Using Twitter to Direct Traffic to your Blog- 5 Diamond Steps for Small Businesses

by iridiumInteractive
March 5, 2010
in iiWisdom Series, Interactive Marketing, Social Media, Viision-Thought Leadership, Web2.0
1

With over a decade of my energy directed towards nurturing online communities, I have seen that small businesses are often hesitant to make blogs and social networking forums as they feel it will take them ages to create a huge community. In this Social Media age, patience and the choice to stay connected is needed for SMEs.

Twitter is a complicated puzzle to many small business owners and particularly fatal if you mess it up. It has a steep learning curve but the returns are exponential when you are passionate to stay the course. Twitter is one tool that can be used to drive traffic to your blog. Here are some simple yet critical ways you can capitalize to make more people read your blogs.

1. Business Logo

Once you have created a twitter account for your small business, first thing you should do is change your default picture to your business logo. Branding is very important as people will relate to your company logo and this is the first step to help you build trust worthy relationships.

2. Start conversations – Be Sincere

One thumb rule for twitter is never directly market here. You have to build communities with your earnesty. Customers tend to look through a company if they start marketing right from the moment they start twittering. Start tweeting and connect with influential people and customers that are impacting the business landscape for you. You will be surprised to know “sincerity is what attracts people”. So step in your transparent shoes, be truthful to your stakeholders. Your competitors are already doing so.

3. Complete Bio Profile

I have seen many companies who do not bother to complete their Bio Profile after creating their accounts. Bio Profile is nothing but a brief write up on what your company does within 160 characters. This is vital if you are looking at creating communities and meeting people and companies relevant to you. Also remember bio lines have to give some useful information about your company, it can just be keywords of the services your company provides. It does not have to be in complete sentences but should carry the right keywords.

4. Customize your Twitter Background

Just like any billboard on the roads used to market brands, Twitter background is a very good place to brand your small business. This can be used to draw attention to your brand. There are many twitter background applications that can be used to customize the background like Twitrbackgrounds , Twitrounds , Twibacks.

5. Social Proof

Twitter may be a challenge to many people but unfortunately this may add more to your challenges. Potential people and consumers look at your social proof i.e. how many people are following you, who and how many people are you following and the number of tweets you post. As I have already mentioned in my earlier tweets, the ideal following versus followers ratio should be 1:10. In the beginning people will slowly trickle in to follow you but as you consistently and patiently continue conversing with your potential community it will not be late when you have an out-pour of people who want to follow you and be a part of your community.

After a trial and error of implementation at our company i.e iridium Interactive, our team is fully aware of the power of engaging communities via twitter.Its all about being patient, consistent and transparent. If you have all these three ingredients topped with the passion to experiment you will have a successful stint in twitter and a huge community of people.

Keep reading on, as I will answer Twitter FAQs in my next Wisdom Series.

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Tags: Blog, iridium interactive, Social Media, Social Networking, social networking forums, social networking tools, traffic, tweets, twibacks, twitrbackgrounds, twitrounds, Twitter, twitter for your business

1 Discussion on “Using Twitter to Direct Traffic to your Blog- 5 Diamond Steps for Small Businesses”

Shikha says:

March 5, 2010 at 1:32 pm

These are really the diamond steps that we experimented at iridium. Thanks for putting these learnings in such a simple and straight forward manner. Like me, I am sure the readers will benefit esp. Small Medium businesses should take this as a wake-up call to get into the Twitter action…Cheers!

Using Twitter to Direct Traffic to your Blog- 5 Diamond Steps for Small Businesses

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iridiumInteractive

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