represents your brand and if you’re working with businesses, you’ll want to keep your feed clean.

What About You?

I’d love to hear your tips for using Twitter effectively. If we're not following you on Twitter yet, reply with your handle.

What would you like me to cover next week? Shoot me back a quick reply and let me know.

Talk soon,

Susan (and Janice)
5 Minutes For Mom

ps. To tell your friends about this "Become a Better Blogger" ezine, you can send them here.